BOY GENERALS

OF THE

CIVIL WAR

GALUSHA PENNYPACKER TO J.E.B. STUART

Written by

RAYMOND C. WILSON

BOY GENERALS

OF THE

CIVIL WAR

Published by Raymond C. Wilson at Smashwords

Copyright 2023 Raymond C. Wilson

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Galusha Pennypacker

Lewis T. Barney

John Edward Murray

George Armstrong Custer

William P. Roberts

John H. Kelly

Edward W. Whitaker

Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon

William Francis Bartlett

John C. C. Sanders

Ranald S. Mackenzie

Emory Upton

Nelson A. Miles

William Henry Seward Jr.

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee

Felix H. Robertson

Stephen D. Ramseur

Robert Frederick Hoke

Elon Farnsworth

Joseph Wheeler

Thomas Benton Smith

Micah Jenkins

Fitzhugh Lee

Godfrey Weitzel

Pierce Manning Butler Young

Thomas L. Rosser

Wesley Merritt

Adelbert Ames

Francis C. Barlow

J.E.B. Stuart

Afterword

Appendix 1: Boy Generals of the Union

Appendix 2: Boy Generals of the Confederacy

Bibliography

About Raymond C. Wilson

Introduction

North versus South in the Civil War

The Civil War is the central event in America's historical consciousness. While the American Revolution of 1776-1783 created the United States, the Civil War of 1861-1865 determined what kind of nation it would be. The Civil War resolved two fundamental questions left unresolved by the American Revolution: whether the United States was to be a dissolvable confederation of sovereign states or an indivisible nation with a sovereign national government; and whether this nation, born of a declaration that all men were created with an equal right to liberty, would continue to exist as the largest slaveholding country in the world.

Northern victory in the war preserved the United States as one nation and ended the institution of slavery that had divided the country from its beginning. But these achievements came at the cost of 625,000 lives -- nearly as many American soldiers as died in all the other wars in which this country has fought combined. The American Civil War was the largest and most destructive conflict in the Western world between the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 and the onset of World War I in 1914.

The Civil War started because of uncompromising differences between the free and slave states over the power of the national government to prohibit slavery in the territories that had not yet become states. When Abraham Lincoln won election in 1860 as the first Republican president on a platform pledging to keep slavery out of the territories, seven slave states in the deep South seceded and formed a new nation, the Confederate States of America. The incoming Lincoln administration and most of the Northern people refused to recognize the legitimacy of secession. They feared that it would discredit democracy and create a fatal precedent that would eventually fragment the no-longer United States into several small, squabbling countries.

The event that triggered war came at Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay on 12 April 1861. Claiming this United States fort as their own, the Confederate army on that day opened fire on the federal garrison and forced it to lower the American flag in surrender. Lincoln called out the militia to suppress this "insurrection." Four more slave states seceded and joined the Confederacy. By the end of 1861 nearly a million armed men confronted each other along a line stretching 1200 miles from Virginia to Missouri. Several battles had already taken place -- near Manassas Junction in Virginia, in the mountains of western Virginia where Union victories paved the way for creation of the new state of West Virginia, at Wilson's Creek in Missouri, at Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, and at Port Royal in South Carolina where the Union navy established a base for a blockade to shut off the Confederacy's access to the outside world.

But the real fighting began in 1862. Huge battles like Shiloh in Tennessee, Gaines' Mill, Second Manassas, and Fredericksburg in Virginia, and Antietam in Maryland foreshadowed even bigger campaigns and battles in subsequent years, from Gettysburg in Pennsylvania to Vicksburg on the Mississippi to Chickamauga and Atlanta in Georgia. By 1864 the original Northern goal of a limited war to restore the Union had given way to a new strategy of "total war" to destroy the Old South and its basic institution of slavery and to give the restored Union a "new birth of freedom," as President Lincoln put it in his address at Gettysburg to dedicate a cemetery for Union soldiers killed in the battle there.

For three long years, from 1862 to 1865, Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia staved off invasions and attacks by the Union Army of the Potomac commanded by a series of ineffective generals until Ulysses S. Grant came to Virginia from the Western theater to become general in chief of all Union armies in 1864.

Grant versus Lee

In 1864-1865, General William Tecumseh Sherman led his army deep into the Confederate heartland of Georgia and South Carolina, destroying their economic infrastructure while General George Thomas virtually destroyed the Confederacy's Army of Tennessee at the battle of Nashville.

General Lee surrenders to General Grant at Appomattox

After bloody battles at places with names like The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and Petersburg, Grant finally brought Lee to bay at Appomattox in April 1865. By the spring of 1865 all the principal Confederate armies surrendered, and when Union cavalry captured the fleeing Confederate President Jefferson Davis in Georgia on 10 May 1865, resistance collapsed and the war ended. The long, painful process of rebuilding a united nation free of slavery began.

The Civil War was the last American conflict in which very young soldiers regularly rose to high rank. Many a youth of 16 or younger managed to enlist, in the absence of public birth records, and political influence secured commissions for a few before they reached the legal military age of 18. Those who survived three or four years of battlefield attrition often rose to the command of companies, and occasionally regiments, before they were even old enough to vote.

Favored young officers in the Union Army, especially those serving on the staffs of division, corps or army commanders, sometimes enjoyed meteoric promotions to brigadier general from captain like George Armstrong Custer, Wesley Merritt, and Elon Farnsworth.

President Lincoln commissioned only 58 brevet grade generals. A few of these awards were even issued posthumously although death of the nominee would usually end the promotion or award process. Officers who were nominated for brevet awards by President Lincoln were confirmed by the U.S. Senate before April 1865. All of the other awards were made by President Andrew Johnson and confirmed by the U.S. Senate during Johnson's term of office. Thus, Civil War brevet awards were almost always honors without any command, operational or assignment significance or extra compensation since the war was over when most of the awards were confirmed and the awards were issued. Most of the officers nominated for brevet awards had been mustered out, or were supernumeraries soon to be mustered out, when the awards were confirmed. Many awards were made to lower grade staff officers for faithful and efficient services.

The main steps of the promotion or brevet award process in the Union Army were as follows. After a candidate for a general officer commission or brevet award was selected, the Secretary of War, on behalf of the President, would send the candidate an appointment letter. The candidate would be asked to communicate acceptance of the appointment or award, attest to the oath of office and report to a named officer for orders. The letter would note that the appointment was contingent on the President nominating and the U.S. Senate confirming the promotion or award. Nonetheless, the candidate often received orders to begin acting in the appointed office pending the President's nomination and the Senate's confirmation or rejection of the nomination. If a nominee was confirmed, the President and Secretary of War (or Secretary of the Navy) would sign and seal a commission and transmit it to the nominee. The appointment was not official or complete until all the steps in the process were completed and the commission was conveyed in writing. Usually this occurred soon after the confirmation of the promotion or award, often within about a week. Since most of the brevet awards were made after the end of the war, candidates would not be told to report to a senior officer for orders unless they were still on duty and might be given some higher or different assignment. Full grade promotions supersede brevet grade promotions and promotions in the regular army supersede promotions to equivalent or lower rank in the volunteer forces.

It should be noted that the Confederate government did not award brevet grades to Confederate States Army officers although Confederate army regulations would have allowed them.

This book delves into the lives of 30 exceptional officers (15 Union and 15 Confederate) who attained the rank of brigadier general before they reached the age of 30.

Galusha Pennypacker

Galusha Pennypacker (Union)

Galusha Pennypacker, a Pennsylvania Patriot, was not only a genuine ‘boy general’, but also a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. Several Civil War Union officers have been labeled ‘boy generals’, however Galusha Pennypacker still remains the youngest person at 20 years, 7 months, and 14 days to become a brigadier general in the history of the U.S. Army.

Galusha Pennypacker (son of Joseph Judson Pennypacker and Tamson Amelia Workizer) was born on 1 June 1844 in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. When Galusha’s mother died from smallpox in 1846, he was raised by his grandmother. His father, Joseph, served in the Mexican War, then went to California in the Gold Rush and never came back. The grandson of a Mennonite bishop, Galusha was described as a Quaker. His great-grandfather was Colonel Christian Workizer who served in the colonial militia. Galusha grew up in the house that General George Washington used as his headquarters in Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War.

Civil War Service

Artist rendition of Pennypacker leading his troops into battle

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Pennypacker was scheduled to attend West Point, but instead he enlisted as a Quartermaster in the 9th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment in April 1861 at the age of 16. He refused an appointment to first lieutenant in his company and was made a non-commissioned staff officer. During his first three months of service, under Major General Patterson, Pennypacker gained valuable military experience in the Shenandoah Valley.

In August 1861, Pennypacker was promoted to captain of Company A, 97th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment. Two months later, he was appointed a major in the 97th Pennsylvania, for which he had helped recruit a company of men. The 97th Regiment joined the Tenth Corps in the Department of the South, and during the years 1862 and 1863 participated in all the various engagements in which that corps took part, Forts Wagner and Gregg, James Island, Charleston and Fort Pulaski.

In April 1864, at age 19, Pennypacker was promoted to lieutenant colonel, replacing a sick officer. Two months later, he would be promoted again, to full colonel, in charge of the entire regiment. On 20 May 1864, he led his regiment in an assault upon the enemy’s lines at Green Plains, Bermuda Hundred, receiving three severe wounds, losing one hundred and seventy-five men killed and wounded. It would take Pennypacker three months to recover from his wounds.

Federal earthworks at Bermuda Hundred

Colonel Pennypacker returned to action in August 1864 at Petersburg and in September led his brigade in the successful assault upon Fort Harrison, where he was again wounded, and his horse shot from under him. Under the command of Major General Benjamin Butler, Colonel Pennypacker participated in the failed Fort Fisher Expedition in December 1864.

Confederate gun at Fort Fisher

The fiasco at Fort Fisher, specifically Major General Butler's disobeyance of his direct orders -- orders which Butler failed to communicate either to Admiral David Porter or to Major General Godfrey Weitzel -- gave General Grant an excuse to relieve Butler, replacing him in command of the Army of the James by Major General Edward Ord. President Abraham Lincoln, recently reelected, no longer needed to keep the prominent Democrat in the Army and he was relieved on 8 January 1865. To Butler's further embarrassment, Fort Fisher fell one week later when Major General Alfred H. Terry led a second assault against the Confederate stronghold; while defending his decision to break off the attack before the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the War, Butler had deemed the fort impregnable.

Capture of Fort Fisher (chromolithograph by Kurz & Allison)

The Second Battle of Fort Fisher was a joint assault by Union Army and naval forces against the Confederate Fort Fisher, outside Wilmington, North Carolina, near the end of the American Civil War. Sometimes referred to as the "Gibraltar of the South" and the last major coastal stronghold of the Confederacy, Fort Fisher had tremendous strategic value during the war. On 15 January 1865, Pennypacker was severely wounded while crossing enemy lines. In spite of his serious wounds, he continued to lead his men in a charge over a defensive barrier. They captured the fort and planted the colors of the 97th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment in the Confederate compound. General Alfred Terry, who was in charge of the military operation, stated that Pennypacker and not himself was the real hero of Fort Fisher, and that his “great gallantry was only equaled by his modesty.”

Medal of Honor Recipient

Congressional Medal of Honor

On 17 August 1891, Major General Galusha Pennypacker was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his bravery at Fort Fisher. The citation reads, “Gallantly led the charge over a traverse and planted the colors of one of his regiments thereon, was severely wounded.”

The Medal of Honor was created during the American Civil War and is the highest military decoration presented by the United States government to a member of its armed forces. The recipient must have distinguished themselves at the risk of their own life above and beyond the call of duty in action against an enemy of the United States. Due to the nature of this medal, it is commonly presented posthumously.

Pennypacker received six brevets or promotions as follows: Brevet brigadier general U. S. Volunteers, 15 January 1865; brigadier general U.S. Volunteers, 18 February 1865; brevet major general U.S. Volunteers, 13 March 1865; colonel Thirty-fourth (designation changed to Sixteenth) Infantry U.S. Army, 28 July 1866; brevet brigadier general U.S. Army, 2 March 1867; and brevet major general U.S. Army, 2 March 1867.

Pennypacker was not only a Pennsylvania Patriot, but a genuine ‘boy general’, remaining the only general too young to vote for the President who appointed him.

Life after Civil War

Following the Civil War, General Pennypacker served in the Southern, Southwestern, and Western States, performing the duties incidental to a regimental and post commander. He was temporarily in command of the District of Mississippi in 1867, the Fourth Military District in 1868, and the Department of Mississippi in 1870.

In 1872, Pennypacker was urged to run for Governor of Pennsylvania, but he didn’t have any taste for politics. Instead, he took command of the United States troops in New Orleans in 1874. It should be noted that Major General Pennypacker’s cousin Samuel W. Pennypacker served as Governor of Pennsylvania from 1903 to 1907.

While commanding the Department of the South in 1876, Major General Pennypacker received the news of the death of his cousin Lieutenant Colonel (former Brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.

Death of Major General Galusha Pennypacker

Major General Galusha Pennypacker died on 1 October 1916 at age 72 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is buried in the Philadelphia National Cemetery.

Gravestone of Major General Galusha Pennypacker

As previously mentioned, Major General Galusha Pennypacker was a cousin to Lieutenant Colonel (Brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer, both “boy generals” in the Civil War. Their common ancestors were Mennonite Paulus Custer and Gertrude Tyson (persecuted Anabaptist German immigrants of Kaldenkirchen). The family arrived in Germantown in 1684, at that time a village six miles northwest of Philadelphia.

Lewis T. Barney

Lewis Tappan Barney (Union)

Lewis Tappan Barney was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was brevetted as a brigadier general when he was 20 years, 11 months, and 26 days old.

Lewis Tappan Barney (son of Hiram Barney and Susan Aspinwall Tappan) was born on 18 March 1844 in Brooklyn, New York. Lewis’ father Hiram began practicing law in 1836 in New York City, specializing in debt collection. In 1848, Hiram formed a partnership with Benjamin F. and William A. Butler, which lasted until 1874. A militant anti-slavery Democrat, Hiram Barney joined the Republicans in 1854 and earned a reputation for political acumen. In 1857, he won the confidence of Abraham Lincoln, who as President appointed him collector of the port of New York. Hiram Barney held the office until resigning in 1864. The remainder of Hiram’s life was devoted to private business and family affairs.

Civil War Service

In mid-1862, after the American Civil War had been raging for a year, Hiram’s 18-year-old son Lewis joined the 7th New York Militia Regiment (Company F) as a Private for 90-day service.

In October 1862, Lewis Barney joined the 68th New York Infantry Regiment which was part of the Army of the Potomac's XI Corps and, in the brigade of Alexander Schimmelfennig, was posted near Centreville during the Maryland campaign. One month after Lewis Barney joined the 68th, he was commissioned as a First Lieutenant.

The 68th New York Infantry Regiment remained near Centreville until December 1862, when it was ordered to Fredericksburg, but it was held in reserve and did not participate in that battle. Winter quarters were established near Stafford, Virginia.

Battle of Chancellorsville (May 1863)

In April 1863, the 68th New York Infantry Regiment was transferred to the 1st Brigade, 1st Division, XI Corps with which it fought at Chancellorsville. The Battle of Chancellorsville is known as Confederate General Robert E. Lee's "perfect battle" because his risky decision to divide his army in the presence of a much larger enemy force resulted in a significant Confederate victory. The victory, a product of Lee's audacity and Union General Joseph Hooker's timid decision-making, was tempered by heavy casualties, including Lieutenant General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. Jackson was hit by friendly fire, requiring his left arm to be amputated. He died of pneumonia eight days later, a loss that Lee likened to losing his right arm. The XI Corps suffered nearly 2,500 casualties, including 5 dead, 16 wounded, and 32 missing from the 68th New York Infantry Regiment.

Battle of Gettysburg Cemetery Hill (July 1863)

On 1 July 1863, the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Union Major General Oliver O. Howard chose Cemetery Hill to serve as the headquarters for his Eleventh Corps. His decision to fortify Cemetery Hill eventually earned him the Medal of Honor. The following day, Confederate General Robert E. Lee ordered Lieutenant General Richard Ewell to demonstrate against the Union position and to convert the demonstration into a full-scale attack if the opportunity arose. At 4 p.m., Ewell launched an artillery barrage from his guns situated on Benner’s Hill but Union cannons on East Cemetery Hill and Culp’s Hill converged fire upon the Confederate artillery on Benner’s Hill and decimated the Southern cannoneers. At 7:30 pm, Major General Jubal Early ordered two of his brigades to attack East Cemetery Hill. Despite resistance from scattered infantry as well as an obstinate defense by Union artillerymen, the crest of East Cemetery Hill fell to Confederate strength and daring. The Confederates had captured one of the most militarily significant places on the battlefield. But time did not stand still. A stream of Union reinforcements from XI Corps and from Second Corps stemmed the tide. The 68th New York Infantry Regiment won high praise for its gallant work in the defense of Cemetery Hill. The regiment lost a total of 138 soldiers during the Battle of Gettysburg.

In July 1863, the 68th New York Infantry Regiment was assigned to the 3d Brigade, 3d Division, XI Corps with which it was ordered west. It participated in the Chattanooga campaign and was present at the Battle of Wauhatchie in Tennessee in October 1863.

In February 1864, Barney was promoted to captain and assigned to the staff of General Rufus Saxton. He functioned as an assistant-adjutant general to the forces stationed in South Carolina.

During the summer of 1864, Barney was offered the colonelcy of the 106th New York Infantry Regiment, but he declined. Instead he tried to raise the 180th New York Infantry. However, the regiment failed to muster when it recruited only enough men for one company; and in February 1865 the regiment was disorganized (its men being transferred to the 179th New York Infantry Regiment).

On 13 March 1865, still only 20 years old, Lewis T. Barney was brevetted both Brigadier General and Major General of the U.S. Volunteers for "gallant and meritorious services during the war".

Life after Civil War

After the war, Lewis Barney initially settled in California. In 1869, Lewis was sent to Iowa to develop and manage his father’s vineyard. Within a few years, the White Elk vineyard was producing from 15,000 to 30,000 gallons of Concord, Ives, Norton, and Clinton wines a year. The wines were sold as far south as New Orleans and as far west as Denver. In 1880, the White Elk vineyard was incorporated, with John H. Craig as the president; Lewis T. Barney, the vice-president; and Hiram Barney as a director. In 1903, the vineyard was purchased by Chester P. Cory, a teetotaler who switched to producing grape juice.

Death of Major General Lewis T. Barney

While visiting relatives in Inglewood, California on 19 December 1904, Lewis Barney was walking back from the post office when his total deafness made him oblivious to a fast approaching runaway horse. Lewis was struck and knocked unconscious by the horse. His skull was fractured and he suffered concussion of the brain. Death resulted almost instantly.

Gravestone of Major General Lewis Tappan Barney

Lewis Tappan Barney is buried at Rosedale Cemetery, Los Angeles (now Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery). Barney wife, Mary S. Fowler, passed away four years later in 1908.

John Edward Murray

John Edward Murray (Confederate) - Photo not available

John Edward Murray was a West Point cadet and is popularly known as the youngest brigadier general in the Confederate Army at the age of 21 years, 4 months, and 9 days, though he was never promoted to that rank while he was still alive.

John Murray (son of John C. Murray and Sarah Ann Carter) was born on 13 March 1843 in Fauquier County, Virginia. His parents also had three other sons and one daughter. At the age of six, Murray moved with his family to Arkansas, settling near Pine Bluff (Jefferson County), where his father became a judge.

John Edward Murray entered West Point in 1860 and withdrew in 1861

In 1860, Murray received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point and attended that institution for one year. With the imminent secession of Arkansas from the Union, Murray resigned from West Point on 21 April 1861 and returned home, where his military skills were put to use training troops under Brigadier General William Joseph Hardee.

Civil War Service

Transferring to active service, Murray was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Fifth Arkansas Infantry after serving as both a private and sergeant major. By the end of 1861, he had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel at the age of eighteen.

Murray fought in Battles of Stones River and Chickamauga in Tennessee

The Fifth Arkansas participated at the Battle of Perryville in Kentucky, and Murray commanded the regiment at the Battle of Stones River in Tennessee while the colonel of the regiment was unavailable, gaining praise from his superiors. In 1863, the Fifth Arkansas was consolidated with the Thirteenth Arkansas. Murray took command of the new regiment at the Battle of Chickamauga in Tennessee and Georgia when the commander was killed. Gaining more accolades for his work, Murray was promoted to colonel and subsequently recommended for promotion to brigadier general.

Death of Confederate Brigadier General John Edward Murray

Battle of Atlanta

Murray was mortally wounded and died on 22 July 1864, at the Battle of Atlanta in Georgia while leading three regiments in an attack on a Union position.

Gravestone of Confederate Brigadier General John Edward Murray

Originally buried in Georgia, his remains were moved in 1867 to Mount Holly Cemetery in Little Rock, Pulaski County, Arkansas.

John Edward Murray never received a promotion to brigadier general during his lifetime. Some historians say that Murray’s nomination to brigadier general was confirmed on 22 July 1864, the day he was killed in the Battle of Atlanta. Other historians dispute that claim saying that no vacancy existed in his unit to authorize his promotion to brigadier general.

George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer (Union)

When you think about ‘boy generals’; the first name that probably comes to mind is George Armstrong Custer. He received his first star at the age of 23 years, 6 months, and 24 days.

Born in New Rumley, Ohio, on 5 December 1839, George Armstrong Custer (nicknamed Autie) was the son of Emanuel Henry Custer and Maria Ward Kirkpatrick. He had three younger brothers and a sister. Autie also had four older half-siblings; one from his father’s first marriage to Matilda Viers and three from his mother’s first marriage to Israel Kirkpatrick.

When Autie was 10 years old, his half-sister Lydia Ann married David Reed and moved to Monroe, Michigan. It was decided for Autie to live with Lydia Ann until she adjusted to her new surroundings. So Autie packed his bags and traveled to Monroe, Michigan to live with the Reeds, returning to Ohio to spend the summers. For six years, George Armstrong Custer split his time between Michigan and Ohio. In 1855 he returned to New Rumley and Harrison County embarking on a temporary career as a school teacher at the Beech Point School in Cadiz, Ohio.

Shortly after graduating from McNeely Normal School in 1856, Custer gained admission to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Cadet George Armstrong Custer

The 17-year-old boy from Ohio entered West Point on 1 July 1857. Standing in at 5’ 9” tall, Custer was slightly larger than the average cadet. Large bones and broad shoulders developed from labors on the family farm enhanced Custer’s athletic abilities. In all of Custer’s West Point class, only his tall Texan roommate, Thomas Rosser, possessed more athleticism.

After four out of five years, Custer graduated on 24 June 1861. The 5-year program that he participated in was cut short because of the Civil War. Although he was considered to have traits natural to commanding officers, his performance at West Point was anything but stellar.

Out of a graduating class of 34 cadets (there were 79 when they began in 1857), Custer finished dead last in 1861. According to historical accounts, 23 of his fellow cadets dropped out for academic reasons and another 22 cadets quit to join the Confederate Army.

On 18 July 1861, Second Lieutenant George Armstrong Custer left West Point for Washington, D.C. The Custer boy was going to war as a cavalry officer.

