George Armstrong Custer | Philip Kearny | Abraham Lincoln |
George G Meade | Thomas Francis Meagher | George Henry Thomas |
Nathan Bedford Forrest | Ambrose Powell Hill | John Bell Hood |
Thomas J Jackson | Robert Edward Lee | James Longstreet
George Edward Pickett |

George Armstrong Custer

George Armstrong Custer was born in the Mid-Western State of Ohio on the 5th December 1839 at New Rumley, one of the many settlements spread across the Continent.

Custer's great-uncle Jacob founded New Rumley in 1812, the Custers were Farmers of German stock who had settled in Pennsylvania, and then to Maryland where George's Father Emanuel was born in 1806 and moved to New Rumley when Emanuel was a young man.

George's Father, by all accounts, was a good-humoured jovial man of large proportions. A staunch Democrat, he prided himself on being self-sufficient. A firm Methodist with strong views on the evils of liquor, tobacco and gambling. He had even helped to found the Methodist Church there. In 1828 Emanuel married the first of his wives but who died six years later (1834) having bore him three Children. In 1837 he married Maria Ward Kilpatrick, a Widow with children of her own living in New Rumley.

The first two children she bore him died in infancy, George the third child was obviously of sterner stuff and his father doted on him taking him, when he was four years old to Militia meetings (the New Rumley Invincibles), George dressed in a brass-buttoned velvet suit (sound familiar), would march up and down behind the Militia.

The Custer clan was large even by 19th Century standards, the house was always full of noise and his father loved playing practical jokes, a trait which Autie (as George was nick-named) shares.

When Autie was ten years old he was sent to stay with his married stepsister Anne (Reed) in Monroe, Michigan, in order to attend the Stebbins Academy, which offered the best education at that time.

Monroe was a quiet country town on the shore of Lake Erie (named after and earlier President) and as far as I know no relationship to my family, but you never know! He did well at his lessons, but was more interested in sports, trying his hand at Wrestling, which he was good at, and running. At the age of fourteen he attended the local Seminary and was considering a career in the Military, and hoped to go to West Point but did not have the backing of a sponsor or the finances to enable him to do so.

His second choice of career was as a teacher, which he undertook at the small village school of Beech Point Monroe, and was popular with his pupils.

Around this time Autie fell in love with Mary Holland (the daughter of his Landlord) and sent her letters and poems asking her to marry him. Unfortunately her father was against it, and because of this probably decided to sponsor Autie's attendance at West Point along with the help of their local Congressman John Bingham, and in 1857 Autie set off for the United States Military Academy on the Judson River in New York State. In order to raise the money, Emanuel Custer had sold the farm.

108 boys took the entrance exam, only 68 passed - Autie was one of them. Any ex-soldiers will remember what basic training was like and so it was for Autie (only worse), ahead of him was years of endless studying, mathematics, tactics, drill and dress parades. In the summer there were encampments where the Cadets would practice what they had learned! The instructors ruled the Academy with an iron fist. (Someone described the place as Legalised Despotism), but on passing out the cadets knew they would be treated as America's Elite.

George was always in trouble with his instructors, talking on parade, scruffy uniform, gambling in quarters idle at drill, and often punished with extra guard duties.

At this time events were unfolding, the Civil War was looming ever closer. In the autumn of 1860 the topic of conversation among the Cadets was the impending spectre of war between the North and South.

The cadets from the South left one by one, Autie was in trouble as usual. He was arrested and Court Martialled for not stopping a fight between two cadets while on duty as Officer of the Guard, and could only watch from the guardhouse as his classmates marched off to the war. Speaking on his behalf, his friends had his court-martial postponed and Second Lieutenant George Armstrong Custer rushed off to war, stopping in New York long enough to buy his uniform and equipment.

His exploits between 1861 and the 1870's are well documented and I will leave the reader to form his/her own opinion of the man, the soldier and his (LUCK?).