Civil War Service

Custer leading cavalry charge

Two days after departing West Point, Second Lieutenant George Armstrong Custer arrived in Washington, D.C. By happenstance or good fortune, Custer secured one of the last, if not the last, available government horses in the capital and carried War Department dispatches to Brigadier General Irvin McDowell at Centreville, Virginia.

Assigned to Company G, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, Custer was placed in command of this cavalry unit as a second lieutenant. In July 1861, Custer quickly earned recognition for himself with his brilliant direction of its actions at the First Battle of Bull Run. His regiment covered the retreat of the routed Federals. One trooper later wrote, “Though famished, exhausted, spent, Custer never let up, never slackened control.” He seemed to possess a gift for avoiding injury, which he came to call "Custer's luck.”.

In less than one year, Custer gained a reputation for fearlessness, if not recklessness. Because of his brave actions at Bull Run and elsewhere, Custer soon attracted the positive attention of high-ranking officers and earned himself an assignment to Major General George B. McClellan's staff in May 1862. Before long, McClellan made him an aide-de-camp with the brevet rank of Captain. Custer served with McClellan during the Seven Days and Antietam campaigns.

General McClellan, President Lincoln, and Captain Custer (far right) at Antietam in October 1862

Custer’s coveted opportunity came in June 1863, when Lincoln replaced Joseph Hooker as army commander with Major General George G. Meade. The president granted Meade authority to replace any officers he chose. Cavalry Corps commander Major General Alfred Pleasonton recommended to Meade the promotion of three of his staff officers -- George Armstrong Custer, Wesley Merritt and Elon Farnsworth -- to brigadiers. On 29 June 1863, Custer received a general’s star and command of the Michigan Brigade of cavalry, comprising the 1st, 5th, 6th and 7th regiments. At 23, Custer became one of the youngest generals in the Union army.

On the day of his promotion to brigadier general, Custer joined two of his regiments as the army marched north into Pennsylvania. To the Michiganders, he was a sight to behold. He wore a uniform of black velveteen, with gold lace that extended from his wrist to his elbow, a wide-collared blue sailor shirt with silver stars sewn on and a red necktie around his throat.

Custer wore a distinctive uniform (painting by Michael Gnatek)

Whatever doubts the Michiganders had about their new brigadier general, Custer removed them within days. At Hanover, Pennsylvania on 30 June 1863, Custer directed them in dismounted fighting. Two days later at Hunterstown, he personally led a company in an attack down a narrow road, and his horse was killed under him. Custer had been deploying skirmishers to test the Confederate position and numbers when his superior, Brigadier General Judson Kilpatrick, ordered the mounted charge. When Custer rode to the front of the company, he evidently wanted to demonstrate his personal bravery to the men.

The renown that Custer had sought for so long came a day later, on the John Rummel farm east of Gettysburg. In an engagement with Major General J.E.B. Stuart’s Confederate horsemen, Custer led the 7th Michigan and then the 1st Michigan in mounted counterattacks. Riding at the front of each regiment, Custer shouted to the men, “Come on, you Wolverines!” The charges blunted Stuart’s thrusts, and the Yankees held the field.

Custer leading cavalry charge at Gettysburg

During the Southern retreat from Gettysburg, clashes occurred almost daily between the mounted opponents. Custer’s Wolverines were often in the forefront of the action. On 14 July 1863 at Falling Waters, Maryland, Custer encountered the final contingent of the Confederate army as it prepared to cross the Potomac River. As he had done at Hunterstown, Custer deployed dismounted skirmishers. But Kilpatrick joined him and without knowledge of the enemy’s strength or disposition ordered a mounted assault. Two companies of the 6th Michigan ascended a ridge and plunged into the Rebel works, held by infantrymen. In the ensuing melee, the Federals lost more than half their numbers and were routed. It had not been Custer who had acted rashly, but Kilpatrick.

Custer’s emergence as an outstanding brigade commander coincided with the increasing prowess of the Federal mounted arm. He, Wesley Merritt and others brought aggressiveness to Federal cavalry tactics. J.E.B. Stuart’s vaunted Confederate horsemen, plagued by shortages of men and mounts, no longer dominated the battlefields. Union troopers had achieved parity, which eventually became superiority. The troopers’ confidence in Custer reflected a confidence in themselves.

When the cavalry corps of the Army of the Potomac was reorganized under Major General Philip Sheridan in 1864, Custer retained his command and took part in the various actions of the cavalry in the Wilderness and Shenandoah campaigns.

During the Overland Campaign in May-June 1864, under the leadership of Custer and his regimental commanders, the Michiganders -- fighting mounted and dismounted -- showed time and again that they were arguably the finest cavalry brigade in the Union army. On 11 May 1864, at Yellow Tavern, a Wolverine mortally wounded Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart.

At the end of September 1864, Custer was appointed to command a division, and on 9 October 1864 fought in the brilliant cavalry action called the Battle of Woodstock.

By the war's end, Custer had been promoted yet again, to the rank of major general. In a ceremony at the War Department, Custer and a detail of troopers presented captured battle flags to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. One of the cavalrymen told Stanton “the 3rd Division wouldn’t be worth a cent if it wasn’t for [Custer].”

The end of the Civil War came at Appomattox on 9 April 1865. During a truce between the armies, before Grant and Lee met, Custer rode into the Confederate lines and demanded the surrender of the army from Lee’s senior officer, James Longstreet. It was a brazen act, and Longstreet evidently berated the young Union general.

After the surrender ceremony, Sheridan confiscated the table Grant had used and had it delivered to Libbie Custer. In an accompanying note, Sheridan wrote in part, “Permit me to say, Madam, that there is scarcely an individual in our service who has contributed more to bring about this desirable result than your gallant husband.”

In painting entitled ‘Surrender at Appomattox’ by Tom Lovell, Custer is on far right

General Philip Sheridan later wrote of Custer, “If there ever was poetry or romance in war, he could develop it. He was perhaps the Civil War’s last knight. He had dreamed of glory and had found it in the terrible confines of combat. The words of the men he led testified to his abilities, bravery and leadership. He had been a superb cavalry commander. But ahead of him lay a rendezvous on a Montana ridge that has darkened his achievements as the Union’s Boy General. He craved greatness for himself, and this ambition earned him immortality.”

Life after Civil War

At the end of the Civil War, Custer reverted from his brevet rank of major general to his permanent rank of captain. In 1866, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and assigned to command the 7th Cavalry Regiment based at Fort Riley, Kansas. At this time, the Indians across the West were increasing their attacks on all forms of white people's encroachments -- forts and supply outposts, the new railroads, overland wagon trains, and settlers. General William T. Sherman assigned Major General Winfield S. Hancock to take charge of a campaign to commence in the spring of 1867. Custer's 7th Cavalry was assigned a major role.

Nine years later in 1876, Lieutenant General Phil Sheridan ordered three columns to converge on the Indian country of the Powder and Yellowstone river basins. Their mission was to drive the “hostiles” to the reservation.

Brigadier General George Crook marched north from Fort Fetterman in southern Wyoming, Colonel John Gibbon descended the Yellowstone River from Fort Ellis in western Montana, and Brigadier General Alfred H. Terry moved west from Fort Abraham Lincoln in Dakota. With Terry rode the entire 7th Cavalry Regiment under command of its lieutenant colonel, former brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer.

The personality of this flamboyant cavalier, now 36, gave rise to much of the controversy that followed. A gloriously triumphant “boy general” in the Civil War, Custer had achieved new fame on the western frontier as Indian fighter, sportsman, plainsman, and author. Among acquaintances, he inspired veneration or loathing, never indifference. Some saw him as reckless. Others looked on him as fearless in battle and brilliant in leading men to victory. And he was lucky.

Death of Major General George Armstrong Custer

Custer’s luck ran out on 25 June 1876 when he and 267 of his men met their demise at the hands of Lakota and Cheyenne warriors in Montana Territory, at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The Sioux and Cheyenne reveled in their victory for a time, but their celebration was short-lived, as was their freedom. Within a year, most had been rounded up or killed.

The dead at the Battle of the Little Bighorn were given a quick burial where they fell by the first soldiers who arrived at the scene. Custer was later disinterred and reburied at West Point.

Gravestone of Major General George Armstrong Custer

William P. Roberts

William Paul Roberts (Confederate)

William Paul Roberts was an American politician and diplomat. He was also a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded cavalry in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. At the age of 23 years, 7 months, and 12 days, Roberts had the distinction of being the youngest commissioned brigadier general of the Confederacy (although some historians say John Edward Murray held that distinction).

William Paul Roberts (son of John Smith Roberts and Jane Gatling Boyt) was born in Gates County, North Carolina on 11 July 1841. He received little formal education other than in local schools a few months out of each year and one year at a small private school at Harrellsville.

Civil War Service

At the outbreak of the Civil War he was teaching in a small local school, and on 10 June 1861 he enlisted for the duration of the war in Company C, Nineteenth North Carolina (First Cavalry) Regiment, as orderly sergeant. Roberts quickly rose to the rank of second lieutenant on 30 September 1861. On 14 March 1862, his regiment was present at the Battle of New Bern but was not engaged. Afterwards his company remained on detached picket duty in the district of Pamlico and participated in the attack on Washington, North Carolina, on 6 September 1862. It then moved to Virginia and took part in General James Longstreet's Suffolk campaign, after which it rejoined its regiment and became a part of General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, serving in the cavalry brigade of Lee's son, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee.

Wilderness Campaign of 1864

Roberts became first lieutenant of his company on 1 May 1863 and then advanced to captain shortly thereafter. He fought in the Battle of Brandy Station, the Gettysburg campaign, the "Buckland Races," and the Wilderness campaigns of 1864.

Meanwhile, Roberts was commissioned major of the Nineteenth North Carolina on 18 February 1864, and later, during the initial struggles for possession of the railroads into Petersburg, Virginia, Roberts was commissioned colonel of the regiment on 19 August 1864.

Battle of Ream’s Station

Scarcely a week after his promotion he participated gallantly in the Battle of Ream’s Station, on 25 August 1864, where he dismounted his regiment and led it against an entrenched position of Union troops, which he captured along with numerous prisoners.

Roberts continued to command the regiment until, in recognition of his bravery and distinctive leadership, he was commissioned brigadier general on 23 February 1865 and was even personally presented the gauntlets of General Robert E. Lee as a sign of the commanding general's recognition of his valor. Roberts was given command of a small brigade of North Carolina cavalry in William Henry Fitzhugh Lee's division, consisting of the Fifty-ninth North Carolina (Fourth Cavalry) and the Seventy-fifth North Carolina (Seventh Cavalry), also known as the Sixteenth North Carolina Battalion.

Battle of Five Forks

On 1 Apr. 1865, Roberts' new command was assigned the task of maintaining contact between the extreme right of the Confederate defense lines around Petersburg and the left flank elements of General George E. Pickett's Confederate troops holding the strategic crossroads of Five Forks, a distance of several miles in which Roberts simply did not have enough men for an adequate defense line. Powerful Union forces, which outnumbered Roberts many times over, attacked and quickly over-whelmed his thinly spread brigade in what later turned out to be a disaster to Pickett's Confederate troops at Five Forks. The remnants of Roberts' brigade participated in the retreat to Appomattox and during the surrender of Lee's army at that place Roberts' command pitifully contained only five officers and eighty-eight men who were not killed or captured in the fighting or the retreat. Roberts himself was paroled there and returned home to Gates County, North Carolina.

Life after Civil War

William Paul Roberts represented Gates County in the constitutional conventions of 1868 and 1875. Many credited Roberts in particular with singlehandedly swinging North Carolina’s Constitutional Convention of 1875 to the cause of white supremacy. It was a turning point in the state’s history.

In 1876, Roberts won a seat in the state legislature. He was elected state auditor in 1880 and reelected in 1884; he declined a third term in the election of 1888.

Afterwards, President Grover Cleveland named him consul to Victoria, British Columbia, a post he held for a number of years before returning to Gates County to once again take up farming.

William Paul Roberts would continue to reside in Gatesville for the rest of his life. He spent much of his time attending Confederate reunions, speaking at the dedications of Confederate monuments, and participating in a statewide association of Civil War veterans.

He was also the grand marshal of the State Fair in Raleigh in 1901 and dined with President Teddy Roosevelt in 1905.

Death of Confederate Brigadier General William Paul Roberts

William Paul Roberts died on 28 March 1910 after a fall at his home in Gatesville. He is buried in Gatesville, Gates County, North Carolina.

Gravestone of Confederate Brigadier General William Paul Roberts

John H. Kelly

John H. Kelly (Confederate)

John Herbert Kelly served as colonel of the Eighth Arkansas Infantry and became one of the youngest brigadier generals in the Confederate army at the age of 23 years, 7 months, and 16 days. He was one of the youngest generals to die during the American Civil War, at the age of 24.

John Herbert Kelly (son of Isham Kelly and Elizabeth Herbert) was born on 31 March 1840 in Carrollton, Alabama. Isham Kelly was just beginning to climb the ladder of politics in Alabama when his health took a turn for the worst. He went to Cuba for a healthier climate, and died there in 1844. John’s mother died two years later. John’s grandmother Harriet Herbert Hawthorne took responsibility of the 6-year-old orphan. When John was about seventeen, he received an appointment to West Point through the help of his uncle, Congressman Philemon T. Herbert and another relative Congressman William W. Boyce.

Kelly entered the U.S. Military Academy as a member of the Class of 1861 on 1 July 1857 and would become associated with fellow plebes by the names of Judson Kilpatrick, John Pelham, Emory Upton and George Armstrong Custer. The secession crisis of late 1860 canceled Kelly’s plans to join his fellow cadets in the approaching graduation ceremonies. In accord with the state of South Carolina seceding from the United States, Kelly tendered his resignation from West Point on 29 December 1860 and offered his services to the new Confederacy.

Civil War Service

John H. Kelly joined Confederate army

After arriving in Montgomery, Alabama, John H. Kelly joined the Confederate army with the rank of second lieutenant. He then was assigned to Fort Morgan where he would stay until the fall of 1861. During that time, Kelly left Fort Morgan with Brigadier General William J. Hardee to Missouri. It was here that he was appointed captain and assistant adjutant general on Hardee's staff.

In 1862, Kelly was appointed major of the 9th Arkansas Infantry Battalion, which he led into the Battle of Shiloh. One month later Kelly became colonel of the 8th Arkansas Infantry Battalion. Later in 1862, Kelly fought at the Battle of Murfreesboro where he was wounded. In October of that year, he fought at the Battle of Perryville. Kelly commanded a large brigade of men at Chickamauga consisting of the 5th Kentucky, 58th North Carolina, 63rd Virginia, and the 65th Georgia Infantry Regiments. He lost 300 men at Chickamauga within the one hour. Also during the battle while leading his troops Kelly had a horse shot out from under him. Because of his bravery at the Battle of Chickamauga, generals Cleburne, Liddell, and Preston asked for a promotion for Kelly. General Cleburne told Confederate Secretary of War James Seddon of Kelly, "I know no better officer of his grade in the service." On 16 November 1863, John Kelly was promoted to brigadier general. Kelly's brigade was one of the key factors at the Battle of Pickett's Mill that lead to the Confederate victory.

Death of Confederate Brigadier General John H. Kelly

In August 1864, Kelly's Brigade fought heavily in Franklin, Tennessee. While leading a charge at a skirmish near Franklin on August 20th, Kelly was shot in the chest by a Union sharpshooter. Kelly was immediately taken to the Harrison House to be seen by doctors. At the Confederate retreat he was too badly hurt to be moved and was forced to be left and captured by Union forces on September 3rd. Kelly died the following day on 4 September 1864 in his bed at the Harrison House.

Gravestone of Confederate Brigadier General John H. Kelly

John H. Kelly was buried in the gardens of the Harrison House in Franklin on the day of his death. Local residents bought him a coffin and the new clothing he was buried in, except for the uniform coat which he died wearing. Later in 1866, Kelly’s body was moved and reburied in the Magnolia Cemetery in Mobile, Alabama.

Edward W. Whitaker

Edward Washburn Whitaker (Union)

Edward Washburn Whitaker was a Union Army officer during the American Civil War. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action in 1864. He was one of the youngest soldiers in the Union Army getting promoted to brigadier general at the age of 23 years, 8 months, and 28 days.

Edward Washburn Whitaker (son of George Whitaker and Mary Colgrove) was born in Killingly, Connecticut on 15 June 1841. Edward was one of sixteen children (nine boys and seven girls). Edward was educated in the public schools in Ashford, Connecticut and in an Academy in Olneyville, Rhode Island, a section of Providence.

Civil War Service

Edward Whitaker was one of four brothers who enlisted in Union Regiments in the Civil War. Whitaker volunteered for the military just days after the fall of Fort Sumter. He enlisted as a corporal in the 1st Connecticut Infantry and fought at Bull Run, the first of 82 engagements credited to him. At the conclusion of the regiment’s three-month term, Whitaker joined a battalion that grew into the 1st Connecticut Cavalry.

Edward was slightly wounded at Falling Waters, Maryland by shrapnel. While running at a gallop at Five Forks, Virginia, his horse fell on him and caused him to have a life-long groin and back injury.

Edward Whitaker earned the Congressional Medal of Honor while serving as a Captain of Company E, 1st Connecticut Volunteer Cavalry at Reams Station, Virginia on 29 June 1864. While acting as an aide, he voluntarily carried dispatches from the commanding general to General Meade, forcing his way with a single troop of Cavalry through an Infantry Division of the enemy. According to one source, Whitaker and his force hit the rebel line “like a tornado, and galloped on to headquarters, where he arrived at an early hour of morning with only eighteen of his gallant cavalrymen.” The medal was actually presented to him years later on 2 April 1898 -- nearly 34 years after his action.

Other exploits include repulsing a fierce night attack, marching 120 miles in freezing weather in four days and capturing a total of 1,303 prisoners, 150 wagons, guns and battle flags.

However, Whitaker’s most memorable war experience occurred at Appomattox. During the morning of 9 April 1865, Confederate Captain Robert M. Sims approached the Union line bearing a white towel and a request from Lieutenant General James Longstreet for a truce. The request made its way to the commander in this sector of the line, Major General George Armstrong Custer. He sent Whitaker, who had risen to Custer’s chief of staff, with Sims to Longstreet with a message that effectively arranged a temporary truce pending negotiations for the surrender of General Robert E. Lee’s army.

Whitaker came away with two trophies: the towel carried by Captain Sims and the chair used by General Lee during negotiations inside the McLean home in Appomattox Court House. Whitaker cut the towel in two and gave half to his commander’s wife, Elizabeth Bacon “Libby” Custer. This piece of the towel and the Lee chair eventually made its way to the Smithsonian Institution.

Brigadier General Edward Washburn Whitaker

Whitaker was brevetted Brigadier General of Volunteers for his war service. He was honorably mustered out of service on 2 August 1865.

Life after Civil War

After the war, Edward Whitaker was appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Capitol Building, In 1869, Whitaker was appointed as Postmaster of Hartford, Connecticut by President Ulysses S. Grant. In his later years, Whitaker was an insurance agent and a patent attorney living in Washington, D.C.

Death of Brigadier General Edward Washburn Whitaker

Edward Washburn Whitaker suffered most of his life from a heart condition brought on by malaria contracted shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg. He eventually died from that medical condition on 30 July 1922. He is buried in Section 3 of Arlington National Cemetery. His wife, Theodosia Davis Whitaker is buried with him.

Gravestone of Brigadier General Edward Washburn Whitaker

Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon

Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon (Union)

Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Dimon rose through the ranks to become a colonel of a U.S. Volunteer Infantry Regiment and was awarded the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general United States Volunteers, to rank from 13 March 1865. Dimon was 23 years, 10 months, and 16 days old on the date of his promotion to brigadier general.

Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon (son of James Dimon and Amelia Ropes) was born in Fairfield, Connecticut on 27 April 1841. He was educated at Fairfield Academy and relocated as a young man to Salem, Massachusetts, finding employment as a bookkeeper.

Civil War Service

When the Civil War commenced, Dimon, age 19, enlisted with the 8th Massachusetts Infantry on 17 April 1861. Dimon served as a private in Company J of the 8th Massachusetts, which was a Zouave company. Upon their arrival in Maryland, Company J was assigned to the frigate USS Constitution in Annapolis, Maryland, to safeguard the iconic vessel as she was transported to New York. For the remainder of their service, the 8th Massachusetts was employed in repairing and guarding railroad lines in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland. Dimon returned to Massachusetts with the rest of the regiment and was mustered out on 1 August 1861.

In the fall of 1861, Dimon assisted in the recruitment of a new regiment which would become the 30th Massachusetts Infantry. The regiment was one of several being raised by Major General Benjamin Butler for his planned expedition to take New Orleans, Louisiana, the largest city in the Confederacy. The regiment played a minor role in the Siege of New Orleans in April and May 1862.

Early in his service with the 30th Massachusetts, Dimon caught the attention of Major General Butler who was impressed with the young man's energy and enthusiasm. Through Butler's influence, Dimon was commissioned as a first lieutenant on 20 February 1862, and given the position of regimental adjutant -- an administrative role assisting Colonel Nathan Dudley, the commanding officer of the regiment.

Serving with the 30th Massachusetts, Dimon played a role in the regiment's efforts in July 1862 to dig a canal opposite Vicksburg, Mississippi (the major Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River). The aim was to redirect the river and circumvent Vicksburg, thus opening the Mississippi to the Union. The effort was unsuccessful, however, and the 30th's brigade marched to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the end of July. On 5 August 1862, Dimon and the 30th Massachusetts saw their first heavy combat during the Battle of Baton Rouge as the Confederates unsuccessfully attempted to recapture the state capital.

In September 1862, the 2nd Louisiana Infantry (a unit of Louisiana unionists and former Confederate prisoners-of-war) was formed. Through Benjamin Butler's sponsorship, Dimon was promoted to major and assigned to the 2nd Louisiana as third-in-command, serving under Colonel Charles Jackson Paine. The 2nd Louisiana saw action during the Battle of Plains Store, and the Siege of Port Hudson in the spring and summer of 1863. After the second assault on Port Hudson in June 1863, Major Dimon fell ill and was discharged due to disability on 22 June 1863.

After his recovery in early 1864, Dimon sought a position on the staff of Major General Butler, who was then in command of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina with headquarters at Fort Monroe. Instead of placing Dimon on his staff, Butler appointed him as major of a new regiment, the 1st United States Volunteer Infantry, then being formed under Butler's supervision. The regiment, organized at the prisoner-of-war camp at Point Lookout, Maryland, would consist entirely of "Galvanized Yankees" (Confederate prisoners willing to fight for the Union in exchange for their freedom). Eventually, six such regiments would be formed. Dimon's new commission as major was effective 18 March 1864. Dimon was promoted to lieutenant colonel on 2 April 1864 and, four month later, he was promoted to colonel and given command of the 1st United States Volunteers on 7 August 1864.

During their first months of service, the 1st U.S. Volunteers saw combat in the vicinity of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, in the summer of 1864. However, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, then in command of the Union army, decided that prisoner-of-war units should not be employed against their former comrades writing, "it is not right to expose them where, to be taken prisoners, they might surely suffer as deserters."

Fort Rice in Dakota Territory (Sketch drawn by soldier named Voelkner in 1864)

In August 1864, just as Dimon assumed command of the regiment, the 1st U.S. Volunteers were transferred to Fort Rice in the Dakota Territory. After travel by rail from New York and steamship up the Missouri River, the regiment marched the final 250 miles, reaching Fort Rice on 17 October 1864. As commander of the post, Dimon was instructed to complete the construction of the fort, aid settlers, and manage relations with Native Americans in the region.

After enduring a frigid winter, the 1st U.S. Volunteers were further troubled in the spring of 1865 by deteriorating relations with the Sioux people. The Sioux perceived Fort Rice as a dangerous encroachment on their homeland and they led repeated raids against it. Although Dimon had no experience in Native American relations, he was successful in fostering a positive relationship with Chief Two Bears and, together, they began to build a growing alliance with the Sioux. The positive relations were fleeting, however, as the arrival of additional troops in the Dakota Territory triggered a large attack on Fort Rice by the Sioux on 28 July 1865. The 1st U.S. Volunteers were successful in driving off the attack and the garrison survived that summer.

As commander of Fort Rice, Colonel Dimon took a hardline approach to restricting illegal trade with the Native Americans, ordering the seizure of steamboats coming up the Missouri River and refusing to allow traders to pass without appropriate licenses from the army. He also tried to combat corruption on the part of the Office of Indian Affairs whose local officials frequently misappropriated funds. These practices made Dimon unpopular with civilians in the region and created political difficulties for his superior officer, Brigadier General Alfred Sully.

Discouraged by these difficulties, Dimon requested a medical leave during September 1865. In his absence, the morale of the 1st U.S. Volunteers deteriorated when they learned that, despite the war's end, they would not be mustered out. Dimon returned to Fort Rice in October 1865 to find that many desertions had taken place and discipline was all but non-existent. News soon arrived, however, that the regiment would be mustered out after all and Dimon led what remained of the 1st U.S. Volunteers back to Fort Leavenworth. The regiment, including Dimon, was mustered out on 27 November 1865.

On 13 January 1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Dimon for the award of the honorary grade of brevet brigadier general, U.S. Volunteers, to rank from 13 March 1865, for gallant and meritorious services during the Civil War.

Life after Civil War

Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon's most notable position in civilian life was once again achieved through his connection to Benjamin Butler. In 1869, Butler founded the U.S. Cartridge Company in Lowell, Massachusetts, and secured major government contracts to produce small arms ammunition. Butler hired Dimon to manage the company in the mid-1870s and, under Dimon's direction, the company grew. By the 1880s it had a work force of approximately 250 and had expanded its operations to include the production of the "Lowell Battery Gun," a weapon similar to the Gatling gun.

Towards the end of his life, Dimon engaged in a political career, becoming the 37th mayor of Lowell, Massachusetts in 1901.

Death of Brigadier General Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon

Dimon died of throat cancer on 5 May 1902 midway through his second term as mayor of Lowell. He is buried in East Cemetery, Fairfield, Connecticut.

Gravestone of Brigadier General Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon

William Francis Bartlett

William Francis Bartlett (Union)

William Francis Bartlett’s service in the Civil War was astounding. He rose from private to brigadier general -- the youngest general from Massachusetts (reaching that rank at age 24 years and 14 days) and one of the youngest generals in the war. He was wounded five times, suffered the loss of a leg, and nearly perished in a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp. Yet after the war, Bartlett was one of the leading proponents of reconciliation between the North and the South.

William Francis Bartlett (son of Charles Leonard Bartlett and Harriett Dorothy Plummer) was born on 6 June 1840 in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He attended Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts and entered Harvard College in 1858. The Civil War began during his junior year and, almost immediately after hearing of the surrender of Fort Sumter, Bartlett enlisted as a private with the Massachusetts Volunteer Militia.

Civil War Service

William Francis Bartlett initially enlisted in the 4th Battalion Massachusetts Infantry (also known as the New England Guards), which was garrisoned to defend Fort Independence in Boston harbor. The 4th Battalion had much work to do to put Fort Independence in order. Bartlett served with the battalion for the unit's full 90-day term, from April to June 1861.

On 8 August 1861, Bartlett was commissioned captain in the 20th Massachusetts Infantry and given command of Company I. It was known as the "Harvard Regiment" because many of its young officers, including Bartlett, were Harvard students or recent graduates. Shortly after arriving in Virginia in September 1861, Captain Bartlett led his company into battle for the first time when the 20th Massachusetts took part in the Battle of Ball's Bluff on 21 October 1861. Unfortunately, this engagement was a great defeat for the Union Army.

Hoping to avoid any further such defeats, Major General George B. McClellan (commander of the Army of the Potomac to which the 20th Massachusetts was attached) developed a plan to by-pass the difficult overland route to the Confederate capital of Richmond. The Peninsular Campaign was intended to be a rapid movement of the Army of the Potomac by water, then by land, up the relatively short Virginia Peninsula. The 20th Massachusetts and Captain Bartlett were part of this massive movement in the spring of 1862. The campaign stalled, however, when McClellan chose to lay siege to Yorktown, Virginia rather than assaulting the far smaller Confederate force there. During the siege on 24 April 1862, Captain Bartlett was shot in the left knee by Confederate pickets. The wound required the amputation of his leg. Bartlett returned to Boston to recuperate and, during the summer of 1862, finished his degree at Harvard.

The Peninsular Campaign

After completing his degree, Bartlett chose not to re-join the 20th Massachusetts and resigned his commission on 12 November 1862. Instead, Bartlett accepted a colonel's commission and was placed in charge of the 49th Massachusetts Infantry. This new regiment was to serve a term of nine months.

The 49th Massachusetts was assigned in late November 1862 to the Louisiana expedition of Major General Nathaniel P. Banks. The aim of this expedition was to conquer the few remaining Confederate strongholds on the Mississippi River and open that waterway to the Union. Bartlett led his regiment during the Siege of Port Hudson in Louisiana in the spring of 1863. Due to the amputation of his leg, he was required to remain on horseback during the battle, making him an easy target for Confederate sharpshooters. During one of several assaults on Port Hudson on 27 May 1863, Bartlett was shot twice -- a bullet shattered his left wrist, while buckshot struck his right leg. The regimental surgeon was able to remove the bullet and save his hand, but the wounds effectively removed him from command until the end of the 49th's term of service in September 1863. Bartlett resigned his commission on 1 September 1863.

While still recuperating from the wounds he received in Louisiana, Bartlett began to organize another regiment in the fall of 1863. This unit, the 57th Massachusetts Infantry, was one of four "Veteran Regiments," organized in Massachusetts that consisted almost exclusively of men who had already served out an enlistment with a previous regiment. Bartlett was placed in command of the 57th which was sent to Virginia before it was fully organized. Therefore, Bartlett would not receive his new commission as colonel of the 57th Massachusetts until 9 April 1864 (although the commission was made retroactive to August 1863).

The 57th Massachusetts became part of IX Corps of the Army of the Potomac and arrived at the front in time for Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign. Early in the campaign, Colonel Bartlett was again wounded, this time in the head, during the Battle of the Wilderness on 6 May 1864. He returned to Massachusetts and, while recovering, received a promotion to brigadier general, U.S. Volunteers, to rank from 20 June 1864.

Upon his return to the Army of the Potomac in July 1864, Bartlett was placed in command of 1st Brigade of 1st Division of IX Corps consisting almost entirely of Massachusetts regiments. During July 1864, he played a small role in the planning of the Battle of the Crater. This was a bold attempt to break the Siege of Petersburg by digging a mine beneath Confederate entrenchments and detonating a massive amount of gunpowder to create a gap through which Union forces could assault the city.

Battle of the Crater

The detonation on 30 July 1864 was successful, but the Union assault was disorganized and failed. Brigadier General James H. Ledlie's division, of which Bartlett's brigade was a large part, led the attack. In the battle, Bartlett's prosthetic leg was shot away. Unable to retreat with the rest of his men, Bartlett was captured by Confederates.

Brigadier General Bartlett spent two months in Libby Prison where he grew severely ill. He was eventually released through a prisoner exchange at the end of September 1864, but it was several months before he recovered from his illness.

General Bartlett and Staff, camp near Washington, July 1865

In June 1865, Bartlett returned to the army two months after the Confederate surrender. Although hostilities had ended, a large portion of the Union Army still remained on active duty and Bartlett was promoted to command 1st Division of IX Corps on 17 June 1865. Although IX Corps was disbanded in July 1865, Bartlett remained in the army for another year.

On 13 January1866, President Andrew Johnson nominated Bartlett for the award of the honorary grade of brevet major general, U.S. Volunteers, to rank from 13 March 1865. Major General Bartlett resigned from the army on 18 July 1866.

Life after Civil War

After the Civil War, William Francis Bartlett sought employment as a manager of industrial manufacturing. He became the manager of Tredegar Iron Works in Richmond, Virginia.

Tredegar Ironworks and associated facilities, as it appeared shortly after the fall of Richmond in 1865

The Tredegar Ironworks avoided destruction by troops during the evacuation of the city, and continued production through the mid-20th century.

Bartlett also managed the Pomeroy Iron Works and the Powhatan Iron Company. He eventually settled in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in December 1875.

Death of Major General William Francis Bartlett

William Francis Bartlett died from tuberculosis on 17 December 1876. He is buried in the Pittsfield Cemetery.in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Gravestone of Major General William Francis Bartlett

To place the sacrifice and ideals of William Francis Bartlett into proper perspective, one must understand that a nation -- both north and south -- mourned the death of this man. Two of the greatest American writers, John Greenleaf Whittier and Herman Melville, wrote poems about Bartlett.

Bartlett’s splendid military services were appreciated by the people of Massachusetts as shown by the fact that his statue was placed in the State House in Boston on 27 May 1904.

John C. C. Sanders

John Caldwell Calhoun Sanders (Confederate)

A ‘boy general’, the youthful John Caldwell Calhoun Sanders may not have been the youngest general in the Army of Northern Virginia at 24 years, 1 month, and 27 days old, but he may have looked like it. Existing photographs depict a young man who looks barely old enough to shave.

John Caldwell Calhoun Sanders (son of Charles Peak Sanders and Elizabeth Ann Thompson) was born on 4 April 1840 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Sanders actually grew up in Clinton in Greene County. He enrolled in the University of Alabama as a student in 1858. At the outbreak of the war in 1861, he was still a student there.

Civil War Service

Sanders left his studies to enlist in the Eleventh Alabama Infantry. He was quickly elected captain of his company. Sanders was severely wounded by a shell fragment that tore into his leg at the Battle of Frayser's Farm on 30 June 1862. Often identified as one of the Confederate army's great lost opportunities, this battle was the next to last of the Seven Days battles. With the Union army in full retreat toward the James River in the face of Lee’s offensive, the Southern army set its sights on the critical intersection at Riddle's Shop, often called Glendale and sometimes referred to as Charles City Crossroads. Most of the Union army would have to funnel through that bottleneck on its way to the river.

Battle of Frayser’s Farm

In the bitter fighting -- some of it with bayonets and clubbed rifles -- the Confederates captured more than a dozen cannon and were able to push to the edge of the old Frayser Farm, within sight of the road leading south from the intersection to the James River. But they could go no farther. The intersection remained open, and the Union army retreated safely on the night of the June 30th. Perhaps no Civil War battle has so many different names. Virtually every Confederate who fought there called it the Battle of Frayser’s Farm, but Union soldiers knew it as Glendale, Nelson’s Farm, Riddle’s Shop, Charles City Crossroads, New Market Crossroads, or White Oak Swamp.

Returning to duty on 11 August 1862, Sanders took command of the regiment, formally being promoted as its colonel on 22 September 1862 after Sharpsburg, where he was slightly wounded in the face by rocks tossed into the air by artillery fire, at the age of just twenty-two.

Colonel Sanders fought with great gallantry, serving at Fredericksburg, Salem Church, Gettysburg, and into the Overland campaign. At Gettysburg, Sanders was wounded on 2 July 1863 in the knee by a minie ball but does not appear to have left the Army of Northern Virginia.

Sanders took command of Perrin’s brigade after that officer was killed at Spotsylvania; Sanders’s actions in the assault to retake the “Mule Shoe” resulted in him earning promotion to brigadier general on 31 May 1864. Brigadier General Sanders was assigned to command Cadmus Wilcox’s old Alabama brigade in the Petersburg campaign.

Brigadier General Sanders was conspicuous in the opening operations of the Petersburg siege and particularly in the Battle of the Crater in July 1864.

Death of Confederate Brigadier General John Caldwell Calhoun Sanders

Brigadier General Sanders’ brave and distinguished Civil War career came to an end when on 21 August 1864, in the action along the Weldon Railroad, he was mortally wounded by a minie ball that severed the femoral arteries in both thighs. Sanders asked to be laid down and, within a few minutes, bled to death.

His body was taken to Richmond the next day and was placed in a vault in Hollywood Cemetery. From there he was interred in the Maryland Section for a short while, but his family decided to move his body to lot O-9, which was owned by John C. Page, a wealthy shoe merchant who had cared for him in 1862 after he had been wounded at Frayser’s Farm. Although the exact location of his grave has been lost, a granite marker to his memory was erected in Section R in 1971.

Sometime over the years, the body of Brigadier General John C.C. Sanders was moved to his final resting place in Greenwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama.

Gravestone of Confederate Brigadier General John C.C. Sanders in Greenwood Cemetery

Ranald S. Mackenzie

Ranald Slidell Mackenzie (Union)

The young captain of engineers who discovered the dangerous bulge in the “Mule Shoe” salient at Spotsylvania, Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, would go on to make a name for himself during the Civil War and the subsequent Indian campaigns out West. Indeed, no less a judge than Ulysses S. Grant considered Mackenzie “the most promising young officer in the Union Army.” Had it not been for suddenly encroaching mental illness, Mackenzie might well have become commanding general of the U.S. Army. Instead, he was destined to live out the final years of his life in complete obscurity, far from the blazing battlefields of his youth.

Ranald Slidell Mackenzie was born in Westchester County, New York on 27 July 1840. Ranald’s father was Commander Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, whose real name was Slidell but who had taken his mother’s family name of Mackenzie. He was a veteran naval officer and the author of many well-known books, among them A Year in Spain, which had an influence on the writings of his friend Washington Irving. Randal’s uncle was John Slidell, the Confederate commissioner to France who was involved in the famous Mason-Slidell incident which nearly brought on a war with Great Britain in the autumn of 1862.

Ranald received his education at Williams College and at the United States Military Academy, where he graduated on 17 June 1862, at the head of his class. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to the Army of the Potomac.

Civil War Service

Major battles of the American Civil War

At the Second Battle of Manassas on 29 August 1862, Mackenzie suffered the first of several serious wounds when he was hit in the shoulder by a .52-caliber musket ball. Subsequently, Mackenzie saw action in most of the major battles in the eastern theater of the war.

Promotions and wounds seemed to follow him wherever he went. In all, he was wounded six times in the war, losing two fingers to a Confederate bullet at Petersburg and once becoming temporarily paralyzed when he was struck in the chest by a spent artillery shell.

Along the way, he was commended seven times for gallantry and became at age 24 one of the youngest brevet brigadier generals in the Regular Army and one of the youngest major generals of volunteers one year later. At Appomattox he took custody of surrendered Confederate property and afterward commanded the cavalry in the Department of Virginia. By the end of the Civil War, he was highest ranking officer from the West Point class of 1862.

Life after Civil War

After the Civil War, Ranald Mackenzie served briefly with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers before being assigned to a field command. In 1871 he was given command of the Fourth Cavalry Regiment with the rank of colonel. In the next few years Mackenzie pioneered the use of large bodies of troops on the Llano Estacado in Texas, fought several engagements with Comanches and Kiowas, and led a controversial raid on a Kickapoo village in northern Mexico. Mackenzie's most famous fight was his victory at the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon, which was instrumental in putting an end to the Red River War.

In 1876, Mackenzie participated in General George Crook's campaign against the Northern Plains Indians. He spent the rest of his active career as a roving troubleshooter on the Texas border and in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado.

On 27 October 1883. Mackenzie, now a brigadier general, established his headquarters in San Antonio as the new commander of the Department of Texas. By this time he was behaving in an erratic manner, and his condition quickly deteriorated. After a physical altercation with San Antonio citizens left him beaten and tied to a wagon wheel, Mackenzie's aides put him on a train to New York, where he was briefly committed to the Bloomingdale Asylum. He was released after a few weeks but never regained mental stability. He retired from the U.S. Army on 24 March 1884.

Death of Brigadier General Ranald Slidell Mackenzie

In 1886, Mackenzie was moved to New Brighton, Staten Island, where he died on 19 January 1889, almost forgotten by the general public. On the morning of 20 January 1889, tucked away in the obituary column of the New York Sunday Times, was a brief notice: [Died] MACKENZIE —At New Brighton, Staten Island, on the 19th January. Brig.Gen. Ranald Slidell Mackenzie, United States Army, in the 48th year of his age.

This was all the attention given to the death of a man who was one of our greatest Indian fighters and about whose Civil War services U. S. Grant had written: “I regard Mackenzie as the most promising young officer in the Army. Graduating at West Point, as he did, during the second year of the war, he had won his way up to the command of a corps before its close. This he did upon his own merit and without influence.”

Renown is often won by fickle and devious fortune. George Armstrong Custer gained immortality by spectacular failure, for his sudden and violent departure for Valhalla with all his men has made him, next to Grant and Lee, probably the best known of all our army officers of the nineteenth century.

How different is the fame of Mackenzie, a cavalry contemporary of Custer’s, who fought many more Indian actions and never suffered defeat. Custer graduated from West Point at the bottom of his class in 1861 and Mackenzie at the top of the class of 1862. Both men became major generals of volunteers during the Civil War before they reached the age of 25. Custer was brevetted five times for gallantry and wounded once; Mackenzie, with a year less of service, was brevetted seven times for the same reason and wounded six times; later he received another wound from the Indians which made his life a daily agony. Custer met disaster and death in his second major Indian engagement, but Mackenzie had five major encounters and many skirmishes with the same enemies. After the Custer debacle at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on 25 June 1876, it was Mackenzie who gave the victorious and formidable Cheyennes such a thrashing that they soon afterward surrendered, and it was Mackenzie who crushed the fierce Comanches and other marauding Indians in west Texas and finally brought peace to that bloodiest of frontiers. In failure Custer won immortality, while Mackenzie, a conspicuous success, died unwept and unsung except by the informed few.

Brigadier General Ranald Slidell Mackenzie is buried in the military cemetery at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. The marble cross above his grave carried a quote from the King James Version of the Bible: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace.”

Gravestone of Brigadier General Ranald Slidell Mackenzie

Emory Upton

Emory Upton (Union)

Emory Upton was a noted military strategist who was best known for his use of storm tactics in attacking Confederate forces entrenched behind well-constructed earth-and-log works during the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. He was one of the most influential military thinkers to emerge from the Civil War.

Emory Upton (son of Daniel Upton and Electra Randall) was born on 27 August 1839 in Batavia, New York. Upton attended Oberlin College prior to accepting an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. While at the academy, Upton, an outspoken abolitionist, became involved in a fist fight when fellow cadet Wade Gibbs uttered a racial slur against him. In spite of this incident, Upton was an otherwise exemplary student and graduated eighth in the May class of 1861.

Civil War Service

The newly commissioned Lieutenant Upton was assigned to the 5th Artillery Regiment in time to serve in the First Battle of Bull Run. During the battle he was wounded but refused to leave the field -- the first of many such instances in Upton’s career. Upton commanded his battery during the Peninsula Campaign and was the head of an artillery brigade in the Sixth Corps during the Battle of Antietam.

In October 1862, Upton received a promotion to colonel of the 121st New York Infantry. In this position he led the regiment through the battles of Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville -- where his regiment received its baptism of fire -- and Gettysburg, gaining notoriety and rising to brigade command along the way. However, Upton’s most significant contribution did not come until Grant’s Overland Campaign in May 1864.

‘The Bloody Angle’ at Battle of Spotsylvania Court House (Painting by Mort Kunstler)

Facing the firmly entrenched Army of Northern Virginia, Upton petitioned his superiors to lead a brigade against the enemy’s fortifications. The young colonel believed that swiftly advancing in a narrow, compact formation without halting to fire would greatly enhance the assault’s probability of success. Though this approach was contrary to the tactics then in use, his superiors trusted his judgment. On 10 May 1864, Upton led a small force against the “Mule Shoe” salient (now called the “Bloody Angle”) at Spotsylvania Court House. Though Upton’s charge lacked sufficient support to be decisive, the initial success of his new tactic inspired Ulysses S. Grant to implement if in an assault two days later -- this time with General Winfield S. Hancock's entire corps. This bravery and ingenuity earned Upton a much-anticipated promotion to brigadier general.

After recovering from a wound received at Spotsylvania, Brigadier General Upton returned to action in the initial phases of the siege of Petersburg and in the 1864 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. At the Third Battle of Winchester, Upton, then commanding a division in the Sixth Corps, was again wounded and again refused to relinquish command, choosing instead to direct his troops from a stretcher. The convalescing Upton was promoted to Major General and asked to participate in General James H. Wilson’s cavalry raid through Alabama and Georgia. Accepting this offer, Upton became one of the few officers to effectively lead troops of all three branches of the army: artillery, infantry and cavalry.

Life after Civil War

For the next fifteen years, Upton continued his military service as an instructor, most notably as the Commandant of West Point from 1870-1875. During this time he wrote A New System of Infantry Tactics, The Armies of Asia and Europe, and The Military Policy of the United States from 1775. These and other writings, drawn from his experiences in the Civil War -- as well as his own personal observations of foreign military practices -- advocated dramatic changes in the American Armed Forces including advanced military education and improved promotion protocols.

In the last years of his life, Emory Upton suffered from severe headaches, quite possibly migraines associated with a brain tumor.

Death of Major General Emory Upton

On 15 March 1881, Upton was in the throes of one such headache when he retired to his quarters at the Presidio of San Francisco. There he promptly wrote out his resignation from the U.S. Army and took his own life. Upon hearing the report of a gun, an orderly rushed in to find that the 41-year-old general had shot himself in the head. Emory Upton's suicide stunned the army and all who knew him. Whether it was the ongoing grief from the loss of his wife or no clear fix to his poor health, authors and historians today still cannot agree on the reason or reasons why he took his own life.

Emory Upton is buried in Fort Hill Cemetery in Auburn, New York. Interestingly enough, he rests next to Captain Myles Keogh who perished with Lieutenant Colonel (Brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer five years earlier during the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana.

Gravestone of Major General Emory Upton

After Emory Upton's death, Henry A. du Pont, Upton's West Point classmate and a close friend, acquired a copy of Upton’s uncompleted manuscript entitled The Military Policy of the United States from 1775. It circulated widely throughout the Army's officer corps and helped to foment much discussion. After the Spanish–American War, Secretary of War Elihu Root read the manuscript and ordered that the War Department publish it. Many of the Army's so-called ‘Root Reforms’ of the early twentieth century were inspired by Emory Upton and his works.

Nelson A. Miles

Nelson Appleton Miles (Union)

Nelson A. Miles was a general in the Civil War, Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War who also served as the last Commanding General of the United States Army before the office was abolished.