Pvt. S C Munro, Bty. B. 2nd US Artillery

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, December 1999

Philip Kearny

Kearny was born in New York, June 2nd, 1815 and after his mother died when he was 9, he spent his childhood and youth with his maternal grandfather, a man of wealth and high social position. Kearny’s uncle, Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, was a US dragoon and Philip favoured a military life, but his grandfather, who had lost all his sons, persuaded him to go to Columbia University. After graduating in 1833, Kearny travelled widely. When his grandfather died, leaving him a million dollars, he returned home and in 1837 obtained a commission as 2nd Lieutenant in the 1st US Dragoons. After 2 years service with them, the secretary of war sent him to the French Cavalry School at Saumur to study cavalry tactics. While there, Kearny saw action in Algiers, serving with the Chasseurs d’Afrique. On his return to the US, he served as aide-de-camp to, successively, Alexander Macomb and Winfield Scott, generals-in-chief of the army. In the Mexican War, Kearny accompanied Scott to Mexico City and at Churubusco was wounded so severely that his left arm had to be amputated. He was brevetted major for gallantry and, after service in California, resigned from the army, married, and made his home in New Jersey. The military attracted him again in 1859, when he served in Napoleon III’s Imperial Guard in the Italian War, winning the French Legion of Honour for bravery at Solferino. When the Civil War started, Kearny was appointed brigadier general of volunteers, commanding a brigade of New Jersey regiments in Brig. Gen. William B Franklin’s division. One of the best known and respected soldiers in the army, he distinguished himself during the Peninsula Campaign, rising to major general to command of the 1st Division of Maj. Gen. Samuel P Heitzelman’s III Corps. After Second Bull Run, he accidentally rode into the enemy lines during the indecisive Battle of Chantilly, 1 September 1862, and was killed instantly. He was buried in Trinity Churchyard in New York City but was later moved to the National Cemetery at Arlington, Va. The New Jersey town in which he had resided was renamed Kearny in his honour.

Pvt. R J Page, 2nd S.C.

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, December 2001

Abraham Lincoln

OLD ABE - THE EARLY YEARS

Abraham Lincoln was descended from English stock that had settled in Virginia just prior to the War of Independence. His Grandfather whom he was named after had been a Captain in the Virginia Militia.

In the year 1782, Lincoln's grandfather had moved the family westward to Kentucky, a couple of years later Abraham Snr. was shot by an Indian who was in turn shot by Mordechai Lincoln, one of his sons. The incident was witnessed by six-year-old Thomas Lincoln, another son and the future President's father.

Thomas worked at a variety of trades including carpentry. On the 12th June 1806, he married Nancy Hanks and their first child Sarah was born the following year.

Two years after he married Nancy, Tom moved the family to a farm near Hodgenville, Kentucky, there he built a log cabin into which the future President was born on 12th February 1809. The young baby was given to his young cousin Dennis, a nine year old, to hold who commented "He'll never come to much".

When Abe was two years old, the family moved to another farm nearby at Knob Creek. A year later Nancy had another son Thomas Jnr. who died a few days after being born.

Abe and Sarah started school at what was termed the local Blab school (so called because the children were made to repeat their lessons out loud). There Abe would learn the American equivalent of the three R's.

His father Thomas, was experiencing problems proving that the land he had paid for was his (it may be because of these difficulties that Abe Jnr. decided on a career in the law). Thomas moved his family again, this time to Little Pidgeon Creek, Indiana, near the Ohio river. There they built a cabin, and the family subsisted on what they could shoot and gather in the woods.

Abe's mother died on the 8th October 1818,and soon afterwards Abe was kicked by a horse and was unconscious for a few hours, but recovered none the worse for the experience.

A year after Nancy died, Thomas Lincoln went to Elizabethtown, Kentucky on business and returned home with a new wife (a widow with three children of her own) called Sarah Bush Johnston. The small cabin now had eight people living in it. Unlike all fairy tales, young Abe was very fond of his stepmother.

Occasionally Abe went to school in Pidgeon Creek but apparently learned far more at home from books (cousin Dennis recalled that he never saw Abe unless he was reading a book).

He grew to be exceptionally tall, 6ft 4ins (1.9 metres). In 1828 when he was nineteen, a farmer called James Gentry hired Abe to take a cargo of goods down the Mississippi to New Orleans after building a flatboat. He and Allen Gentry set off on the long trip, staying in the city for a few days before returning home by steamboat.