Nelson Appleton Miles (son of Daniel Miles and Mary Curtis) was born near Westminster, Massachusetts on 8 August 1839. Born a farm boy with little hope of going to college or winning a coveted appointment to West Point (an honor usually reserved for the sons of the privileged classes), Miles showed determination at an early age to become a soldier. At age 17 he moved to Boston where he worked in a crockery store in the daytime while reserving the evening to being tutored in military sciences by a Frenchman who had served in that country’s army.

Civil War Service

Entering the Union Army in September 1861 as a volunteer, Miles fought in a number of crucial battles and became a lieutenant colonel in May 1862. After the Battle of Antietam, he was promoted to Colonel and continued to advance during his military career. Other battles he participated in include Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and the Appomattox Campaign.

Miles was brave in battle, but unlucky enough to be wounded in four different battles in four different places on his body. Still he was tough enough that he survived all of the wounds, any one of which could have killed him. In May 1862 a Confederate musket ball grazed Miles’ heel. In December 1862, another one passed through his throat and out his ear. He reported to his general while holding his throat closed with both hands. In May 1863 Miles took his third ball to his abdomen, a wound that killed most men, and which left him paralyzed for several weeks. Still, Miles came back in order to receive his commission as a brigadier general on 12 May 1864. In June 1864 Miles suffered his fourth wound, yet another shot to the neck.

Miles was again brevetted, this time to the rank of major general on 21 October 1865, for his actions at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

Nearly thirty years after being severely wounded as Colonel of the 61st New York Infantry during the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, Miles finally received the Medal of Honor on 23 July 1892, for “distinguished gallantry while holding with his command an advanced position against repeated assaults by a strong force of the enemy.”

Life after Civil War

Following the war, Nelson A. Miles wanted to stay in the army so when the command of Fort Monroe, Virginia was offered, Miles reluctantly decided he would take what he considered a temporary assignment, which he had convinced himself was sure to be followed by a field command once his superiors realized what a commanding presence he was. Miles correctly guessed that the United States Army would soon need young, aggressive, experienced officers such as himself who could transfer what they had learned fighting Confederates to fighting Indians on the Western Plains. At Fort Monroe where former Confederate President Jefferson Davis was held prisoner from May 1865 to May 1867, Miles served as commandant. During his tenure at Fort Monroe, Miles was forced to defend himself against charges that Davis was being mistreated. Davis could never have guessed that Miles’ treatment of him once inside the fort’s walls and away from prying eyes would actually make him a sympathetic figure with many Northerners.

Jefferson Davis held prisoner at Fort Monroe, Virginia

On 30 June 1868, he married Mary Hoyt Sherman (niece of General William T. Sherman). In March 1869, he became commander of the 5th U.S. Infantry Regiment, a position he held until 1880.

Miles played a leading role in nearly every phase of the army’s campaign against the tribes of the Great Plains. Then, in the winter of 1877, he drove his troops on a forced march across Montana to intercept the Nez Perce band led by Chief Joseph that had eluded or defeated every unit sent against it over the course of a 1,500 mile retreat from Oregon to the Canadian border. Miles earned the scorn of another fellow officer in 1886 when he replaced General George Crook as commander of the campaign against Geronimo in Arizona. Crook had relied heavily on Apache scouts in his efforts to capture the Chiricahua leader, but Miles replaced them with white troops who eventually traveled over 3,000 miles trailing Geronimo and his band through the torturous Sierra Madre Mountains.

Finally, Miles sent Apache scouts to help negotiate a surrender, under the terms of which Geronimo and his followers were exiled to confinement on a Florida reservation. Miles exiled his Apache scouts to Florida as well, although they were officially enlisted members of the army, and it was for this betrayal of troops who had served them both loyally that Crook never forgave him.

The 1890 Ghost Dance “uprising” on the Lakota reservations brought Miles back into the field once again. In an effort to restore peace throughout the area, Miles directed troop movements that inadvertently panicked many Lakota bands into leaving their reservations and led both to Sitting Bull’s death and to the massacre of Big Foot’s band at Wounded Knee. Miles reacted to these developments by working aggressively to implement his longstanding belief that the Lakota should be forcibly disarmed and placed under military control.

General Nelson A. Miles with ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody in 1891

In 1895, he was named Commanding General of the U.S. Army, a post he would retain through the Spanish-American War. He achieved the rank of Lieutenant General in 1900 based on his performance in the war. Afterward, he wrote several books and served on various commissions.

Miles was the only man to have served as a commander in the Civil War, the Indian Wars, and the Spanish-American War. In his late 70s, he volunteered to serve in the army during World War I as well, but was turned down by President Woodrow Wilson.

Death of Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles

Lieutenant General Nelson A. Miles died on 15 May 1925 at the age of 85 from a heart attack while attending the Ringling Brothers’ and Barnum & Bailey Circus in Washington, D.C., with his grandchildren. Mrs. Grace Coolidge (First Lady of the United States) was in the audience at the circus when General Miles suffered his heart attack.

Nelson Appleton Miles was buried in the Miles Mausoleum in Section 3 at Arlington National Cemetery with President Calvin Coolidge in attendance.

Lieutenant General Miles’ funeral in 1925

William Henry Seward Jr.

William Henry Seward, Jr. (Union)

William Henry Seward Jr. was an American banker and brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was the youngest son of William H. Seward, Sr. (United States Secretary of State under Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson).

William Henry Seward, Jr. (son of William Henry Seward, Sr. and Frances Adeline Miller) was born in Auburn, New York on 18 June 1839. His father, William Henry Seward Sr., had just taken office as Governor of New York when he was born. Educated at home, Seward became interested in finance and later started a partnership with Clinton McDougall, was private secretary to his father, then a U.S. Senator from New York in 1860, and opened a private bank in Auburn in 1861. He left banking on 22 August 1862, to join the Union Army in the U.S. Civil War.

Civil War Service

Seward was appointed lieutenant colonel of New York's 138th Infantry Regiment, which became the 9th New York Heavy Artillery Regiment in December 1862. The regiment served in the defenses of Washington, D.C. until it was converted back to an infantry regiment and sent to the Army of the Potomac because of the losses sustained by that army in the Overland Campaign. After fighting at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Seward was appointed colonel of the regiment on 10 June 1864.

Battle of Monocacy

On 9 July 1864, approximately 6,500 troops under the command of General Wallace met 14,000 battle–hardened veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Jubal Early, on the farm fields near Monocacy Junction. Confederate troops held the field at day’s end, but Wallace and his men had delayed them long enough that reinforcements ultimately sent by Union General-in-Chief U.S. Grant would reach the lightly-defended U.S. capital just in time. Early’s plans to capture Washington failed. The battle of Monocacy is now known as the “battle that saved Washington.”

As the Battle of Monocacy loomed, the city of Washington panicked. One of the men in Wallace’s small army was Colonel William Henry Seward, Jr. (son of Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Henry Seward, Sr.). Colonel Seward commanded the hard-fighting Ninth New York Heavy Artillery. Seward’s regiment fought in the middle of the battle. According to Wallace’s official report, the Ninth New York’s casualties totaled 102 killed and wounded with 99 missing, for a total of 201 casualties. Seward’s family, in Washington, received continuing reports from the battlefield. They knew about Wallace’s valiant defense and ultimate defeat.

Secretary of State Seward stayed at the War Department reading telegrams coming in from the battle until almost midnight. He had just returned home when Secretary of War Edwin Stanton arrived at the Seward residence to tell the family that there were reports that young William was wounded and taken prisoner. Attempting to learn the truth, Colonel Seward’s brother, Augustus, left early the next day to go to Baltimore. Augustus ultimately determined that his brother had been wounded, but not captured. Unfortunately, he couldn’t find him in the panic and chaos that gripped both Washington and Baltimore.

By that evening Lew Wallace telegrammed the Seward home: “I have the pleasure of contradicting my statement of last night. Colonel Seward is not a prisoner, and I am now told he is unhurt. He behaved with rare gallantry.”

While Colonel Seward was reported safe on July 10th, Washington definitely was not. Jubal Early and his veterans marched on the city. On July 11th, Early’s army arrived in front of Fort Stevens, the northernmost fort in Washington’s defensive chain. Early could see the flag flying on the dome of the U.S. Capitol.

As it turned out, Wallace had relayed incorrect information to the Seward family. Colonel Seward had suffered a slight wound to his arm. Seward also broke his leg when his horse fell on him during the battle. Unable to walk off the battlefield, he only escaped capture when he found a mule. He used his silk handkerchief as a bridle and rode off the field ahead of the Confederates. Seward’s promotion to brigadier general arrived within eight weeks on 13 September 1864. He served throughout the remainder of the war.

John Wilkes Booth had originally planned to kidnap President Abraham Lincoln, and recruited conspirators, including Lewis Powell, to help him. Having found no opportunity to abduct the president, on 14 April 1865, Booth assigned Powell to assassinate Secretary of State William H. Seward, Sr., with George Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, and himself to kill Lincoln, which would slay the three senior members of the Executive Branch. Accordingly, another member of the conspiracy, David Herold, led Powell to the Seward home on horseback and was responsible for holding Powell's horse while he committed the attack. Secretary of State Seward had been hurt in an accident some days before, and Powell gained entry to the home on the excuse he was delivering medicine to the injured man, but was stopped at the top of the stairs by Seward's son Frederick, who insisted Powell give him the medicine. Powell instead attempted to fire on Frederick and beat him over the head with the barrel of his gun when it misfired. Powell burst through the door, threw Fanny Seward (Seward's daughter) to one side, jumped on the bed, and stabbed Secretary of State William Seward in the face and neck five times. A soldier assigned to guard and nurse the secretary, Private George F. Robinson, jumped on Powell, forcing him from the bed. Private Robinson and Augustus Henry Seward, another of Seward's sons, were also injured in their struggle with the would-be assassin. Ultimately, Powell fled, stabbing a messenger, Emerick Hansell, as he went, only to find that Herold, panicked by the screams from the house, had left with both horses. Secretary of State Seward was at first thought dead, but revived enough to instruct Robinson to send for the police and lock the house until they arrived.

Attempted assassination of Secretary of State William H. Seward, Sr.

Almost simultaneously with the attack on Secretary of State Seward, Booth had mortally wounded President Lincoln at Ford's Theatre. Atzerodt, however, decided not to go through with the attack on Vice President Johnson. When Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Navy Secretary Gideon Welles hurried to Seward's home to find out what had happened, they found blood everywhere.

All five men injured that night at the Seward home survived. Powell was captured the next day at the boarding house of Mary Surratt. He was hanged on 7 July 1865, along with Herold, Atzerodt, and Surratt, convicted as conspirators in the Lincoln assassination. Their deaths occurred only weeks after that of Seward's wife Frances, who never recovered from the shock of the assassination attempt.

Booth fled on horseback to Southern Maryland; twelve days later on 26 April 1865, at a farm in rural Northern Virginia, he was tracked down sheltered in a barn. Booth's companion David Herold surrendered, but Booth maintained a standoff. After the authorities set the barn ablaze, Union soldier Boston Corbett fatally shot Booth in the neck. Paralyzed, he died a few hours later.

Life after Civil War

Brigadier General William H. Seward, Jr. resigned his commission from the Union Army on 1 June 1865. A banker before the war, General Seward returned to a successful career in banking after his time in the military. He followed politics, supported charitable causes, and served as a director for a number of corporations. In addition, he participated in historical and patriotic societies until his death in 1920 -- over 50 years the battle that saved Washington, directly affected the outcome of the Civil War, and likely changed the history of the nation.

Death of Brigadier General William H. Seward, Jr.

William Henry Seward Jr. died in Auburn, New York, on 26 April 1920, at the age of 80. He is buried in Auburn's Fort Hill Cemetery next to his father.

Gravestone of Brigadier General William H. Seward, Jr.

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (Confederate)

Rooney, so nicknamed to distinguish him for his cousin and contemporary Fitzhugh Lee of “Clermont,” Fairfax County, was the second son of Robert E. Lee. Rooney Lee's mother, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, was the only surviving child of George Washington Parke Custis and Mary Lee Fitzhugh. George was the grandson of Martha Dandridge and step-grandson of President George Washington. Rooney was one of the liveliest and most likable of the Lee children. Perhaps having the most illustrious career of any of the three Lee sons, Rooney grew up to be a planter, a Confederate cavalry General in the American Civil War, and later a Democratic Congressman from Virginia.

William Henry Fitzhugh “Rooney” Lee was born in Arlington House, Virginia on 31 May 1837. Rooney's adventures during the 1850s kept him away from Arlington much of the time. He entered Harvard in 1854, one of the three Virginians at the school. At Harvard, he was popular and quickly fell in with Boston society. He demonstrated his athletic prowess, pulling an oar on the Harvard crew. However, Rooney did not remain at Harvard to graduate.

In 1857, with the aid of General Winfield Scott, Rooney Lee secured a commission and fought in the campaign of 1858 against the Mormons. When the fighting was over, he became bored and by 1859 had given up the army and married Charlotte Wickham. Rooney and Charlotte settled down to farm the ‘White House’, the estate on the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, Virginia he had inherited from his grandfather, George Washington Parke Custis.

Civil War Service

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Lee was commissioned as a captain in the Confederate Army cavalry and was soon promoted to major. He initially served as a cavalry commander for Brigadier General William Loring in the mountains of western Virginia during his father's Western Virginia Campaign. Loring's forces were transferred to the lower Shenandoah Valley and the command of Stonewall Jackson in late 1861 and occupied the town of Romney in early 1862.

Rooney Lee was soon after assigned to the command of Major General J.E.B. Stuart, who was leading the cavalry forces for Joseph E. Johnston's Army of Northern Virginia, in the Peninsula Campaign. After joining Stuart, Rooney Lee's regiment participated in Stuart's first ride-around the Union army, as well as the subsequent Seven Days Battles around Richmond.

During the Northern Virginia Campaign, Rooney played a leading role in J.E.B. Stuart's well-crafted attack on General John Pope's supply base at Catlett's Station on 22 August 1862, capturing a paymaster's safe full of Yankee greenbacks. His cavalry regiment was assigned to the brigade of Brigadier General Fitzhugh Lee, his cousin, for the Maryland Campaign. Following the Battle of South Mountain, Rooney Lee was knocked unconscious after a horse fell from under him, and was unable to participate in the Battle of Antietam.

Upon his recovery, Rooney Lee temporarily commanded Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry brigade in Stuart's Chambersburg Raid; his conduct earning him promotion to brigadier general. He then commanded the 3rd Brigade of Stuart's Cavalry Division at the Battles of Fredericksburg. During the Battle of Chancellorsville the following year, Lee was detached from Stuart's cavalry to defend against Stoneman's 1863 Raid.

Battlefield marker featuring Confederate Brigadier General Rooney Lee

Rooney was captured by Union troops at his wife's family home in June 1863, while he was there nursing a thigh wound sustained at the Battle of Brandy Station. He was taken to Fort Lafayette, New York as a prisoner of war and spent eight months there before returning to the Confederate Army in an exchange for Union Brigadier General Neal S. Dow.

In April 1864, Rooney Lee was promoted to major general and given command of a division in the Cavalry Corps during the battles of The Wilderness; Todd's Tavern; Spotsylvania Court House; and North Anna in the Overland Campaign.

With the death of Jeb Stuart, Rooney Lee's role increased. Lee's cavalry division patrolled the extreme right of the Confederate lines during the Siege of Petersburg, defending against the Wilson-Kautz Raid at Staunton River Bridge, Sappony Church and First Ream's Station. His division was then sent north to briefly aid in the defense of Richmond at the Second Battle of Deep Bottom, before supporting General Wade Hampton III's Beefsteak Raid, and then returning to Petersburg for the Battle of Boydton Plank Road.

By the last year of the war, Rooney Lee had risen to second-in-command of the Confederate cavalry in Virginia; General Hampton having been transferred to South Carolina to raise troops, and Lee's cousin, Fitzhugh, promoted to overall command. Rooney Lee's cavalry division screened the Confederate evacuation of Petersburg, notably at the Battle of Namozine Church during the Appomattox Campaign.

Rooney Lee surrendered along with his father at Appomattox Court House with only 300 officers and men, one-tenth the size of the command during the Petersburg Campaign.

During the Civil War, Rooney tragically lost his young wife (Charlotte) and both of their children (Robert and Charlotte).

Life after Civil War

After the Civil War, Rooney Lee found his ‘White House” and been destroyed by Union forces, but he rebuilt it and returned to a life of farming. In 1867, he married Mary Tabb Bolling and they eventually had several children.

In 1875, Rooney was elected to the Virginia Senate, serving until 1878. He was elected as a Democrat to the United States House of Representatives in 1887. He served in the House until his death in 1891.

Death of Confederate Major General ‘Rooney’ Lee

Major General William Henry Fitzhugh ‘Rooney’ Lee died at his Ravensworth Plantation in Fairfax County, Virginia on 15 October 1891. He is interred in the University Chapel at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, with his parents and siblings.

Confederate Major General ‘Rooney’ Lee’s grave marker inside University Chapel

Felix H. Robertson

Felix Huston Robertson (Confederate)

Felix Huston Robertson was the only Texas-born general officer to serve the Confederacy. Robertson was also a harsh disciplinarian whose savage punishments and Indian-like features earned him the sobriquet ‘Comanche Robertson’.

Felix Huston Robertson (son of Jerome Bonaparte Robertson and Mary Cummins) was born on 9 March 1839, at Washington-on-the-Brazos, Texas. He attended Baylor University and was appointed to West Point in 1857, but he resigned on 29 January 1861 in order to offer his services to the Confederacy. It should be noted that Felix’s father (Jerome B. Robertson) also served in the Confederate Army and rose to the rank of brigadier general.

Civil War Service

Felix H. Robertson rose rapidly in the Confederate Army. Commissioned a second lieutenant of artillery on 9 March 1861, he participated in the reduction of Fort Sumter before joining the staff of General A. H. Gladden at Pensacola, Florida.

Considered by many of his superiors to be "an able and accomplished artillery officer," Robertson, who had been named captain in charge of an Alabama battery, fought with workmanlike efficiency at Shiloh. At Murfreesboro his controversial but nonetheless courageous performance under fire was noticed by General Braxton Bragg, then commanding the Army of Tennessee. As a reward for his services and because of his personal loyalty to Bragg, Robertson was promoted to the rank of major and given command of the artillery reserves.

At Chickamauga, Felix was in heavy action near his father. Amazingly, both father and son survived 3 days of fierce fighting in which claimed over 18,000 Confederate causalities. After Chickamauga, Felix was promoted to lieutenant colonel and given charge of General Joseph Wheeler's cavalry-corps artillery, which he led during the 1864 Atlanta campaign.

On 26 July 1864, Robertson was appointed brigadier general. After serving as General Wheeler's chief of staff, he commanded a brigade and then a small division. A severe wound inflicted on 29 November 1864, at Buckhead Creek near Augusta, Georgia, ended Robertson's active service.

Robertson’s military career, despite his rapid advancement, was not without controversy. He was often an unwilling subordinate, and his loyalty to General Bragg sometimes caused friction with other officers. The most controversial incident of his military tenure occurred in the southwestern Virginia hamlet of Saltville. There, on 3 October 1864, troops under Robertson's command killed well over 100 wounded, mostly black, survivors of a Union attack that had occurred the previous day.

Memorial plaque to 5th and 6th U.S. Colored Cavalry

His conduct was such that when General Robert E. Lee learned of it he communicated to General John C. Breckinridge his dismay "that a general officer should have been guilty of the crime you mention" and instructed Breckinridge to "prefer charges against him and bring him to trial." Though Robertson was never charged with any crime, one of his subordinate officers (Champ Ferguson) was hanged for murder. As a result of this incident, the Confederate Senate refused to ‘officially’ confirm Felix H. Robertson to the rank of brigadier general. His nomination to that rank was rejected on 22 February 1865.

Life after Civil War

After the war Robertson returned to Texas and made his permanent residence in Waco. He read law and soon became a member of the State Bar of Texas.

With his father (Brigadier General Jerome B. Robertson), Felix invested in railroads and real estate. Felix Robertson was an enthusiastic member of the United Confederate Veterans and served as the commander of the Texas Division in 1911.

Robertson was married twice; his first wife was Sarah Davis, whom he wed in 1864. After she died, he married Elizabeth Dwyer, in 1892.

Death of Confederate Brigadier General Felix H. Robertson

At the time of his death in Waco on 20 April 1928, Felix H. Robertson was the last surviving general of the Confederacy. He was 88 years old when he died. Felix is buried next to his father in Oakwood Cemetery in Waco, Texas.

Gravestone of Confederate Brigadier General Felix H. Robertson

Stephen D. Ramseur

Stephen Dodson Ramseur (Confederate)

Stephen D. Ramseur from North Carolina served briefly as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Artillery before resigning his commission and then donning the Confederate gray. At one point, Ramseur was reportedly the youngest major general in the Confederate Army.

Stephen Dodson Ramseur (son of Jacob Able Ramseur and Lucy Mayfield Dodson) was born on 13 May 1837 in Lincolnton, North Carolina. Ramseur attended Davidson College, where he studied mathematics under Daniel Harvey Hill, another future Confederate general. At Davidson College, D. H. Hill encouraged him to apply to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He was an excellent student, graduating 14 out of 41 cadets in 1860 -- the last West Point graduating class before the Civil War.

Civil War Service

Ramseur started out in the Confederate Army as an artillery captain in the Ellis Light Infantry, but his superiors soon promoted him to colonel of the 49th North Carolina.

Battle of Malvern Hill

Ramseur served in many campaigns. In 1862, he fought in the Peninsula Campaign and later led his men in the Seven Days’ Battle, in particular Malvern Hill on 31 May 1862.

In October 1862, the young officer was promoted to brigadier general and commanded a brigade in General Robert E. Lee’s Second Corps. Stonewall Jackson was the Corps commander and Ramseur’s immediate superior. As a brigadier general, Ramseur participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg during 11-15 December 1862.

The following year, Ramseur commanded his brigade in the Battle of Chancellorsville and the Battle of Gettysburg. The young general saw intense action throughout 1864. He was in the line of enemy fire at the Battle of the Wilderness, Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Battle of Cold Harbor, Third Winchester, Fisher’s Hill, and Cedar Creek.

After gaining experience in several battles in 1863 and 1864, Ramseur was promoted to major general on 1 June 1864 when he was 27 years old. The Lincolnton native became, writes historian Joe Mobley, the “youngest graduate of West Point to achieve that rank [major general] in Lee’s army.”

Ramseur earned a reputation for being an aggressive fighter. He suffered a bullet in the right arm at Malvern Hill on 31 May 1862); shell fragments in the leg at Fredericksburg during 11-15 December 1862; and a bullet in the right arm at Spotsylvania Court House on 12 May 1864.

Death of Confederate Major General Stephen D. Ramseur

The Wounding of Stephen Ramseur (Artist: James Taylor)

At the Battle of Cedar Creek on 19 October 1864, two horses were shot out from under Major General Ramseur, and when mounting the third, a Union bullet pierced his lungs and lodged in his chest. He was captured and died the next day. Three West Point classmates and Union officers (George Armstrong Custer, Wesley Merritt, and Henry A. DuPont) were beside the Tar Heel’s deathbed during his last hours.

Three West Point classmates were at Ramseur’s side when he died

Stephen D. Ramseur died near Middletown, Virginia, at Sheridan's headquarters in the Belle Grove Plantation. His last words were, "Bear this message to my precious wife -- I die a Christian and hope to meet her in heaven." The day before the battle, word reached Ramseur of the birth of a baby daughter.

Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur is buried near his birthplace, Lincolnton, in St. Luke's Episcopal Cemetery.

Gravestone of Major General Stephen Dodson Ramseur

General Jubal Early's account of Ramseur at Cedar Creek sums up the man and his accomplishments: “Major-General Ramseur fell into the hands of the enemy mortally wounded, and in him not only my command, but the country suffered a heavy loss. He was a most gallant and energetic officer whom no disaster appalled, but his courage and energy seemed to gain new strength in the midst of confusion and disorder. He fell at his post fighting like a lion at bay, and his native State has reason to be proud of his memory.”

Historian Douglas Southall Freeman considered Stephen Dodson Ramseur to be “[one] of the most daring, hardest fighters in the Army.”

The town of the same name in Randolph County is named after the youngest major general in General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

Robert Frederick Hoke

Robert Frederick Hoke (Confederate)

While attending the Kentucky Military Institute in 1853, Robert Frederick Hoke was called home to attend to his mother’s affairs and to take over the management of the family’s cotton mill. Not only did Robert manage the cotton mill, but he founded the first cottonseed oil mill ever built in America. Robert was in the process of developing a large cottonseed oil industry when the Civil War erupted around him in 1861.

Robert Frederick Hoke (son of Michael Hoke and Frances Burton) was born in Lincolnton, North Carolina on 27 May 1837. Robert’s father was a lawyer, orator, and unsuccessful Democratic nominee for Governor of North Carolina in 1844. Michael Hoke died shortly after losing that election. His death "had lasting effects" on Robert Hoke's political viewpoint.

Robert Hoke was educated at the Pleasant Retreat Academy. He next studied at the Kentucky Military Institute. Hoke returned to Lincolnton in 1853, where he managed various family business interests for his widowed mother. Robert managed to graduate from the Kentucky Military Institute in 1854, but did not gain any military experience prior to the outbreak of the Civil War.

Civil War Service

Robert F. Hoke first enlisted in the 1st North Carolina Infantry, where he received a commission as a second lieutenant. After performing well at the Battle of Big Bethel, he received a promotion to major of the Thirty-third North Carolina Infantry on 3 September 1861. On 4 March 1862, his unit was part of the forces opposing Union General Burnside in which Hoke’s Commanding Officer, Colonel Avery was captured. Following Avery’s capture, Major Hoke was successful in extracting the Regiment and saving it from capture. Major Hoke was later elected Colonel for his actions against General Burnside. When Colonel Avery was released from Federal prisoner of war camp and returned to the Thirty-third, Colonel Hoke was reassigned to the Twenty-first North Carolina Infantry as its Commanding Office.

On 13 December 1862, Colonel Hoke, as part of General Gregg’s Brigade, commanded his new Regiment at the battle for Fredericksburg. Overwhelmed by the Federal forces, General Gregg was killed, and Colonel Hoke heroically fought back by reassembling the Brigade, and counter attacking. Colonel Hoke’s men quickly captured the Federal force which, only hours earlier, had overrun the Twenty-first’s original position. Colonel Hoke’s valorous assault against almost overpowering numbers at Fredericksburg won him a promotion to brigadier general on 17 January 1863 and reassignment to the command of “Stonewall” Jackson.

Under General Jackson, Robert F. Hoke was severely wounded in the shoulder at Chancellorsville while on the front line, repelling the Union’s assault. Upon his recovery, General Hoke returned to full duty with Jackson.

Brigadier General Robert F. Hoke, at age 27 was destined to become North Carolina’s most distinguished and decorated Civil War hero. His greatest victory came on 20 April 1864, when his command, in a brilliant move, recaptured the town of Plymouth, taking more than 3,000 Union troops captive, which was the entire Union force stationed at Plymouth.

Historic marker featuring Major General Robert F. Hoke

President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy telegraphed to Hoke his promotion to the rank of major general, this act being the only instance of a promotion made by President Davis on the battlefield. The Confederate Congress and the North Carolina Legislature also passed resolutions extending their thanks to Major General Hoke.

Following his success at Plymouth, Major General Hoke recaptured Washington, North Carolina, crossed the Tar River at Greenville and the Trent River at Trenton en route to launch an assault on New Bern when he received orders to return to the defense of Richmond. Arriving at Richmond in time to place his Brigade between Union General Butler and the Confederate Capital, Major General Hoke was successful, not only in repelling the Yankee assault on the city, but in bottling up 3,200 of General Butler’s men. So impressive was Hoke’s actions against the Union forces, that General Grant acknowledged General Hoke’s military brilliance. It is reported that General Robert E. Lee selected General Hoke to be his successor should anything happen to Lee’s ability to command.

Major General Hoke and his division were once again sent to North Carolina after the battle, where he participated in the defense of Fort Fisher, the Carolina Campaign, and finally at the Battle of Bentonville, where his gallantry was noted.

Hoke finally surrendered to Union forces with General Joseph E. Johnston in April of 1865, and was pardoned on 1 May 1865.

Life after Civil War

After the war and with his cotton mill business in ruins, Hoke entered in the development of iron mines near Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

On Governor Vance’s recommendation, Hoke was named a director of the North Carolina Car (Railroad) Company. In 1893, he was elected Chairman of the Board of the railroad.

With his success in the war and business, politicians tried to recruit Hoke to office, even offering him the position of governor of the state. He declined, having permanently turned away from politics as a child after his father's death.

Death of Confederate Major General Robert Frederick Hoke

Major General Robert Frederick Hoke died in Raleigh, North Carolina on 3 July 1912. He was buried with full military honors in Raleigh's Oakwood Cemetery.

Gravesite of Confederate Major General Robert Frederick Hoke

Elon Farnsworth

Elon John Farnsworth (Union)

While newly minted Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer was leading his Michigan cavalry brigade to glory at Gettysburg, fellow brigadier Elon J. Farnsworth, himself a native Wolverine, confronted a very different fate. Of the three ‘boy generals’ (Farnsworth, Custer, and Merritt) promoted just days before the battle, Farnsworth would have by far the shortest career as a brigade commander -- a scant four days.

Elon John Farnsworth (son of James Patten Farnsworth and Amelia M. Clough) was born in Green Oak, Michigan on 30 July 1837. Elon’s family moved to Rockton, Illinois in 1854. A member of the Chi Psi Fraternity, Elon was expelled from the University of Michigan following a drinking party in which a classmate died. He joined the U.S. Army in 1857 and served as a civilian forage master in Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston's expedition against rebellious Mormons in Utah.

Civil War Service

When the Civil War broke out, Elon Farnsworth rushed back east to join the 8th Illinois Cavalry, which had been organized and initially led by his uncle (John F. Farnsworth). Rising quickly through the ranks, he took part in some 41 battles and skirmishes before joining George Armstrong Custer and Wesley Merritt on Major General Alfred Pleasonton’s personal staff in the spring of 1863.

Together with George Armstrong Custer and Wesley Merritt, Farnsworth was jumped from captain to brigadier general in one quick step by corps commander Major General Alfred Pleasonton, who had successfully sought the aid of Farnsworth’s uncle, former Republican congressman John F. Farnsworth, in obtaining his own promotion. Twenty-five years of age at the time of his promotion on 29 June 1863, Elon J. Farnsworth, unlike George Armstrong Custer and Wesley Merritt, was not a West Point graduate.

Elon Farnsworth gained this promotion to brigadier general due to his performance at the Battle of Chancellorsville although there is strong evidence that this is not the only thing that got him the promotion. The evidence is present in a letter he wrote to his politician uncle [John F. Farnsworth] in which he says “The general speaks of recommending me for Brig[adier General]. I do not know that I ought to mention it for fear that you will call me an aspiring youth. I am satisfied to serve through this war in the line in my regt as a Capt on Genl Pleasonton’s staff. But if I can do any good anywhere else of course “small favors &c.” Now try and take this into the President, and you can do an immeasurable good.” Shortly after this letter was written Elon Farnsworth would be put in charge of a brigade of cavalry under General Hugh Kilpatrick.

With Custer and Merritt, Farnsworth shared in the Union cavalry’s first true taste of glory at the Battle of Brandy Station, Virginia in June 1863 before heading north to Gettysburg.

After Pickett’s charge at the Battle of Gettysburg, Brigadier General Farnsworth was given the order to charge on the position of Law’s brigade at Big Round Top. This order called by General George Meade was an attempt at creating a diversion so that Lee’s plans would be disclosed. However, all Farnsworth’s charge accomplished was the decimation of his regiment. Farnsworth knew that the charge was certain death and very loudly protested the order at first. The ground that General Kilpatrick ordered Farnsworth to charge was heavily wooded and full of large boulders. These features made a successful Cavalry charge near impossible. Captain Henry C. Parsons, who served under Farnsworth, recounted the moment Farnsworth was given the order. “In a moment, Farnsworth rode up. Kilpatrick impetuously repeated the order. Farnsworth, who was a tall man with military bearing, received the order in silence. It was repeated. Farnsworth spoke with emotion: ‘General, do you mean it? Shall I throw my handful of men over rough ground, through timber, against a brigade of infantry?’” Kilpatrick angrily responded “Do you refuse to obey my orders? If you are afraid to lead the charge, I will lead it.” Once Farnsworth’s honor was called into question he accepted the orders but said “General, if you order the charge I will lead it, but you must take the awful responsibility.” according to Captain Parsons.

The story goes that the argument was so loud that the Confederate infantry at the bottom of the hill could hear it and prepared for Farnsworth’s charge.

Map of Farnsworth’s charge from a sketch map by Captain Henry C. Parsons

Brigadier General Farnsworth broke through the initial line of Confederate infantry but was later killed from a volley fired by the 15th Alabama.

General Farnsworth at Gettysburg (Artist: Gary Guerrero)

William C. Oates was part of the 15th Alabama and recalled the moment when a Confederate soldier approached the mortally wounded Farnsworth. “He approached the dying Yankee, telling him, “Now, you surrender,” figuring he had little choice in the matter, anyway.

Death of Brigadier General Elon J. Farnsworth

There were two different versions among the men as to what happened next. Oates said that the Yankee swore he would not surrender, and he turned his own pistol towards himself and pulled the trigger. Another story among the man said that he killed a Confederate who demanded his surrender and was shot by another.”

Elon John Farnsworth remains as the only federal officer of general rank to be killed behind enemy lines in the Civil War. He is buried in Rockton Township Cemetery in Rockton, Illinois.

Gravesite of Brigadier General Elon John Farnsworth

Brigadier General Elon John Farnsworth is an interesting person in history because despite his incredible bravery, he is largely forgotten. Pickett’s charge is remembered at Gettysburg for the bravery of the men who carried out the suicidal order and yet Farnsworth’s charge is exactly the same situation and it is forgotten. It is a tragedy that Elon Farnsworth and his men are forgotten by history despite his unbelievable courage.

Joseph Wheeler

Joseph Wheeler (Confederate)

Joseph ‘Fighting Joe’ Wheeler was a Confederate military commander and politician. He was a cavalry general in the Confederate States Army in the 1860s during the American Civil War, and then a general in the United States Army during both the Spanish-American and Philippine-American Wars near the turn of the twentieth century. For much of the Civil War, he was the senior cavalry general in the Army of Tennessee and fought in most of its battles in the Western Theater.

Joseph Wheeler (son of Joseph Wheeler and Julia Knox Hull) was born in Augusta, Georgia on 10 September 1836 to a family that had moved from New England. After his mother died and his father lost his fortune, the Wheeler family returned to Connecticut. In his youth, Joseph did not receive regular education. Nevertheless, he earned an appointment from New York to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1854.

After graduating 19th out of 22 from his West Point class in 1859, Joseph Wheeler served with the Mounted Rifles in the Regular Army and participated in campaigns against Indians in Kansas and New Mexico. His career with the U.S. Army, however, was relatively brief.

Civil War Service

When southern states began seceding from the Union in 1860 and 1861, Joseph Wheeler decided to side with the newly formed Confederacy. He resigned his commission from the U.S. Army on 27 February 1861 and joined the Confederate Army.

Initially commissioned as a first lieutenant of artillery on 3 April 1861, Wheeler was appointed colonel of the 19th Alabama Infantry on 4 September 1861 and led the regiment at Shiloh in April 1862. Shortly after the battle, Major General Braxton Bragg made Wheeler the chief of cavalry of the Army of Mississippi.

On 30 October 1862, Wheeler was promoted to brigadier general when he was 26 years old. He was later promoted to major general on 20 January 1863 and to lieutenant general on 28 February 1865 at the age of 28.

One of the most dramatic and decisive cavalry clashes of the American Civil War occurred at Shelbyville, Tennessee on 27 June 1863. The battle was part of Union Major General William Rosecrans’ Tullahoma offensive. Wheeler was sent to the area to aggravate Union troops. When they were close to being surrounded and captured, Wheeler had to escape to Tullahoma and Chattanooga. General Nathan Bedford Forrest’s cavalry was coming from the west, in Columbia, but wasn’t coming on time. As it happens, that year was the rainiest, wettest, muddiest year. There was mud and trouble, and something blocked the bridge. But Wheeler was determined not to get caught. So, he jumped his horse and numerous others of his cavalry and they escaped by fording the river. That event was depicted in Harper’s Weekly magazine and became one of the many legends of America’s Civil War.

Wheeler’s famous leap near Shelbyville, Tennessee (Harper’s Weekly)

For much of the Civil War, Wheeler was almost constantly engaged in battle. He participated in hundreds of battles and skirmishes, including Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, was wounded three times, and had sixteen horses shot from under him. In addition, thirty-six staff officers fell while serving at Wheeler’s side.

During the Atlanta campaign, Wheeler conducted several effective raids against the Union lines of communication. After Atlanta, however, Wheeler’s command was criticized for lacking discipline, and Wheeler was replaced by Lieutenant General Wade Hampton.

While attempting to cover Confederate President Jefferson Davis's flight south and west in May 1865, Wheeler was captured at Conyer's Station just east of Atlanta. He had intended to reach the Trans-Mississippi and General Edmund Kirby Smith, still resisting out west, and had with him three officers from his staff and 11 privates when he was taken. Wheeler was imprisoned for two months, first at Fort Monroe and then in solitary confinement at Fort Delaware, where he was paroled on 8 June 1865.

Life after Civil War

During Reconstruction, Wheeler was engaged in a number of activities. He was a merchant in New Orleans for a brief period before eventually settling in Alabama. He later became a cotton grower, lawyer, and politician. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1881 and eventually served eight terms in the House of Representatives. Wheeler was also active in efforts to reintegrate the former Confederate states into the Union.

Major General Wheeler (3rd from left) with Lieutenant Colonel Teddy Roosevelt (far right)

When war broke out between the U.S. and Spain in 1898, President McKinley appointed “Fightin’ Joe” Wheeler a major general of volunteers. Wheeler, then at the age of 62, was given command of a dismounted cavalry division in V Corps, the unit assigned to undertake the invasion of Cuba.

While Wheeler’s service in Cuba was relatively brief, he played an important role in the fighting shortly after American forces landed on 20 June 1898. After coming ashore at Daiquiri, Wheeler pushed his forces forward toward the coastal village of Siboney, where additional landings were to take place. There, he learned from Cuban rebels that Spanish forces held the town of Las Guasimas, a strategic point three miles inland and along the road to Santiago.

Wheeler decided to attack. On the morning of 24 June 1898, Wheeler’s troops, after advancing on narrow and tangled trails, were met with heavy volleys of rifle fire, forcing Wheeler to call for reinforcements. However, just as they arrived, the Spanish began to retreat towards Santiago. As the Spaniards began to retire, Wheeler, always an excitable soldier, was allegedly reported to have cried out, “We got the damn Yankees on the run!” proving that old sentiments die hard. While the battle was brief and casualties light, it was an important engagement because it eliminated the threat of enemy troops interfering with landing operations and cleared the road to Santiago.

After Las Guasimas, Wheeler, like many others, fell ill from the tropical diseases ravaging American troops. Despite his condition, Wheeler participated in the battle for San Juan Hill and provided advice to Major General Shafter, commander of U.S. forces in Cuba, during the siege of Santiago.

After the Spanish-American War, Wheeler commanded Camp Wikoff, a convalescent and demobilization center at Montauk Point on Long Island, New York. On 16 June 1900, Wheeler was commissioned a brigadier general in the Regular Army, but resigned a few months later on 10 September 1900.

Death of Brigadier General Joseph Wheeler

After a prolonged illness, Brigadier General Joseph Wheeler died in Brooklyn, New York on 25 January 1906, at the age of 69. Wheeler previously held the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate army during the Civil War. He is one of only two former Confederate officers buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Gravesite of Brigadier General Joseph Wheeler at Arlington National Cemetery

In 2020, Democrat leaders renewed efforts to have 11 Confederate-related statues [including former Congressman General Joseph Wheeler] removed from the U.S. Capitol, saying the symbols are archaic and divisive.

Statue of General Wheeler in U.S. Capitol

“The statues in the Capitol should embody our highest ideals as Americans, expressing who we are and who we aspire to be as a nation. Monuments to men who advocated cruelty and barbarism to achieve such a plainly racist end are a grotesque affront to these ideals,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said on 12 June 2020.

Joseph Wheeler’s history is complex and includes time in both the Confederate and U.S. Army as well as 20 years in the U.S. House of Representatives after the Civil War. As previously mentioned, Wheeler was also active in efforts to reintegrate the former Confederate states into the Union.

President Andrew Johnson issuing pardon for Confederate veterans

It should be noted that shortly after taking office in 1865, President Andrew Johnson issued a pardon for numerous Confederate soldiers which excluded high ranking officials.

President Andrew Johnson issued blanket pardon for all persons engaged in the late rebellion

Three years later, President Johnson issued a blanket pardon for all Confederate veterans and other Confederate office holders (including Confederate President Jefferson Davis) of the U.S. Civil War on 25 December 1868. President Johnson was eager to get the South back into normal operation, allowing the former Confederate States to hold elections and re-form their governments.

It should also be noted that the concept of a National Statuary Hall area of the U.S. Capitol originated in the middle 19th century, even before the completion of the present House wing in 1857. At that time, the House of Representatives moved into its new larger chamber and the old vacant chamber became a thoroughfare between the Rotunda and the House wing. Suggestions for the use of the chamber were made as early as 1853 by Gouverneur Kemble, a former member of the House, who pressed for its use as a gallery of historical paintings. The space between the columns seemed too limited for this purpose, but it was well suited for the display of busts and statuary.

On 19 April 1864, Representative Justin S. Morrill asked: "To what end more useful or grand, and at the same time simple and inexpensive, can we devote it [the Chamber] than to ordain that it shall be set apart for the reception of such statuary as each State shall elect to be deserving of in this lasting commemoration?" His proposal to create a National Statuary Hall became law on 2 July 1864 (sec. 1814 of the Revised Statutes). It provides that: ...the President is hereby authorized to invite each and all the States to provide and furnish statues, in marble or bronze, not exceeding two in number for each State, of deceased persons who have been citizens thereof, and illustrious for their historic renown or for distinguished civic or military services such as each State may deem to be worthy of this national commemoration; and when so furnished the same shall be placed in the Old Hall of the House of Representatives, in the Capitol of the United States, which is set apart, or so much thereof as may be necessary, as a national statuary hall for the purpose herein indicated.

Each statue is the gift of a state, not of an individual or group of citizens. Proceedings for the donation of a statue usually begin in the state legislature with the enactment of a resolution that names the citizen to be commemorated and cites his or her qualifications, specifies a committee or commission to represent the state in selecting the sculptor, and provides for a method of obtaining the necessary funds to carry the resolution into effect. When the donated statue arrives at the Capitol, it is placed in a location specified by the Joint Committee on the Library.

According to legislation enacted in 2000, any state can request a replacement statue with a resolution approved by both the state’s legislature and its governor.

In June 2021, the House of Representatives voted to remove all Confederate statues from public display in the U.S. Capitol. The House passed the measure 285-120. All Democratic members supported the legislation; all 'no' votes came from Republican members. The Senate needed all Democrats and ten Republicans to vote ‘yes’ in order to pass the legislation. That did not happen.

Four of the Confederate statues (Edmund Smith, Edward White, James George, Wade Hampton III) are now in the Capitol Visitors Center. John Kenna is in the Hall of Columns. Robert E. Lee and John C. Calhoun have been moved to the crypt. But five -- Jefferson Davis, Uriah Rose, Alexander Stephens, Zebulon Vance and Joseph Wheeler -- remain on display in National Statuary Hall.

Thomas Benton Smith

Thomas Benton Smith (Confederate)

"At the head of this regiment, as he appeared in 1862, he was the physical embodiment of a magnificent soldier, with mental attainments and inclination that made him admired and respected by all who came in personal contact with him. Splendidly built, on grand proportions, a little over six feet tall, muscular, erect as an Indian, of a somewhat dark complexion, deep gray eyes, quiet and courteous in demeanor, cool, calm, and collected on all occasions, whether in genial conversation or in the thickest storm of shot and shell, with a most kindly interest in every man of his command, at all times approachable by any subaltern or private in the line, yet commanding the respect and esteem of those superior to him in military rank, he was the beau ideal of a soldier." -- Deering J. Roberts in his biographical sketch of Thomas Benton Smith, published in 1904 in A History of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment, C.S.A.

Thomas Benton Smith (son of James Meacham Smith and Martha Page) was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee, near the Triune community, on February 24, 1838. Smith’s father, James M. Smith, was a veteran of the War of 1812, and worked as a carpenter who made and sold cotton gins. They lived in a log house consisting of two rooms and a side porch. Thomas attended the local schools before enrolling in the Western Military Institute in Nashville. At age 15, Thomas received a patent for a ‘locomotive pilot’ (‘cow catcher’ attached to front of train). He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, but resigned and returned home. Thomas subsequently took a position working for the Nashville & Decatur Railroad.

Civil War Service

At the outbreak of the Civil War, 23 year-old Thomas Benton Smith enlisted in the Zollicoffer Guards, of the 20th Tennessee Regiment, and was sworn in at Triune on 17 May 1861. Thomas’ brother, John M. Smith, also joined the Confederate forces. As members of Company B, under Colonel Joel Battle, Thomas and his brother entered the service as privates. Thomas was soon made its second lieutenant.

Thomas Benton Smith first saw action in January, 1862 at the Battle of Fishing Creek. The Confederate forces were defeated and their nearsighted commander, General Felix Zollicoffer, accidentally rode into Federal lines where he was summarily shot to death.

At the battle of Shiloh, the regiment lost 187 killed and wounded out of approximately 400 men. Their colonel, Joel Battle, was captured on the second day and imprisoned. When the company regrouped at Corinth, Mississippi, the popular Thomas Benton Smith was elected Colonel. The regiment was in John C. Breckenridge’s Division and spent the remainder of the summer and fall campaigning in Mississippi and Louisiana before returning to Tennessee, in the fall of 1862.