In 1830 (just after Abe's twenty-first birthday) the family moved again westward to Illinois (the journey according to Abe) was slow and tiresome. On arrival the family had to build a cabin and clear a few acres of Virgin Prairie for farmland. The same year, Abe made his first political speech during a campaign meeting in the town of Decatur.

When the family moved again the following spring, Abe did not go with them. He undertook a second Flatboat trip down the Mississippi with his cousin, John Hanks and his stepbrother John D Johnston. On his return to Illinois Abe took a job as a clerk in the store of Denton Offutt, the man who had hired him to go to New Orleans. Abe was also gaining a reputation as an athlete, having won a wrestling bout organised by his employer.

Abe continued to study, especially Law and was already thinking about going into Politics, deciding to run as the Whig candidate in the forthcoming State Government elections. His foray into politics was interrupted by the Black Hawk War when he was elected Captain of his Militia Company (he was said to have gained more satisfaction from that election than any of the later ones). Abe only served eighty days because the war ended with the capture of Black Hawk.

Abe was not elected to the Illinois State Government that year, and he was unemployed for a while. He then joined forces with a Merchant named William Berry and together they ran a General store. To while away the tedious hours, he kept up his studies, as well as taking on the job of Postmaster of New Salem in 1833 ,at a salary of $50.00 per year. In 1835 William Berry died leaving Abe to settle his debts (an enormous sum for the times) of $1100 which was to hang like a millstone around Abe's neck for years, before he finally paid it off.

Prior to Berry's death Abe had stood as a candidate for the Whig party and was elected to the State Legislature and set off for Vandalia (the Capital of Illinois at that time) in November 1834 and met for the first time Stephen A Douglas, one of his most powerful opponents in later life.

He returned to New Salem in February 1835 when the session ended and resumed his Law studies. In December he returned to the State Capital for the second year, at the end of which he was re-elected for a further term. He also passed his Law examinations which allowed him to obtain a license to practice law in the courts of Illinois.

In 1837 he went into partnership with a J T Stuart and in 1840 Abe became engaged to Mary Todd (who as a young girl, used to tell her friends that the man she married would become President).

It is said that Stephen A Douglas also had his eye on the young lady. Abe and Mary were married on the 4th November 1842. The Lincolns, had four sons (Robert Todd born 1843, the only one of the four to live to manhood, Edward Baker born 1845 and died 1849, William Wallace born 1850 and died 1862, Thomas (Tad) born 1853 and died 1871).

In 1841 Abe and Stuart ended their legal partnership and Abe started his own law firm with William H Herndon and the two became good friends. Their partnership lasted until 1861 and only ceased when Abe was inaugurated as President.

In 1846 Abe was elected to Congress and his term ended in 1849 - He did not seek re-election. He was offered the post of secretary of the Territory of Oregon which he turned down and he returned to his law practice, as he thought his political career was over! That is until Stephen A Douglas proposed the repeal of the Missouri Compromise which stated that any new states that were formed had to be done in pairs, one slave and one free, in order to keep balance.

With the enormous amount of new land acquired after the Mexican war it would mean that the Southerners would want with the repeal of the compromise to insist on all new States below the 36th parallel being admitted as Slave States and so upsetting the balance in Congress.

Abe was against this as were most of the North. Whig opponents of slavery were now joining the new Republican party and so did Abe in 1856. In June Abe was nominated as Republican Vice-Presidential candidate but was not elected In 1858 the Republicans nominated Abe as their choice to represent Illinois in the Senate. His opponent was Stephen A Douglas who won the election, but in 1860 Abe Lincoln was elected President (and the rest as they say, is History).

S Munro, Bty. B, 2nd US Artillery

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, April 2000

General George G. Meade (1815-1872)

In June 1863, the Union faced its darkest days in the Civil War. The Confederate Army, led by General Robert E Lee, had not lost a battle in two years and was now striking northward into Pennsylvania. The Northern people were panic-stricken. New leadership was needed and on June 28th 1863, President Lincoln appointed General George G Meade commander of the Army of the Potomac, replacing General (Fighting) Joe Hooker.

Meade was born in Cadiz, Spain, the son of a United States naval agent. He won an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. in 1831. He graduated in 1835 and was immediately ordered to Florida for service in the Seminole Wars. A year later he resigned from the Army to work as a surveyor. Meade was married in 1840 and returned to the army in 1842 as a second Lieutenant in the Topographical Engineers. He served well in the Mexican War, and when the Civil War broke out, he became a brigadier general of volunteers. At the time of his sudden appointment to lead the Army of the Potomac, he was commander of the V Corps.

A few days after his appointment on July 1st 1863, a surprise encounter plunged his army into the Battle of Gettysburg; the greatest ever fought on American soil. Through three days of terrific fighting, Meade defended the Union position against all Confederate attacks. Lee finally acknowledged defeat by withdrawing from Virginia.

Meade was severely criticised at the time for failing to pursue and crush the shaken Confederates. Nonetheless, he had succeeded in defeating Lee and had broken the string of Confederate victories. In 1864 he received the thanks of Congress and was commissioned a major general in the regular army. He retained his command until the end of the war, but after General Ulysses S Grant took over all Union forces in March 1864, Meade had only nominal leadership of the Army of the Potomac.

After the war, Meade commanded the division of the Atlantic in 1865-66 and the department of the east in 1866-67. In 1868-9, he commanded the military district that included Georgia, Alabama and Florida, where his firm justice helped ease the difficult period of reconstruction.

Meade died in Philadelphia on November 6th 1872.

Alan Grimes, 2nd US Infantry.

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, August 1998

General Thomas Francis Meagher

Almost everyone has heard of General Thomas Francis Meagher, the very popular commander of the Union Irish Brigade, but how many of you know of the colourful life and accomplishments of Meagher before, and after, the War Between the States.

Meagher was born in 1823 to a fairly wealthy and influential family in the town of Waterford in the Southeast part of Ireland. As a young man, he was sent away to be educated at a Jesuit school in County Kildare but later transferred to Stoneyhurst College in Lancashire, England. It was from here that Meagher graduated in 1843 and he returned to Ireland to continue his studies further and become a lawyer. At the age of 23, he made his first venture into politics and due to the fiery nature of his oratory, he became known as "Meagher of the Sword". As he and his "Young Ireland" party became more influential and well known, his speeches were often quoted by admirers in Ireland and even overseas in France and America. He was so admired in France that they sent him a tricolour flag similar in design to the French National flag except with Green, White and Orange as the three colours. (This same flag would eventually be flown in the 1916 uprising and would be adopted as the official flag of independent Eire in 1937) During the potato famine in 1848, Meagher and other members of his Young Ireland party took part in a rebellion but due to lack or arms and support, they were soon arrested and charged with "Treason against the Queen". During the trial Meagher had the audacity to instruct the judge that if he would only be lenient in his sentencing, Meagher and his friends would not only repeat the treason but would try much better to succeed and not get caught a second time!

Meagher and his fellow prisoners were sentenced to be "hung, drawn and quartered" a particularly vicious death but due to public outcry the sentence was reduced to deportation for life to Van Diemans Land which is now known as Tasmania. This reduced sentence proved to be a costly one to England and the Crown for, of the nine men who were deported, Meagher and two others would become U.S. Army generals, one would become Governor General of Newfoundland, one the Attorney General of Australia, one a member of Parliament in Canada and one very prominent in New York public affairs. It was 1849 when Meagher was deported but he and others escaped and in 1852 Meagher showed up in San Francisco. Travelling on to New York, he promptly took up his law studies for three more years and was finally admitted to the bar. In 1856 he started his own newspaper called "The Irish News" and in 1858 he had a report published in Harper's Weekly about an expedition he had just made to Central America. All this publicity made him a leader of the Irish community in New York and so when The War Between the States began in 1861, Irishmen flocked to join the brigade being organised by Meagher. The exploits of this brigade are legendary at Antietam, Gettysburg, and especially at Fredericksburg where the brigade would suffer appalling losses in many fruitless charges against well protected Confederate positions.