On 31 December 1862, Colonel Smith led his men at Murfreesboro. W. J. McMurray, in his regimental history of the 20th Tennessee, recalled: “We formed in an open field, and moved forward under heavy shelling until we struck a picket fence. Only the 20th Tennessee Regiment came into contact with that fence, when Colonel T. B. Smith gave the command, ‘By the right flank, tear down that picket fence, March!’ This command caused a great deal of laughter among the boys of his Regiment, but it was the last laugh that many of these brave fellows ever had.”

Confusion ensued when Colonel Smith was seriously wounded, taking a bullet through the breast and left arm, and also due to the death of the color bearer, Smith’s only brother, John M. Smith. Command devolved to Major Fred Claybrooke, who soon rallied the regiment. Murfreesboro was one of the bloodiest battles of the war, with both sides suffering approximately twenty-five percent casualties. Though the Confederates fought valiantly, they were forced to retreat southward to Tullahoma, Tennessee.

While quartered in Tullahoma, the 20th Tennessee was presented with a flag made by the wife of General Breckenridge and other Kentucky ladies. The red and white flag was composed of fabric from Mrs. Breckenridge’s wedding dress. In an elaborate ceremony, the 20th Tennessee was given the flag in front of the entire division.

General, Braxton Bragg, commander of the Army of Tennessee, was flanked out of middle Tennessee in June 1863. The army would not stop its rearward movement until September 1863, just south of Chattanooga. On 19 September 1863, the Confederates attacked the Federal army, commanded by General William Rosecrans at the Battle of Chickamauga … the largest Confederate victory of the Civil War.

According to Dr. William J. McMurray, who was standing near Colonel Smith, on the first day of the battle General Bate rode up on his sorrel and said, “Now Smith, now, Smith, I want you to sail on those fellows like you were a wildcat.” Smith gave the command and the brigade moved as one. The 20th Tennessee went into the battle with 140 men. Of these, 98 were either killed or wounded.

Colonel Smith was wounded in the arm at Chickamauga, but continued on to fight at Missionary Ridge. When the brigade commander, Brigadier General B. C. Tyler, was wounded, Thomas Benton Smith assumed command of the brigade, known as Tyler’s Brigade, and led it until the Battle of Atlanta.

On 29 July 1864, Smith received his commission from Richmond as brigadier general, making him the youngest brigadier in the Army of Tennessee. During his first action as a general officer on the extreme left of the Confederate flank at the Battle of Utoy Creek, Smith personally led his brigade in a charge against attacking Union soldiers capturing some 30 Union soldiers and the colors of the 8th Tennessee Infantry and 112th Illinois Infantry. The unit was cited by his corps commander, Lieutenant General Stephen D. Lee, to whom Bates Division was attached for duty. Brigadier General Smith led his brigade in an assault at the Battle of Jonesborough, however the terrific fire from the Federal entrenched troops required his brigade to withdraw to a gully for protection during the assault on 30 August 1864 and they were unable to dislodge the Federal Army of the Tennessee.

His military career ended at the Battle of Nashville on 16 December 1864. Brigadier General Smith surrendered during the battle. After Smith had surrendered and been disarmed, Union Colonel William L. McMillen, whose brigade had suffered heavily in an engagement with Smith's Brigade, reportedly berated and then ‘wantonly and repeatedly’ attacked the Confederate general, now a disarmed prisoner, with Smith's own sword. Smith's resultant brain injuries were so severe that for a time it was feared he would not live.

Rout of Confederate forces at Nashville (Kurz & Allison print)

Confederate General William B. Bate in his report stated, "General T. B. Smith, commanding Tyler's brigade, and Finley's, bore themselves with heroic courage both through good and evil fortune, always executing orders with zeal and alacrity, and bearing themselves in the face of the enemy as became reputations which each had heretofore bravely won."

Held at Johnson's Island in Ohio and later at Fort Warren in Massachusetts, Brigadier General Thomas Benton Smith was not released until 24 July 1865.

Life after Civil War

Returning to Nashville, Thomas Benton Smith resumed his employment with the railroad, apparently living as normal a life as possible in those turbulent years immediately following the end of the Civil War. He even ran for a seat in the U. S. Congress in 1870, but lost the election. But appearances were deceptive, and his remarkable recovery from his injuries proved only temporary. Periods of intense clinical depression came upon him in closer and closer intervals and finally robbed him of his ability to live independently.

On a winter day in 1876, former Confederate Brigadier General Thomas Benton Smith armed himself with a bow and arrows, mounted a horse, and rode near Nashville “attacking everyone he met.” Among the 37-year-old veteran’s victims was his cousin, struck in the leg with a steel-tipped arrow. Imagining himself to be the ‘Indian Emperor of America’, Smith fled into the hills around the city, where he finally was captured with “great difficulty” and jailed. He was then admitted to the Tennessee state asylum, an institution more recently known as Central State Psychiatric Hospital.

From that point forward the days and years passed slowly for Thomas Benton Smith. A few attempts to resume independent living failed. However, even in those dire and depressing circumstances, he did not forget the brave men he had once commanded, nor did they forget him. Periodic reunions of the old Twentieth Tennessee Regiment were held, and Smith participated in them as fully as he was able.

More years passed, and with them most of his old comrades, including his faithful friend Thomas W. Shumate. Shumate was a junior lieutenant and acting adjutant of the 20th Tennessee who had been captured with Smith on Shy's Hill. Shumate died in the spring of 1915.

Death of Confederate Brigadier General Thomas Benton Smith

Among the last survivors of former Confederate generals, death by heart failure finally released Thomas Benton Smith from his earthly bondage on 21 May 1923.

In Nashville, the general’s passing was a major event, meriting Page 1 coverage in the newspaper. A service with military honors was held for Smith at the state capitol. Facing each other, two solemn guardsmen stood at parade rest near his casket there, “the gleam of their sky-pointed bayonets creating a shaft of light through the darkness.” The bier was draped with two flags -- the Stars and Stripes and Stars and Bars. Confederate veterans served as honorary pallbearers.

Grave marker of Confederate Brigadier General Thomas Benton Smith

Brigadier General Thomas Benton Smith now rests with his former comrades in the Confederate Circle of Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.

Micah Jenkins

Micah Jenkins (Confederate)

The Confederate flank attack through the Spotsylvania Wilderness in May 1864 had been an overwhelming success, surprising the Federal army and sending them into chaotic retreat. Now, Lieutenant General Longstreet wanted to push his advantage. His men, weary from their long morning march and the fight that followed, would still do anything he asked of them even though many of them were bogged down and lost in the thick, confusing foliage. Longstreet rode with his staff officers out ahead of his men, looking for a way to continue the attack. But from the woods along the road, gunfire erupted. Confused Confederates had opened on the party of horsemen, not realizing they were friends. Bullets tore through the general’s party including Brigadier General Jenkins.

Micah Jenkins (son of John Jenkins and Elizabeth Grimball Clark) was born on Edisto Island, South Carolina on 1 December 1835. He graduated first in his class from the South Carolina Military Academy (now called The Citadel) in 1854. After graduation, Jenkins and fellow graduate Asbury Coward founded the King’s Mountain Military Academy. As fighting erupted in April 1861, Jenkins and Coward closed the King’s Mountain Military Academy and joined the Confederate Army.

Civil War Service

Micah Jenkins recruited a company of the 5th South Carolina Infantry Regiment and was elected as colonel on 13 April 1861. He fought under David R. Jones at the First Battle of Bull Run and later under General Richard H. Anderson’s brigade. During the April 1862 reorganization of the army, Jenkins retained his command of the 5th South Carolina.

Colonel Micah Jenkins in 5th South Carolina Infantry Regiment

At the Battle of Seven Pines, Anderson was temporarily put in division command while Jenkins got brigade command (which included the 5th South Carolina, the 6th South Carolina, and the Palmetto Sharpshooters). He led it with distinction in that battle, being wounded in the knee. Also during that year Jenkins was colonel of the Palmetto Sharpshooters.

Considered one of the war's "boy generals", he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on 22 July 1862, at the age of 26.

Brigadier General Jenkins was wounded at the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862, this time in the shoulder and chest. Consequently, Jenkins was absent from the Army of Northern Virginia when it fought the Battle of Antietam.

Jenkins' brigade served in the division of Major General George Pickett at the Battle of Fredericksburg, although it was not engaged. Pickett's division then participated in the campaign of Lieutenant General James Longstreet against Suffolk, Virginia in 1863, but Jenkins' brigade was retained near Richmond, Virginia, missing the Battle of Gettysburg.

Jenkins and his brigade went with Hood's Division of the First Corps to Tennessee in the fall of 1863, and participated in the second day's fighting of the Battle of Chickamauga on 20 September 1863. When division commander Major General John Bell Hood was elevated to lead a corps; a bitter rivalry broke out over his succession. Brigadier General Evander Law had been in the division since it was created and had already commanded it on several occasions, including at Gettysburg and Chickamauga. However Jenkins was the senior officer, being promoted three months earlier, and with support of Longstreet took command. The internal quarrel greatly hindered the unit's efficiency in late 1863. When the corps returned to the Army of Northern Virginia in early 1864, this issue was resolved when Brigadier General Charles W. Field, who was senior to both, was assigned to the division, given command, and promoted to Major General.

On 16 January 1864, Brigadier General Jenkins led his brigade to victory in the small Battle of Kimbrough's Crossroads against Federal cavalry.

Death of Confederate Brigadier General Micah Jenkins

During the Battle of the Wilderness in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, Brigadier General Jenkins was riding ahead of his men on a reconnaissance with Lieutenant General Longstreet when both were struck down by friendly fire on 6 May 1864.

Longstreet’s party in the Wilderness

This was almost in the same location and circumstances as ‘Stonewall’ Jackson during the Battle of Chancellorsville. While suffering with delirium from the mini ball lodged in his brain, Jenkins urged his men to press forward. Although Longstreet survived, Jenkins died of his head wound a few hours later.

Brigadier General Micah Jenkins is buried in Magnolia Cemetery, Charleston, South Carolina.

Gravesite of Confederate Brigadier General Micah Jenkins

Fitzhugh Lee

Fitzhugh Lee (Confederate)

Fitzhugh Lee was a Confederate cavalry general in the American Civil War, the 40th Governor of Virginia, diplomat, and United States Army general in the Spanish-American War. He was the nephew of General Robert E. Lee and the paternal grandson of Henry ‘Light Horse Harry’ Lee.

Fitzhugh Lee (son of Sydney Smith Lee and Anna Maria Mason) was born in Clermont, Fairfax County, Virginia on 19 November 1835. Fitzhugh’s father served under Commodore Perry and rose to the rank of Captain.

Graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1856, Fitzhugh Lee was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd Cavalry Regiment (later redesignated the 5th Cavalry Regiment), which was commanded by Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, and in which his uncle, Robert E. Lee, was lieutenant colonel. As a cavalryman, Fitzhugh Lee distinguished himself by his gallant conduct in actions against the Comanches in Texas and was severely wounded in a fight in Nescutunga, Texas in May 1859. In May 1860, he was appointed instructor of cavalry tactics at the United States Military Academy but resigned his commission upon the declared secession of Virginia.

Civil War Service

Fitzhugh Lee entered the Confederate Army as a lieutenant in the cavalry and served as a staff officer under General Richard S. Ewell. Within a short time he transferred to command of the 1st Virginia Cavalry under Major General J.E.B. Stuart.

At the age of twenty-seven, Fitzhugh Lee was promoted to brigadier general on 24 July 1862. As a cavalry brigade commander, Lee performed well in the Maryland Campaign, covering the Confederate infantry's withdrawal from South Mountain, delaying the Union Army advance to Sharpsburg, Maryland, before the Battle of Antietam, and covering the army's recrossing of the Potomac River into Virginia.

On 17 March 1863, Brigadier General Lee conducted the cavalry action of Kelly's Ford with skill and success, where his 400 troopers captured 150 men and horses with a loss of only 14 men.

In the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, Brigadier General Lee's reconnaissance found that the Union Army's right flank was "in the air", which allowed the successful flanking attack by Major General ‘Stonewall’ Jackson.

During the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, Brigadier General Lee’s brigade fought unsuccessfully in the action at East Cavalry Field. J.E.B. Stuart's report singled out no officer in his command for praise except Fitz Lee, who he said was "one of the finest cavalry leaders on the continent, and richly [entitled] to promotion."

Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863

Because Stuart singled out Fitzhugh Lee for his leadership during the Gettysburg Campaign, Confederate officials promoted him to major general on 3 August 1863. Five weeks later, General Robert E. Lee reorganized the Army of Northern Virginia, elevating the cavalry to corps status under J.E.B. Stuart’s command. He selected his nephew (Fitzhugh Lee) and Major General Wade Hampton to lead the new corps’ two divisions.

Major General Fitzhugh Lee fought in the Shenandoah Valley and had three horses shot from under him before he was severely wounded in the thigh during the Third Battle of Winchester on 19 September 1864.

As the Civil War neared an end and following the death of J.E.B. Stuart, Fitzhugh Lee became General Robert E. Lee's cavalry corps commander on 11 February 1865.

Fitzhugh Lee’s tenure as a corps commander was short-lived. On 9 April 1865, General Robert E. Lee surrendered most of his army to General Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. The cavalry corps was still attempting to cut its way through the Union forces around Appomattox when Fitzhugh Lee learned that his uncle’s capitulation included his troopers. Consequently, Fitzhugh Lee returned to Appomattox Court House in time to stack arms for the formal ceremony on 12 April 1865.

Life after Civil War

Following the Civil War, Fitzhugh Lee returned to farming on his estate in Stafford County, Virginia. As with other Confederate officers, the federal government eventually pardoned him for taking part in the rebellion.

As Fitzhugh Lee grew older, he became active in politics as a member of the Democratic Party. In 1885, Virginia voters elected him as the state’s governor. Serving from January 1, 1886, to January 1, 1890, Lee encouraged and supported legislative initiatives to improve Virginia’s public programs, especially education.

Following his term as governor, Fitzhugh Lee made an unsuccessful bid for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 1893. Out of public office, he spent the next year completing a biography of General Robert E. Lee that he published in 1894.

After Fitzhugh Lee briefly served as a federal tax collector, U.S. President (and fellow Democratic Party member) Grover Cleveland offered him an appointment as Consul-General to Havana, Cuba on 10 April 1896. Fitzhugh Lee accepted the position and apparently performed well because Republican President William McKinley retained him after succeeding Cleveland in 1897. During Lee’s tenure, he protected American interests on the island as Cuban separatists pressed for independence from Spain.

When the Spanish-American War was imminent, Fitzhugh Lee joined the U.S. Volunteer Army, entering as a major general in command of the VII Corps. Although his unit saw no combat, they were part of the occupation force that remained in Cuba to establish order and protect American interests after the war.

Fitzhugh Lee (center) was Major General of U.S. Volunteers during Spanish-American War

Fitzhugh Lee served as military governor of Havana and Pinar del Río until April 1899. When Fitzhugh Lee left Cuba, he mustered out of the volunteer army and the War Department commissioned him as a brigadier general in the regular army. After commanding the Department of the Missouri for two years, Fitzhugh Lee retired from the U.S. Army in 1901.

Death of Major General Fitzhugh Lee

Four years after his retirement, Fitzhugh Lee suffered a stroke in Washington, D.C., and died on 28 April 1905. His remains are buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.

Gravesite of Major General Fitzhugh Lee

Godfrey Weitzel

Godfrey Weitzel (Union)

We have all heard the expression “Like Grant took Richmond.” Most people are, therefore, surprised to learn that General Ulysses S. Grant never set foot in Richmond until after the end of the Civil War. It was not the short, bearded general from Galena, Illinois who seized the Confederate capital; instead, it was a tall young officer, measuring 6′ 4″ and hailing from Winzeln, Germany, Godfrey Weitzel, who bravely led the all-black 25th Army Corps of Union troops into the burning city on 3 April 1865. No doubt about it, General Grant’s nine-month siege and his final assault on nearby Petersburg led to the evacuation of Richmond and improved Major General Weitzel’s ability to enter unopposed. But the federal officer who officially accepted the surrender of the Rebel capital was, in fact, a young civil engineer.

Gottfreid Weitzel (son of Wilhelm Weitzel and Susanna Krummel) was born in Winzeln, Kingdom of Bavaria on 1 November 1835. He immigrated with his family and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1837 where his name was changed to Godfrey. His father ran a small grocery store in the Over-The-Rhine neighborhood, where Godfrey excelled in all of his classes, graduating at the top of his high school class. Civic leaders encouraged the boy to apply for a position at the United States Military Academy, which was not only the best education a young man could get, but it was free. Local politicians lobbied for his appointment even though Godfrey was just 14-years old, two-years below the required age for a cadet. Fibbing about his age, Godfrey was accepted to the academy and arrived in June 1851 as the youngest cadet on campus.

Young Godfrey excelled academically especially in mathematics and engineering. When he was a sophomore, Colonel Robert E. Lee became the superintendent and took an interest in Weitzel, but was reassigned in March 1855 shortly before Weitzel's class graduated. Weitzel graduated second in the Class of 1855, behind his roommate Cyrus Comstock (who became a lifelong friend).

Civil War Service

Second Lieutenant Weitzel's first assignment was helping improve the defenses of New Orleans under Major P.G.T. Beauregard. His work on the forts around New Orleans earned the respect of his commander and Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, and he was promoted to first lieutenant.

In 1859, Weitzel returned to West Point as Assistant Professor of Civil and Military Engineering, working under Professor Dennis Mahan. He married Louisa C. Moor on 3 November 1859, however, she died three weeks later following a horrific burning while preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

In 1861, Weitzel was reassigned to Washington, D.C. in the Corps of Engineers. His company served as the bodyguard during the inauguration of President Abraham Lincoln.

Weitzel’s company served as President Lincoln’s bodyguard

With the outbreak of war, he was assigned to various commands to construct defenses. He was attached to the staff of Major General Benjamin F. Butler as chief engineer of the Department of the Gulf. When the Union captured New Orleans, Weitzel became assistant military commander and acting mayor. He was promoted to brigadier general in August 1862 and two months later routed a large force of the enemy at Labadieville, Louisiana, earning a brevet promotion to major in the regular army. He commanded the advance in Major General Nathaniel P. Banks' operations in western Louisiana in April and May 1863 and a division under Banks at the siege of Port Hudson, earning a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel in the regular army.

From May through September 1864, Weitzel was chief engineer of the Army of the James and received a brevet promotion to major general of volunteers in August. He commanded the XVIII Corps from September 1864 until November and was brevetted colonel in the regular army for the capture of Fort Harrison.

On 7 November 1864, Weitzel was assigned to command the XXV Corps, consisting of U.S. Colored Troops. He participated in the ill-fated attacks during the First Battle of Fort Fisher. He and XXV Corps were reassigned to Virginia after General Butler was relieved of duty.

General Grant named Weitzel to command all Union troops north of the Appomattox River during the final operations against General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

President Lincoln entered Richmond just two days after it was taken by Weitzel’s troops

Weitzel took possession of Richmond on 3 April 1865, establishing his headquarters in the home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Weitzel served as President Lincoln's confidential aide and bodyguard during two days of peace negotiations with Confederate representatives.

Life after Civil War

With the Civil War's end, Weitzel and his all-black Army corps were sent to Texas to evict the French who had occupied Mexico. He remained in command of the District of the Rio Grande until 1866.

Despite all of his promotions in the volunteer army, Weitzel resumed his title of Captain of Engineers. On August 8, 1866, however, he was promoted to full major in the regular Army. Weitzel spent the next 16 years in the service of the Army Corps of Engineers, designing locks and dams, lighthouses and harbors on the rivers and Great Lakes. He worked on many projects including improvements to the Louisville Canal. In 1873, he was made Engineer of the 11th Light House District, where he designed a massive lock at the St. Mary’s Falls Canal on the U.S.-Canada border at Sault Saint Marie. The $2.4 million project was the largest-of-its-kind in the world when completed in 1881 and was named the “Weitzel Lock” in honor of its designer.

The Spectacle Reef Lighthouse on Lake Huron was designed by Godfrey Weitzel, the most expensive lighthouse ever built on the Great Lakes at that time and is said to be the most spectacular engineering achievement in lighthouse construction on Lake Huron. The Spectacle Reef Lighthouse was pictured on a U.S. postage stamp and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Death of Major General Godfrey Weitzel

Godfrey Weitzel’s health gradually began to decline and he was assigned to lighter duty in Philadelphia, where he and his wife Louisa moved in the summer of 1882. He died at his home from complications of typhoid fever on 19 March 1884, at the age of 49.

His remains were taken by train to his boyhood home in Cincinnati, where he received a hero’s funeral, with his horse-drawn hearse escorted by a squad of enlisted soldiers. Godfrey Weitzel was buried in a modest family grave in Spring Grove Cemetery.

Gravesite of Major General Godfrey Weitzel

In recognition of his service to the nation during the Civil War, a large gate and road were named in his honor at Arlington National Cemetery on the property formerly owned by Robert E. Lee.

Pierce Manning Butler Young

Pierce Manning Butler Young (Confederate)

Pierce Manning Butler Young was a soldier, politician, and diplomat. He was the youngest major general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, and after the war a four-term United States Congressman from Georgia, before serving in the diplomatic corps.

Pierce Manning Butler Young (son of Dr. Robert Young and Elizabeth Caroline Jones) was born in Spartanburg, South Carolina on 15 November 1836. He came to Cass County, Georgia at the age of three. As a young boy, he received private tutoring before entering the Georgia Military Academy at age 14, graduating with honors in 1856.

Young then received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1857, making many lasting friendships with men who would become his foes in battle just 4 years later. One of these friends was George Armstrong Custer, his roommate, who unlike Young would fight for the Union. Young resigned from West Point during his senior year following Georgia’s secession.

Civil War Service

Young immediately enlisted in the Confederate Army as a second lieutenant in March 1861. He quickly rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel of Wade Hampton’s Legion and the command of its cavalry.

Described as “dashing and gallant”, Young often displayed forceful military bearing charging ahead of his troops in an attempt to capture a stronghold. Young is reported to have said, “I’ll be a major general or in Hell in half an hour.”

Wounded in three separate battles, Young was distinguished for “remarkable gallantry” during the Virginia and Maryland Campaigns.

In June 1863, Major Hugh Judson Kilpatrick was ordered to make a raid around the southern army. Kilpatrick, with a column of cavalry, started to encircle Richmond. No sooner had he started when General Robert E. Lee ordered a column of southern cavalry under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Young to follow the northern cavalry raiders. About thirty miles east of Richmond there was a family of an old Virginia planter who Young had been accustomed to visit. In the family were two young ladies. On that June morning, the raiding column of Kilpatrick’s cavalry stopped by the house. Major Kilpatrick, in command of his 2,000 cavalrymen, rode up to the house and asked if he could get breakfast. “Of course you can get breakfast,” said the young ladies, “but we understand that Pierce Young is after you, and you will not have time to eat it.” Notwithstanding a nice breakfast was served and the northern officers, tired out with their long ride, sat down to enjoy it. Before they had time to begin, a trooper rode up and cried out: “The rebels are on us, with a thousand horses!” Major Kilpatrick jumped up and mounted his horse. “I am told,” Kilpatrick said, “that Pierce Young is after us. Tell him that I hate to give up my breakfast, but if I have to give it up, I know of no other man to whom I would rather give it than Pierce Young. Young ladies, give Pierce my best love and tell him that I hope he will enjoy this fried chicken -- which I have not time to eat.” Saying this, the young northern officer who had been Pierce Young’s classmate at West Point, jumped on his horse and galloped after his column, which had a very hard time before it got back within the federal lines, hotly pursued by the confederate cavalry.