After the war, Meagher and his friends encouraged many Irish families to move out to the western territories with them and it was in 1865 that Meagher was made territorial secretary of Montana, serving under governor Edgerton. When the governor left Montana on an extended trip, Meagher became acting governor and was promptly branded as inept in the job. He was also accused of being a womaniser and a drunkard. Most of these charges were brought against Meagher by vigilantes who were still operating in Montana territory at the time. The furious opposition to Meagher forced him to organise cavalry troops to help enforce the rules in the territory. It was on July 1st of 1867 that Meagher left for Fort Benton with "a large amount of money" to purchase arms and ammunition for his cavalry enforcers. On arrival at Fort Benton he found that the supply shop carrying the arms was late in arriving and being extremely impatient, he decided to take a steamer to travel down river to meet the supply ship. Meagher was seen boarding the steamer but was never seen again nor was his body ever found. The large amount of money also vanished with him. He was officially reported as "having wandered on deck and drowned after falling overboard". Many people suspected he had been murdered or even committed suicide, but many more vouched that he and the money had simply disappeared back to Ireland to fight once again for Irish freedom. Whatever the fate of Meagher, there is a popular saying amongst exiled Irishmen which says, "May you die in Ireland". Maybe he did.

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, December 1999

Thomas of Nashville

George Henry Thomas was not a man to be hurried as illustrated by one of his formidable list of nicknames, 'Slow Trot' bestowed upon him by his West Point cadets in the days when he had been an instructor there. In the autumn of 1864 he was commander, with the rank of Brevet Major General, of the Union's Army of the Cumberland which he had led with some success at Missionary Ridge and in the campaigns with General Sherman during the preceding year.

In the early winter of 1864, the Confederate General Hood, with an army estimated as anything between 23,000 and 40,000 men, hoped to break through Tennessee into Kentucky. There he expected he would be able to pick up thousands of recruits, destroy Thomas' army and then move east into Virginia, link up with Lee and jointly defeat the Army of the Potomac - General Mead commanding, General Grant in overall charge.

In the closing days of November, Hood advanced. Things looked good until he confronted the Federal General Schofield, whom he failed to envelop with his cavalry and also failed to destroy Union forces at Spring Hill, who managed to withstand several Rebel assaults before withdrawing to Franklin, some fifteen miles south of Nashville. Hood was furious, blaming everyone but himself. At Franklin, he ordered his troops to make a head-on attack upon their Union foes, despite the fact that most of his artillery was far in the rear and much of his cavalry were elsewhere. Twenty two thousand Confederate infantrymen attacked; the fighting became hand-to-hand but eventually the Rebels were forced to pull back. Desultory fighting continued into the dark hours and Schofield was able to break off and move north to Nashville. Hood's casualties had been 7,000 (three times the Federal numbers) including no less than a dozen Generals, six of whom had been killed. These included Pat Cleburne, one of the most able and far-sighted Confederate Generals of the war. Despite these losses, Hood would not be deflected; he marched his army onwards towards Nashville and entrenched his battered troops along a line of hills south of the Capital of Tennessee. He then waited for Thomas to attack.

So did Grant, Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Armies; So did Stanton, Secretary for War; So did Lincoln, President of the United States.

Stanton raged and stormed, as was his way that Thomas was no good and his inactivity looked like McClellan's policy of doing little and allowing the Rebels to raid the Country at will. Lincoln pondered quietly, as was his way. Grant, seeming to lose his nerve for the first time in his military career, sent telegram after telegram urging Thomas to attack. As he put it when reminiscing years later:

"At last I had to say to General Thomas that I should be obliged to remove him unless he acted promptly. He replied that he was very sorry, but he would move as soon as he could."

And Thomas intended to move as soon as he could. As soon as there was frost. As soon as the ground was hard enough for him to readily move his troops and guns - he waited; Grant despaired.

"General Logan happening to visit City Point about that time and knowing him as a prompt, gallant and efficient officer, I gave him an order to proceed to Nashville to relieve Thomas .... I became restless and concluded to go myself."

But by this time Thomas had moved. The fight that followed, The Battle of Nashville has been described by one historian (McPherson) as "like Joe Louis' second fight with Max Schmeling," a knock out that almost destroyed the adversary.

One division pinned down Hood's right with a left jab while three corps cracked the other flank with a devastating right.

As usual the Rebels fought stubbornly and valiantly and hung on until at last, under hammer-like blows at their left, they retreated a couple of miles, forming a shorter line with a hill at both ends.