Promoted to colonel, Young rendered brilliant service at the Battle of Brandy Station and participated in the cavalry operations of the Gettysburg Campaign.

Custer led Michigan Cavalry against former West Point roommate Young (Artist: Jared Frederick)

It was in Hunterstown, Pennsylvania on 2 July 1863 that Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer led Company A, 6th Michigan Cavalry against the Cobb Legion commanded by his former West Point roommate (Pierce Manning Butler Young) who was acting as the rearguard to Wade Hampton’s brigade. During the charge, Custer had his horse shot out from under him.

On 28 September 1863, Young was promoted to brigadier general and assigned command of Hampton's old brigade, consisting of the 1st and 2nd South Carolina cavalry regiments, the Cobb Legion, Jeff Davis Legion, and Phillips' Legion.

In 1864, Young played a prominent part in the Overland Campaign in Virginia, and when Hampton assumed command of the cavalry after Stuart's death at Yellow Tavern, he temporarily took Hampton's place as division commander.

In November 1864, Young was sent to Augusta to gather reinforcements and aid in the defense of that city, threatened by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman. Promoted to major general on 12 December 1864, Young was actively engaged in the defense of Savannah and the 1865 campaign in the Carolinas under General Hampton until the close of the war.

Life after Civil War

Following the Civil War, Pierce Young returned to his plantation home in Cartersville, Georgia, “Walnut Grove,” where his family had moved in 1839.

Entering politics, Young allied with the New South Democrats, and in 1868 became the first Democratic congressman from Georgia to be seated after the war. While in office, Young served on the Military Affairs Committee and the U.S. Military Board of Visitors. After serving three terms in Congress, Young was unseated by William Felton, in 1874.

Young represented Georgia in the Democratic conventions of 1872, 1876, and 1880. In 1878, President Rutherford B. Hayes appointed Pierce Young to serve as a commissioner to the Paris Exposition.

In 1885, Young was appointed consul general to St. Petersburg, Russia by President Grover Cleveland, where he remained until 1887.

Young was consul general to St. Petersburg, Russia from 1885-1887

In 1893, President Grover Cleveland appointed Pierce Young as minister to Guatemala and Honduras.

Death of Confederate Major General Pierce Manning Butler Young

His health failing, Young resigned from his diplomatic post in 1896 and died en route home from New York on 6 July 1896.

As commander of the Georgia Division of the United Confederate Veterans at the time of his death, Major General Young was laid to rest in Oak Hill Cemetery in Cartersville, Georgia with full military honors at age 59.

Gravesite of Confederate Major General Pierce Manning Butler Young

Thomas L. Rosser

Thomas L. Rosser (Confederate)

Thomas Lafayette ‘Tex’ Rosser was a Confederate major general during the American Civil War, and later a railroad construction engineer and in 1898 a brigadier general of volunteers in the United States Army during the Spanish-American War.

Thomas Lafayette Rosser (son of John Rosser and Martha Melvina Johnson) was born in Campbell County, Virginia on 15 October 1836. In 1849 the family moved to a 640-acre farm in Panola County, Texas, some forty miles west of Shreveport, Louisiana. As his father was compelled by business to remain for a while in Virginia, Tom Rosser, at age thirteen, led the wagon train bearing his mother and younger siblings to Texas. For four years he attended the Mount Enterprise School in Rusk County.

Upon the nomination of Congressman Lemuel D. Evans, Thomas Rosser entered the United States Military Academy at West Point on 1 July 1856. Rosser resigned from the academy on 22 April 1861, only two weeks before graduation, when Texas left the Union. Among his fellows in the class of 1861 was George Armstrong Custer.

Civil War Service

Thomas Rosser was commissioned a first lieutenant in the regular Confederate Army and assigned as an instructor of artillery. He commanded a company of the New Orleans Washington Artillery battalion at the first battle of Manassas (Bull Run) and was wounded at the battle of Mechanicsville.

Rosser returned to the army after recovering and was appointed colonel and commander of the Fifth Virginia Cavalry with the encouragement of General J.E.B. Stuart.

Rosser was promoted to brigadier general on 28 September 1863, and given command of one of Stuart's divisions.

George Armstrong Custer and Thomas Lafayette Rosser

The Civil War shaped the friendship of West Point roommates George Armstrong Custer of the Union Army and Thomas L. Rosser of the Confederate Army. On opposite sides in the Civil War, General Custer and General Rosser crossed cavalry paths, often fighting in the same battles, and occasionally encountering each other face to face. The two cavalry officers were present at the first and last battles of the Civil War. Rosser and Custer met at Buckland Mills, Trevilian Station, Tom’s Brook, Gettysburg, and finally, Appomattox.

The Battle of Buckland Mills in October 1863 involved Union and Confederate Cavalry, including General Custer and General Rosser. After one Union raid, General Rosser left General Custer a message: “You have disturbed me at my breakfast. You owe me one and I will get even with you.” General Rosser allowed his former West Point roommate to cross the creek, and then invaded the campsite while the Union troops brewed coffee. It took General Custer a day to collect his scattered men.

At Trevilian Station, on 11-12 June 1864, General Rosser was again wounded, but his brigade captured many prisoners and an ambrotype of Libbie Custer from his former West Point roommate and friend, George Armstrong Custer. Both Generals Custer and Rosser participated in the Shenandoah Valley campaigns, and each equaled each other in bravery and bravado.

General Custer removed his hat in an upward-downward sweep in front of General Rosser

On 9 October 1864, at Tom’s Brook, Virginia, General Custer and General Rosser and their cavalry troops faced each other once again. General Custer and his Union cavalry made ready to charge across the field as the entrenched Confederates waited to battle them. General Custer rode out in front of his command where both the Union and Confederate soldiers could see him. He removed his broad-brimmed hat in an upward-downward sweep, and then he and his men resoundingly defeated the Confederate cavalry. After the battle, General Custer chased General Rosser’s troops for more than ten miles, a chase that Custer’s men dubbed the “Woodstock Races.” General Custer also captured General Rosser’s private wardrobe wagon. General Rosser immediately sent his old friend a note: Dear Fanny, You may have made me take a few steps back today, but I will be even with you tomorrow. Please accept my good wishes and this little gift – a pair of your drawers captured at Trevilian Station. Tex.

After he shipped General Rosser’s gold-laced Confederate grey coat to his wife Libbie, General Custer replied to General Rosser’s note: Dear Friend, Thanks for setting me up in so many new things, but would you please direct your tailor to make the coat tails of your next uniform a trifle shorter. Best Regards, G.A.C.

Rosser was given command of the Confederate cavalry in the Shenandoah Valley in October 1864 and promoted to major general on 1 November 1864.

In 1865, Rosser rejoined General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia at Petersburg and took part in the Appomattox campaign. Refusing to surrender, Rosser cut his way out of the federal lines and attempted to lead his division to a junction with the army of General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. He was intercepted and captured, however, and paroled in May 1865.

Life after Civil War

After Appomattox, Major General Thomas Lafayette Rosser didn’t have as many options as his West Point roommate Major General George Armstrong Custer. He unsuccessfully tried various jobs and business endeavors until 1869, and then like so many other people seeking to rebuild their lives after the Civil War, he headed west. He found a position with the National Express Company and quickly worked himself up to superintendent.

Later, Thomas Rosser gained employment with the Northern Pacific Railroad. He proved to be as skilled a railroad man as he had been a cavalryman, working his way up from the beginning bottom to roadman, scout, chief surveyor and soon, Chief Engineer of the Northern Pacific Railroad. His choosing of the crossing of the Red River at Fargo, North Dakota, and the land speculation profits he is supposed to have made, was the beginning of the personal fortune he had worked so long and hard to accumulate.

As Rosser supervised the surveying of the Northern Pacific Railroad line west through Montana, the Native Americans watched the instillation of the shining rails with resolve to protect their homeland as hard as the rails. When the Native Americans began to attack, Rosser fought back, carrying a rifle, a brace of pistols, and saddle bags full of ammunition when traveling the line. Eventually, he enlisted the help of the United States Army, reinforcing the tradition of collaboration between the military and the major nineteenth century corporations, the railroads, and reconnecting with his old friend George Armstrong Custer.

When Major General Custer and his 7th Cavalry stepped in to protect the building of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1873, he and Rosser reunited at some point. Their meeting in a camp on the Northern Pacific line must have been as much of a reunion between old friends as a military operation to protect the railroad from the Sioux. The air around the evening campfire of the two generals probably resounded reminiscences of the cavalry campaigns of the Shenandoah Valley and events after Appomattox. The two generals, former roommates, former enemies, worked together to ensure that the shining railroad ties would reach all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

In June 1876, along with the rest of the United States, Rosser struggled to absorb the events of 25-26 June 1876. His friend Major General George Armstrong Custer and 268 of his 7th Cavalry men had been killed with 55 wounded near the Little Bighorn River in eastern Montana Territory. General Custer’s two brothers, a brother-in-law, and a nephew were also counted among the dead.

In the midst of mourning his old friend, Rosser felt impelled to counter the attacks against Major General Custer ranging from President Ulysses S. Grant to some of his own relatives. Rosser wrote a letter to the Chicago Tribune, blaming the disaster at the Little Bighorn on Custer’s subordinates, especially Major Marcus Reno. Major Reno’s threat of a lawsuit forced Rosser to retract his attack on the Major’s part in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, but Rosser had used his military skill to unintentionally highlight the controversy surrounding the demise of Major General Custer and his men.

In the spring of 1881, his stint as chief engineer on the Northern Pacific Railroad led to a position as a trouble shooter and problem solver on the portion of the Canadian Pacific Railroad north of the border, partially because of his connections and influence in the railroad sector.

Thomas Rosser and his boss Alpheus Stickney soon discovered that creating new towns could be worth reported profits of $130,000 between them during their brief careers with the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The local press extensively and thoroughly reported the activities of Rosser and Stickney and the money they were making. The in-depth reporting ended Rosser’s and Stickney’s careers as railway entrepreneurs.

Returning to Charlottesville, Virginia, Thomas Rosser farmed and experimented with a succession of business ventures that never seemed to get off the ground.

On 10 June 1898, President William McKinley appointed Thomas Rosser a brigadier general of United States volunteers for the Spanish-American War. Rosser drilled young cavalry recruits in a camp near the old Civil War battlefield at Chickamauga in northern Georgia. Honorably discharged on 31 October 1898, Thomas Rosser again returned home to Virginia.

Death of Confederate Major General Thomas L. Rosser

Thomas L. Rosser was Postmaster of Charlottesville, Virginia when he died on 29 March 1910. He is buried at Ridgeview Cemetery.

Gravesite of Confederate Major General Thomas Lafayette Rosser

In Canada, Major General Thomas L. Rosser has a mostly unrecognized legacy. In the crucial summer of 1881, Rosser shaped Canadian settlement patterns and created towns, and facilitated the expansion of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. Even though he had a financial interest, he pushed the rails westward and helped Canada grow and prosper.

In the United States, Major General Rosser is remembered in Civil War history as an excellent Confederate cavalry soldier, but more often he is recalled as the roommate and friend of Major General George Armstrong Custer.

Wesley Merritt

Wesley Merritt (Union)

Being promoted from the rank of Captain to Brigadier General was a previously unheard-of “skip” in promotion until it happened to Captains Wesley Merritt, George Armstrong Custer, and Elon J. Farnsworth on 29 June 1863. For this reason, the three are commonly referred to as the ‘boy generals’.

Wesley Merritt (son of John Willis Merritt and Julia Anne de Forest) was born in New York City on 16 June 1834. When Wesley was seven, he moved with his family to St. Clair county Illinois. Though he was inclined towards a career in law like his father, Wesley Merritt accepted an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1855. He graduated in 1860, twenty-second in a class of forty-one that included future comrade James Wilson and future adversary Stephen Dodson Ramseur.

Civil War Service

Initially assigned to service in Utah, Merritt was recalled to Washington at the outbreak of the Civil War and was made aide-de-camp first to General Philip St. George Cooke, then to General George Stoneman. Still young, Merritt commanded the reserve cavalry during Stoneman’s raid on the Chancellorsville campaign.

Wesley Merritt won praise for his conduct at the Battle of Brandy Station on 9 June 1863. In his first major combat action, the beardless New Yorker managed to wound Confederate Brigadier General Rooney Lee (son of General Robert E. Lee) in a one-on-one saber duel as the rest of the Union force withdrew from the battlefield.

After the Battle of Upperville two weeks later, Merritt received an unusual promotion from captain all the way to brigadier general -- a decision prompted by the recent reorganization of the cavalry wing into a more unified force. George Armstrong Custer and Elon Farnsworth received the same promotions.

At Gettysburg, Merritt commanded a brigade of regulars under John Buford, but missed the furious first day's battle while guarding the army's supply lines. On 3 July 1863, however, Merritt participated in the fateful cavalry charge on the Confederate right flank below Big Round Top ordered by Brigadier General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick. The charge was a bloody failure that resulted in the death of Brigadier General Elon Farnsworth.

After General John Buford’s death in December 1863, Merritt assumed acting command of the 1st Division of the Cavalry Corps, and took part in the Overland Campaign of 1864, earning further distinction at the Battle of Yellow Tavern. This was the engagement where Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart was killed.

In the fall of 1864, Merritt was transferred to the Shenandoah Valley to aid General Phil Sheridan in his campaign against marauding Confederate General Jubal Early. At the Battle of Third Winchester, the 1st Division participated in the largest cavalry charge to ever take place on American soil -- some 10,000 horsemen -- and played a key role in routing Early's army from the field. This battle turned the tide of the 1864 Valley Campaign and earned Merritt a promotion to major general.

Left to right: Phil Sheridan, John Forsyth, Wesley Merritt, Thomas Devin, and George Custer

Now appointed as General Phil Sheridan's chief lieutenant, Merritt continued to serve admirably throughout the war, and was again officially recognized for his actions in the Appomattox Campaign.

Life after Civil War

After receiving General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox, Merritt chose to remain in the army. He was appointed lieutenant colonel of the newly raised U.S. 9th Cavalry on 28 July 1866, and in July 1867 was sent to command Fort Davis, Texas, garrisoned by six of the regiment's companies.

After the death of Lieutenant Colonel (former Brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer at Little Bighorn, Merritt was made colonel of the 5th Cavalry on 1 July 1876. Guided by Chief Scout William F. ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody, the 5th Cavalry marched north to intercept a large Cheyenne war party at Warbonnet Creek, Nebraska, where Cody took "the first scalp for Custer." After joining the forces of General George Crook, Merritt commanded at the Battle of Slim Buttes on 9-10 September 1876 and participated in the famous Horsemeat March to Deadwood. Three years later, he sat on the court of inquiry that exonerated Major Marcus Reno for his actions at the Little Bighorn.

Wesley Merritt served on the frontier until being appointed Superintendent of West Point, a post he filled from 1882 to 1887. The Superintendent is a serving general officer who is in charge of the entire Academy. A prestigious post, some of the most prominent officers in the history of the United States Army have held this position. The approximate civilian equivalent is university president.

In 1887, Merritt was appointed brigadier general in the Regular Army. Eight years later, Merritt was promoted to major general in the Regular Army in 1895.

In 1898, Merritt commanded the VIII Corps in Manila during the Spanish-American War. After taking the city, he served as military governor of the Philippines for nearly two years before retiring from the army in 1900.

Death of Major General Wesley Merritt

Major General Wesley Merritt retired from the Army in 1900 and died from complications of arteriosclerosis in Natural Bridge, Virginia, at the age of 74, on 3 December 1910. He is buried at the West Point Cemetery.

Gravesite of Major General Wesley Merritt

Adelbert Ames

Adelbert Ames (Union)

Adelbert Ames preceded Joshua Chamberlain as colonel of the 20th Maine, and had a stellar military career in his own right. Ames spent his early years on Atlantic sailing vessels before entering West Point to pursue a military career.

Adelbert Ames (son of Jesse Ames and Martha Bradbury) was born in Rockland, Maine on 31 October 1835. The son of a sea captain, Adelbert also grew up to be a sailor and became a mate on a clipper ship, and he also served briefly as a merchant seaman on his father's ship.

On 1 July1856, Adelbert entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. He graduated five years later in May 1861, fifth in his class of forty-five. Two classes had graduated that year due to the beginning of the Civil War in April 1861. Ames' class had graduated about a month earlier than usual, while a second class, set to graduate in 1862, graduated on 24 June 1861. His graduating class not only provided officers for the Civil War but also leaders in politics, business, and the military, including Henry Algernon du Pont of the chemical family, George Armstrong Custer and Yellowstone explorer John Whitney Barlow.

Civil War Service

Adelbert Ames graduated from West Point just after the Civil War began in May 1861. He was badly wounded in the thigh during the Battle of First Bull Run, fighting as a lieutenant with the 5th U.S. Artillery. Praised for his bravery, Ames became a brevet major on 21 July 1861. Thirty-two years later in 1893, Ames received the Medal of Honor for his performance there.

Adelbert fought with his artillery guns through the Peninsula and Seven Days’ campaigns, earning a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel.

Lieutenant Colonel Chamberlain and Colonel Ames (Artist: Mort Künstler)

Ames wanted even higher rank, however, and realized he would have to switch to the infantry branch to get it. On 20 August 1862, he was given command of the 20th Maine and the rank of colonel. Colonel Ames commanded that unit until May 1863, when he became a member of Major General George Meade’s staff. He became a brigadier general on 20 May 1863, commanding a brigade in the XI Corps, leaving Lieutenant Colonel Joshua Chamberlain to gain glory as the 20th’s commander during the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. Brigadier General Ames and his brigade, meanwhile, fought on Barlow’s Knoll and Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg.

Following Gettysburg, Ames led commands in South Carolina and Florida and then took part in the siege of Petersburg. Ames, now commanding a brigade in the X Corps of the Army of the James, served under Major General Benjamin F. Butler in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign and the Siege of Petersburg. In the future, Ames would become Butler's son-in-law.

In 1865, Ames led the successful assault in the Second Battle of Fort Fisher in North Carolina, accompanying his men into the formidable coastal fortress as most of his staff were shot down by Confederate snipers. Ames received a brevet promotion to major general in the Union Army (and brigadier general in the Regular Army) on 13 March 1865, for his role in that battle.

Life after Civil War

When Governor Benjamin G. Humphreys was removed from office 15 June 1868, President Andrew Johnson appointed Adelbert Ames provisional governor of Mississippi. At the time of his appointment, Ames was also the military governor of the fourth military district which had been established under federal Reconstruction policy and included Arkansas and Mississippi. Ames continued as both military and provisional governor until the reestablishment of civil authority on 10 March 1870.

Portrait of Adelbert Ames as military and provisional governor

During his tenure in office, Ames became convinced that he "had a Mission with a large M" to assist the former slaves. He appointed blacks to local offices and ordered that, for the first time in the state's history, they be eligible to serve on juries.

Elected to the U. S. Senate in 1870, Ames became leader of the Republican faction that opposed the moderate policies of Governor James Lusk Alcorn, a former Confederate general.

In 1873, Adelbert Ames battled Governor Alcorn for control of the Republican Party in Mississippi, which then had mostly black voters. White Southerners who sided with the Republican Party were derisively referred to as "scalawags," small, useless horses. Southern Democrats painted so-called scalawags and carpetbaggers as traitors exploiting the Southern United States and trying to set up "Negro rule". In truth, Republican promises to rebuild the Southern United States, restore prosperity, create public schools, and expand railroads attracted some white Southerners. The Ames-Alcorn struggle reflected deep fissures in the party.

Ames handily defeated Alcorn. As Republican governor of Mississippi from 1874-1876, Ames attempted to reduce the cost of government and make public land available to the former slaves.

In 1875, Democrats launched a violent campaign to win control of the Mississippi legislature. Ames appealed for federal intervention to restore order, but without success. President Ulysses S. Grant refused to send federal troops.

The Mississippi legislature convened in January 1876 and brought impeachment charges against Governor Adelbert Ames and several other Republican officials, including black Lieutenant Governor Alexander K. Davis. In most cases, especially those of Ames and Davis, the charges were politically motivated. When it became apparent that Ames would be convicted and removed from office, his lawyers arranged a compromise with the state legislature. Governor Ames resigned on 29 March 1876 and the charges were dropped. Lieutenant Governor Davis was removed from office through impeachment.

It should be noted that Adelbert Ames was the last Republican to serve as the state governor of Mississippi until the election of Kirk Fordice who took office in January 1992 (116 years after Governor Ames vacated the office).

Returning to the North, Adelbert Ames went into his father's flour-milling business in Northfield, Minnesota. In 1876, Jesse James’s gang of outlaws, who had been ardent supporters of the Confederacy, attempted to rob a bank in which Ames and his father-in-law (former Union Major General Benjamin Butler) had invested. The botched heist by the notorious James-Younger Gang was a very big deal in Minnesota and nationally at the time. It featured media celebrity Jesse James and scintillating elements of a Wild West shootout by notorious bad guys with blazing guns on horseback, good citizens who shot back, and a posse that tracked the thieves for two long weeks before their capture in a swamp near Madelia, Minnesota.

Jesse James attempted bank robbery in Northfield

While it was the end of the James-Younger Gang, the star of the show certainly wasn’t defeated. Jesse and his brother Frank escaped, and Jesse went on to rob for several years more.

In 1898, Ames was appointed brigadier general of volunteers in the Spanish-American War and fought in Cuba. During the Battle of San Juan Hill, the 3rd Brigade of the 1st Division suffered particularly high casualties with its brigade commander killed and the next two ranking regimental commanders wounded. General Ames was assigned to command the brigade during the Siege of Santiago. He commanded the 1st Division when the V Corps was mustered out in New York.

Death of Major General Adelbert Ames

An accomplished soldier and politician, Adelbert Ames died at his winter home in Ormond Beach, Florida on 13 April 1933 at the age of 97.

Adelbert Ames was the last surviving full-rank general of either side of the Civil War. It should be noted that the last Union general officer, Aaron S. Daggett, lived five years longer than Ames, but he had been a brevet brigadier general of U.S. Volunteers in March 1865, while Ames had been promoted to the permanent rank of brigadier general in the Regular Army about the same period.

Adelbert Ames is buried in the Hildreth family cemetery located in Lowell, Massachusetts. The Hildreth family cemetery is behind the main cemetery (also known as Hildreth Cemetery).

Gravesite of Major General Adelbert Ames

Francis C. Barlow

Francis C. Barlow (Union)

One of several “boy generals” during the Civil War, Francis Barlow’s looks were deceiving. Slightly built, clean shaven, with a high-pitched voice, he was nevertheless a demanding officer who would tolerate no dereliction of duty on the part of his men. Colonel Theodore Lyman, an aide to Major General George G. Meade, described Barlow this way: “He looked like a highly independent newsboy; he was attired in a flannel checked shirt; a threadbare pair of trousers; from his waist hung a big cavalry saber; his features wore a familiar sarcastic smile…{yet} it would be hard to find a general officer equal to him.”

Francis Channing Barlow (son of David H. Barlow and Almira Penneman) was born in Brooklyn, New York on 19 October 1834. After his father, a Unitarian Minister, abandoned his family in 1838, Francis, his two brothers and his mother, moved to the Utopian community of Brook Farm, Massachusetts, where he was raised. He studied law at Harvard University and graduated first in his class. He was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1858 and practiced in New York City, with George Bliss, until the outbreak of war in 1861. He also wrote occasional editorials for the New York Tribune.

Civil War Service

One day after his marriage to Arabella Griffith, Francis C. Barlow enlisted in the 12th New York Militia as a private. Within a month, Barlow was commissioned as a first lieutenant. By November 1861, Barlow was a lieutenant colonel in the 61st New York Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and by the time of the Peninsula Campaign in the spring of 1862, he became its colonel. Barlow’s rise through the ranks was not the result of any military training prior to the Civil War. Barlow rose to become a highly successful leader solely on the basis of his abilities as a soldier.

Francis Barlow saw his first action at the Battle of Seven Pines as part of the brigade commanded by Brigadier General Oliver O. Howard in the II Corps of the Army of the Potomac. At Glendale, in the Seven Days Battles, his regiment became separated from the rest of the brigade; and he exercised personal initiative by advancing his men to the sound of the fighting, encountering a Confederate battle line and leading his men in a bayonet charge against it. The enemy fled, and Barlow picked up a fallen Confederate flag. At the Battle of Malvern Hill, Barlow and his men successfully defended the line against repeated Confederate assaults.

On 17 September 1862, Colonel Barlow found himself and his regiment in front of the infamous Bloody Lane at Antietam. Severely wounded while leading his troops in pursuit of the retreating Confederates, Barlow was eventually nursed back to health by his wife, Arabella, a nurse with the U.S. Sanitary Commission.

A promotion to Brevet Brigadier General preceded his next combat experience at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863. Since his brigade (part of the XI Corps) was off supporting the III Corps during ‘Stonewall’ Jackson’s famous flank attack, it escaped the ridicule directed at the XI Corps after Chancellorsville.

Brigadier General Barlow placed his division of the Union XI Corps on a rise of high ground, north of the town of Gettysburg. Without adequate reinforcements to anchor a defensive line, his exposed troops took the brunt of the leading units of the Confederate Second Corps rushing toward Gettysburg during the late afternoon of 1 July 1863. As his soldiers -- mostly German-Americans -- broke ranks and retreated in confusion, Barlow galloped in the chaos, trying to get ahead of his men and force them to make a stand. He was probably angry; he hated stragglers, retreats, and had a heavy prejudice against the German immigrants who formed these units. As he tried to rally the troops, a bullet struck him in the side and bored deep into his abdomen. He dismounted and attempted to walk off the field with the help of two soldiers. Feeling faint, he decided to lie down and await his fate: likely death or capture.

During the melee that ensued, Confederate General John B. Gordon saw Union General Barlow, who was trying to rally his men, fall. After the field had been cleared of the men in blue, who retreated in disorder, leaving many dead and wounded behind, General Gordon rode up and saw General Barlow lying on his back, the last thin reeds of life apparently slipping from his grasp. He dismounted to attend to his dying foe.

Confederate General Gordon attended to Union General Barlow at Gettysburg

Union General Barlow had but one request to make of Confederate General Gordon. That request was that if Gordon should live to the end of the war and should ever meet Mrs. Barlow, he [Gordon] would tell her of their meeting on the field of Gettysburg and of his [Barlow’s] thoughts of her in his last moments. Barlow wished Gordon to assure her that he died doing his duty at the front, that he was willing to give his life for his country, and that his deepest regret was that he must die without looking upon her face again.

When General Gordon learned that Mrs. Barlow was with the Union army, and near the battlefield, he dispatched, under flag of truce, the promised message to Mrs. Barlow. General Gordon assured her that if she wished to come through the lines she should have safe escort to her husband’s side.

Well, Arabella came, making her way through both lines with the help of Confederate officers and of General Howard. And, despite the doomful prognostications of Confederate doctors and at least one captured Union surgeon, all of whom examined Francis and pronounced him all but dead, she saved him from oblivion. Arabella took her husband to Somerville, New Jersey, her original home, to recuperate, after the army gave Barlow a leave of absence. Under her care, he improved rapidly.

Arabella Barlow nursed her husband Francis back to health (Artist: Eastman Johnson)

Following a lengthy convalescence, Francis Barlow returned to duty in spring 1864 at the beginning of the Overland Campaign. Now commanding a division in the II Corps, Barlow and his troops would be at the forefront of the fighting at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor.

Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow (far left) during Overland Campaign in 1864

On 12 May 1864, at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Barlow’s division spearheaded a massive assault against the Mule Shoe Salient. Along with the rest of the II Corps, Barlow’s troops captured 3,000 Confederate soldiers (including 2 generals), 20 cannon and 30 stands of colors.

During the Siege of Petersburg on 27 July 1864, Barlow’s wife died of typhus. His own health soon deteriorated. Following a medical leave of absence, Barlow returned to duty in time for General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in April 1865.

Barlow was appointed major general of volunteers on 26 May 1865, to rank from 25 May 1865, but the promotion was not confirmed by the U.S. Senate until 23 February 1866, after the Civil War was over and Barlow had resigned from the army on 16 November 1865.

Life after Civil War

After the Civil War, Francis C. Barlow served as a United States Marshal and the New York Secretary of State, and New York State Attorney General, prosecuting the Boss Tweed ring, before he returned to his law practice. Barlow was a founder of the American Bar Association.

In 1866, Barlow married Ellen Shaw, sister of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw who had died while leading the 54th Massachusetts regiment against Battery Wagner near Charleston, South Carolina. Barlow was an old friend of Shaw who he had tutored in preparation for Harvard.

As U.S. Marshal for the Southern District of New York during May-July 1869, Barlow prosecuted Cuban independence rebels for violating the Neutrality Act and disbanded the filibuster expeditions on the Perit, Quaker City, and Whiting steamers.

Barlow was active in Republican politics and investigated the 1876 presidential election, the Hayes-Tilden election, for irregularities.

In 1879, Francis Barlow was invited to a dinner party hosted by Democratic Congressman Clarkson N. Potter of New York. It turned out that a John B. Gordon, currently a U.S. senator from Georgia, had also been invited. Barlow presumed that it must be a different Gordon since he had read that a Confederate General J. B. Gordon had been killed around Richmond in 1864. General Gordon presumed that it must be another General Barlow since he was certain the one he had encountered at Gettysburg had died. When they met at the dinner table the two men were astounded to discover that they were the same Gordon and Barlow of Gettysburg. On that night began a lifelong friendship between the two generals that continued to Barlow’s death in 1896.

Death of Major General Francis C. Barlow

Francis C. Barlow died of Bright's disease in New York City on 11 January 1896. He is buried in Walnut Street Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts, along with his mother and brothers. For many years after his death, Barlow’s tomb was unmarked until a bronze plaque was added.

Gravesite of Major General Francis Channing Barlow

J.E.B. Stuart

J.E.B. Stuart (Confederate)

James Ewell Brown ‘J.E.B.’ Stuart was a major general and cavalry commander for the Confederate States of America during the Civil War. A dashing figure known for his flamboyant style of dress and bold tactics, Stuart became one of the Confederacy’s most prominent figures after he led his cavalry corps on two successful circumnavigations of the Union Army of the Potomac in 1862. Stuart’s skill at reconnaissance earned him a reputation as the “eyes and ears” of the Confederate army.

James Ewell Brown ‘J.E.B.’ Stuart (son of Archibald Stuart and Elizabeth Letcher Pannill) was born in Patrick County, Virginia, on 6 February 1833. He left home at the age of 12 and spent three years in school in Wytheville, Virginia, before entering Emory and Henry College at the age of 15.

In 1850, J.E.B. Stuart was accepted to the United States Military Academy at West Point. There, he became acquainted with several future Civil War generals including Robert E. Lee, who took over as superintendent of the academy in 1852. Stuart excelled at his studies, and was appointed a cavalry officer after demonstrating his skill at horseback riding.

After graduating from West Point in 1854, Stuart was briefly assigned to a U.S. Army regiment in Texas before being transferred to the 1st Cavalry Regiment at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Territory, in 1855.

Stuart served as a quartermaster and commissary officer during the Bleeding Kansas affair, a period of intense violence between pro- and anti-slavery groups along the Missouri-Kansas border.

In 1857, J.E.B. Stuart participated in U.S. military engagements against Indian tribes, and was wounded during a mounted attack on the Cheyenne.

In 1859, Stuart served under Robert E. Lee during the U.S. military action that captured John Brown after the famed abolitionist’s raid on the arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.

Civil War Service

After Virginia seceded from the Union in April 1861, Stuart resigned his post in the U.S. Army and moved his family back to the South. He offered his services to the Confederate States of America, and was assigned to Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson’s Army of the Shenandoah. He was soon promoted to the rank of colonel and placed in command of Jackson’s cavalry units.

Colonel J.E.B. Stuart wasted no time in proving his value as a cavalry commander. After the Battle of 1st Bull Run in July 1861, his unit pursued retreating Union troops as far north as the Potomac River and captured a huge bounty of supplies and prisoners. Stuart’s magnetic personality and tireless energy quickly earned him the respect of his troops, and his striking uniform -- which included a gold sash and a large plumed hat accented by an ostrich feather -- helped foster a cavalier reputation.

In September 1861, Stuart was promoted to brigadier general and placed in charge of the cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia. His most famous exploit would come in June 1862 during the build-up to the Seven Days Battles. Robert E. Lee -- who had recently taken control of Confederate forces -- sent Stuart on a mission to determine if Union General George B. McClellan’s Army of the Potomac was vulnerable to attack on its right flank. In a grandiose gesture, Stuart and his 1,200 troopers not only surveyed McClellan’s right flank, they proceeded to circumnavigate the entire Army of the Potomac, capturing supplies and hundreds of prisoners along the way. While not a serious tactical blow, Stuart’s ride raised his profile in the South to great heights, and he was promoted to the rank of major general. Stuart would repeat his circumnavigation feat later that same year during General Lee’s Maryland Campaign.

J.E.B. Stuart’s skill at providing reconnaissance, screening Confederate positions and harassing Union pickets (or forward defensive positions) proved indispensable during the Second Battle of Bull Run -- when he intercepted Union battle plans that helped clinch a Confederate victory -- and the Battle of Fredericksburg. So crucial was his role that Lee began referring to him as “the eyes of the army.” During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Stuart also proved a capable infantry commander when he took command of General Stonewall Jackson’s forces after Jackson was mortally wounded.

By 1863, J.E.B. Stuart’s exploits had become legendary. Always prone to elaborate displays, in June he held a “grand review” of his cavalry forces near Brandy Station, Virginia. The review, ostensibly designed to impress superiors and members of the media, also attracted the attention of Union forces, who took the presence of Stuart’s nearly 10,000-strong cavalry as a sign of an imminent Confederate offensive. On 9 June 1863, two Union cavalry divisions descended on Stuart’s position and tried to envelope his army. In the ensuing Battle of Brandy Station -- the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War -- Stuart was initially caught unprepared, but responded with characteristic verve to rebuff the Union advance. Still, his reputation had suffered, as it was the first time Stuart had failed to dominate his opposition.

Stuart’s situation became even more precarious just days later during the build-up to the Battle of Gettysburg. As the Confederate army marched north, Stuart was given instructions to screen their advance and gather intelligence on enemy troop positions. Instead, Stuart set off on a raiding mission on Union positions along the outskirts of Washington, D.C. He would not arrive at Gettysburg until the second day of the battle, depriving Lee of vital intelligence. Stuart’s tardiness likely played a role in the subsequent Confederate defeat, and haunted his reputation even after his death.

Death of Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart

During General Ulysses S. Grant’s Overland Campaign in 1864, Union Major General Philip Sheridan proposed an overwhelming offensive against J.E.B. Stuart’s forces. On 11 May 1864, Sheridan’s superior numbers engaged Stuart’s cavalry outside of Richmond near an inn called Yellow Tavern. While firing his revolver at Union troops and shouting orders to his men Stuart was shot through his left side by a dismounted Michigan trooper with a pistol.

Stuart was removed to the Richmond home of his brother-in-law, Dr. Charles Brewer, where he died one day later on 12 May 1864, at the age of 31. He was buried in the city’s Hollywood Cemetery.

Gravesite of Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart

In the years following his death, Confederate Major General J.E.B. Stuart came to be a leading symbol of the Lost Cause and of Virginia’s Cavalier myth. With Robert E. Lee and Thomas ‘Stonewall’ Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart has been enshrined as the third member of the “Holy Trinity” of the secular religion of the postbellum South, as illustrated in Charles Hoffbauer’s large-scale mural, “Autumn,” from the Four Seasons of the Confederacy.

General J.E.B. Stuart leading his cavalry in a charge (Artist: Charles Hoffbauer)

Commissioned by the Confederate Memorial Association in 1914 and completed in 1921 for Richmond’s Battle Abbey (now the home of the Virginia Historical Society), the paintings use the seasons of the year as a metaphor for the Confederate army’s declining fortunes during the war. As Hoffbauer’s work suggests, even during the fall of the year, Stuart will forever be remembered as the caped Cavalier, leading his troopers through the Virginia woods and waving his plumed hat.

Afterword

After my mother (Mary Elizabeth Erikson) graduated from high school in 1944, she went to work for One Day Photo Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania -- her birthplace and the home of many of her relatives. Her best friend was Dorothy Custer who lived next door to my mother’s Aunt Anna in Pittsburgh. Dorothy Custer’s brother (Ray) was a Colonel in the Army Air Corps (later U.S. Air Force) during World War II and the Korean War. Ray and Dorothy Custer were cousins of the Civil War ‘boy general’ -- Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer (shown below).

I recall visiting with Ray and Dorothy Custer in Pittsburgh on several occasions during my childhood. Although I was young, my visits with the Custer family were very memorable.

My sister, my mother, Dorothy Custer, and me in early-1950s

Ever since learning at an early age that Ray and Dorothy Custer were related to Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, I have had a keen interest in that Civil War hero who tragically lost his life eleven years later at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana in 1876.

Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn

In the 1960s, my interest in George Armstrong Custer was renewed when Kellogg’s posted his picture (along with Daniel Boone, ‘Kit’ Carson, and ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody) on their Sugar Pops cereal box as ‘Heroes of the Old West’.

Heroes of the West

In the fall of 1962, my family moved from Olympia, Washington to Dickinson, North Dakota. During our road trip to Dickinson, we traveled near the Little Bighorn Battlefield located south of Crow Agency, Montana. We also passed through Custer, Montana.

Battle of Little Bighorn in relation to Medora, North Dakota

During our first night in North Dakota, we stayed at a motel in Medora not far from where Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry encamped on 28 May 1876 on their journey to the Little Bighorn.

Map showing Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry Encampment near Medora, North Dakota

Custer’s 7th U.S. Cavalry Encampment near Medora, North Dakota

From 1980 to 1981, I was stationed with the U.S. Army in Kaiserslautern, Germany. This city is located in the German state of Rheinland-Pfalz. The city of Kaldenkirchen (birthplace of George Armstrong Custer’s ancestors) is located in the German state of Nordrhein-Westfalen directly to the north of Rheinland-Pfalz. Knowing that Kaldenkirchen was the Custer family birthplace, I couldn’t resist visiting this town with a population of less than 10,000 inhabitants.

Map of Germany showing Kaldenkirchen (birthplace of George Armstrong Custer’s ancestors)

I had the good fortune to spend four years (1981-1985) at Custer’s alma mater -- the United States Military Academy in West Point, New York. During this assignment, I made it a point to visit George Armstrong Custer’s gravesite in the West Point cemetery on a regular basis.

It should be noted that the Custer Monument (honoring George Armstrong Custer who died at the Battle of the Little Bighorn on 25 June 1876) was unveiled in 1879. Congress approved of a statue, to be made from 20 condemned bronze cannons, and for $10,000, of which $6,000 had been subscribed by citizens of New York. The monument was originally located near the academy's headquarters building near the site of present-day Taylor Hall along Thayer Road.

The pedestal had a bronze statue of Custer wielding a saber and a pistol. Custer's widow (Libbie) and many officers did not approve of this likeness and after only five years, the statue was removed and sent to New York City where Stanford White was supposed to remove the bust, to be displayed in the West Point library. However, after White's murder on 25 June 1906 (the 30th anniversary of Custer’s death), the original statue mysteriously disappeared.

Original Custer Monument was located near Academy’s headquarters

On 25 June 1906, Stanford White (American architect) was shot and killed at the Madison Square Theatre by Harry Kendall Thaw (Pittsburgh millionaire), in front of a large audience. Thaw had become obsessed by White's rape and relationship with his wife Evelyn Nesbit, which started when she was 16, four years before their marriage. She had married Thaw in 1905 and was working as an actress. Thaw was considered mentally unstable at the time of the shooting. With its elements of murder among the wealthy and a sex scandal, the resulting sensational trial of Thaw was dubbed "The Trial of the Century" by contemporary reporters.

Stanford White / Evelyn Nesbit / Harry Kendall Thaw

The pedestal was moved to Custer's gravesite in the West Point Cemetery during the construction of Taylor Hall around 1910. In 1965, a stone obelisk was placed atop the pedestal.

Custer’s gravesite in West Point Cemetery

While researching family history, I was surprised to learn that my wife (Billie Jean Null) is related to two Civil War ‘boy generals’ (Major General George Armstrong Custer and Major General Galusha Pennypacker) through her 2nd great-grandmother Ann Eliza Pannebaker.

During his time in office, Pennsylvania Governor Samuel Pennypacker (cousin of Major General Galusha Pennypacker and Major General George Armstrong Custer) made his home in Schwenksville at Pennypacker Mills, a 170-acre farm and mansion that eight generations of Pennypackers (including Galusha Pennypacker) lived in before it was eventually donated to Montgomery County and is now a historic park. Virginia Pennypacker (wife of Governor Pennypacker) was known as a cordial hostess. She traveled with her husband on diplomatic errands as well as abroad with the family. She also oversaw the servants at both the Executive Mansion in Harrisburg and at Pennypacker Mills. It should be noted that General George Washington used Pennypacker Mills as his headquarters in Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War.

Pennypacker Mills was used by General Washington during Revolutionary War

Appendix 1: Boy Generals of the Union

Appendix 2: Boy Generals of the Confederacy

Bibliography

Introduction

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Edward W. Whitaker

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Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon

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John C. C. Sanders

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Ranald S. Mackenzie

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Emory Upton

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Nelson A. Miles

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William Henry Seward Jr.

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William Henry Fitzhugh Lee

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Felix H. Robertson

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Stephen D. Ramseur

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Robert Frederick Hoke

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Elon Farnsworth

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Joseph Wheeler

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Thomas Benton Smith

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Micah Jenkins

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Fitzhugh Lee

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Godfrey Weitzel

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Pierce Manning Butler Young

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Thomas L. Rosser

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Warnes, Kathy. “Two Cavalry Commanders – George Armstrong Custer and Thomas Lafayette Rosser, Sr.” Monroe Memories and More, Monroe Michigan, 15 March 2017.

Wesley Merritt

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Way, Ron. “Northfield's 'Defeat of Jesse James': Last gasp of the civil war.” Star Tribune, 2 September 2016.

Francis C. Barlow

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J.E.B. Stuart

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Afterword

Baatz, Simon. The Girl on the Velvet Swing: Sex, Murder, and Madness at the Dawn of the Twentieth Century. New York: Little, Brown, 2018.

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Wert, Jeffry D. “George Armstrong Custer: Between Myth and Reality.” Civil War Times, March/April 2006.

Whittaker, Frederick. A Complete Life of Gen. George A. Custer. New York: Sheldon & Company, 1876.

Wilson, Raymond C. Beyond the Bighorn: The Afterlife of George Armstrong Custer. Los Gatos, California: Smashwords Publishing Company, 2021.

Wilson, Raymond C. Custer’s Luck Has Run Out: George Armstrong Custer’s Changing Image. Los Gatos, California: Smashwords Publishing Company, 2021.

Wilson, Raymond C. George Armstrong Custer and the Pennypackers of Pennsylvania. Los Gatos, California: Smashwords Publishing Company, 2022.

Appendix 1: Boy Generals of the Union

“List of American Civil War brevet generals (Union).” Wikipedia, 11 August 2023.

Appendix 2: Boy Generals of the Confederacy

“List of American Civil War generals (Confederate).” Wikipedia, 26 July 2023.

About Raymond C. Wilson

Raymond C. Wilson is a military historian, filmmaker, and amateur genealogist. During his military career as an enlisted soldier, warrant officer, and commissioned officer in the U.S. Army for twenty-one years, Wilson served in a number of interesting assignments both stateside and overseas. He had the honor of serving as Administrative Assistant to Brigadier General George S. Patton (son of famed WWII general) at the Armor School; Administrative Assistant to General of the Army Omar Nelson Bradley at the Pentagon; and Military Assistant to the Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon. In 1985, Wilson was nominated by the Adjutant General Branch to serve as a White House Fellow for one year in Washington, D.C.

While on active duty, Wilson authored numerous Army regulations as well as articles for professional journals including 1775 (Adjutant General Corps Regimental Association magazine), Program Manager (Journal of the Defense Systems Management College), and Army Trainer. He also wrote, directed, and produced three training films for Army-wide distribution.

Following his retirement from the U.S. Army in 1992, Wilson made a career change to the education field. He served as Vice President of Admissions and Development at Florida Air Academy; Vice President of Admissions and Community Relations at Oak Ridge Military Academy; Adjunct Professor of Corresponding Studies at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College; and Senior Academic Advisor at Eastern Florida State College.

While working at Florida Air Academy, Wilson wrote articles for several popular publications including the Vincent Curtis Educational Register and the South Florida Parenting Magazine. At Oak Ridge Military Academy, Wilson co-wrote and co-directed two teen reality shows that appeared on national television (Nickelodeon & ABC Family Channel). As an Adjunct Professor at U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Wilson taught effective communications and military history for eighteen years. At Eastern Florida State College, Wilson wrote, directed, and produced a documentary entitled “Wounded Warriors - Their Struggle for Independence” that earned a 5-star rating from Phi Theta Kappa.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Galusha Pennypacker

Lewis T. Barney

John Edward Murray

George Armstrong Custer

William P. Roberts

John H. Kelly

Edward W. Whitaker

Charles Augustus Ropes Dimon

William Francis Bartlett

John C. C. Sanders

Ranald S. Mackenzie

Emory Upton

Nelson A. Miles

William Henry Seward Jr.

William Henry Fitzhugh Lee

Felix H. Robertson

Stephen D. Ramseur

Robert Frederick Hoke

Elon Farnsworth

Joseph Wheeler

Thomas Benton Smith

Micah Jenkins

Fitzhugh Lee

Godfrey Weitzel

Pierce Manning Butler Young

Thomas L. Rosser

Wesley Merritt

Adelbert Ames

Francis C. Barlow

J.E.B. Stuart

Afterword

Appendix 1: Boy Generals of the Union

Appendix 2: Boy Generals of the Confederacy

Bibliography

About Raymond C. Wilson