The next day, 50,000 Union troops advanced and again the Confederates hung on until, by late afternoon after dismounted US cavalrymen had moved around to their rear, and using their rapid firing Sharps Carbines to create carnage, the Rebels collapsed. They ran, abandoning their guns, small arms and much other equipment.

For nearly two weeks there was a chase, the Federals attempting to kill, maim or capture as many Rebels as possible. Indeed had it not been for some skilful rear-guard action by that frightful genius Nathan Bedford Forrest, Hood's army may well have been obliterated. As it was, its routed remnants ended up at Topelo, Mississippi. In effect, a Confederate army had been destroyed.

General Hood "resigned" on the 13 January.

Thomas' victory at Nashville, however numbers or other factors may have assisted him, was the most complete victory in a major engagement won by either side in the American Civil War.

Congress voted Thomas its thanks.

Secretary Stanton lay low and said little.

Terry Haynes, Pvt. 2ndUS, Artillery.

Sources:
Mark M Boatne, The Civil War Dictionary
US Grant Personal Memoirs
James P McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom
W Burbeck Wood and Colonel J E Edmonds R.E., A History of the Civil War in the United States 1861-65

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, August 1998

Nathan Bedford Forrest

Uneducated but not illiterate, Nathan Bedford Forrest was a natural tactician who earned the praise of his enemies. Both Grant and Sherman feared this man who entered the Confederate forces a private and left a general. The stories of him are legend.

• With Fort Donelson supposedly surrounded, he stormed from a meeting where the commanding officers were preparing to surrender and led his cavalry and a number of infantry out of the area without a shot being fired at him.
• At Pittsburgh Landing (Shiloh) he charged and routed a line of Union skirmishers by himself in defence of the retreating rebel army.
• In Murfreesboro, Tennessee he freed a garrison jail of locals imprisoned, according to the Union commander, for attacks on patrols near their farms. Advised to leave after the successful escape the colonel replied, "I did not come here to make half a job of it, I want them all" and proceeded to demand unconditional surrender of the entire garrison. The Union commanders had more men, guns and an entrenched position but surrendered anyway, unaware that Forrest was bluffing.

During Bragg's retreat through Tennessee he used Forrest repeatedly as his rear guard. Later, protecting the Confederate right during the battle of Chickamauga he won the accolades of Bragg's staff when his men dismounted and attacked as infantry, pressuring the Federals to retreat from their position near the creek to one more in line with other Union troops at the Lafayette Road.

Immediately after the battle it was Forrest who reported the Federals were in full retreat to Chattanooga and the Army of Tennessee should attack, sound advice that Brag ignored. This widened a rift between Forrest and his commander. Bragg, who was having problems with most of his subordinates after Chickamauga ordered Forrest to "turn his troops over" and report to Gen. Joseph Wheeler, fully aware that Forrest had vowed never to fight with Wheeler again. An angry Forrest confronted Bragg over the orders, threatening the Commander of the Army of Tennessee with bodily harm. Bragg never reported the incident because he realised that Forrest was too important to the cause to be jailed for insubordination. Forrest was assigned to an area further west.

His engagement of Federal troops at Brice's Crossroads on June 10, 1864 is considered by many the perfect battle. Union Major General Samuel D. Sturgis, with 8,000 men was marching south into northern Mississippi to block the cavalry from attacking Sherman's supply lines. When Sturgis ran into Forrest's dismounted horsemen he assembled a perimeter around the crossroads. Forrest flanked him on both sides, the same double envelopment that worked so well near Bowling Green. The blue coats ran. A bridge over the Tishomingo Creek became a roadblock for the retreating army and ever vigilant for such opportunity, the Confederate general pounced. Sturgis would later write "What was confusion became chaos…" as the rebels pounded the fleeing blues. With less than three thousand men Forrest had destroyed an enemy more than twice the manpower.

Assisting Confederate General John B. Hood in the abortive Nashville Campaign, Forrest could see the end was near for the Confederacy. As Lee and then Johnston surrendered their forces in April, 1865, the rebel cavalryman told a friend that he had a tough time deciding if he should continue the fight in Mexico or give up. His was the last group of men to surrender east of the Mississippi. After the war he ran Selma Railroad and led a small group of men that acted as enforcers for the Democratic Party in the South, the Ku Klux Klan. Diabetes took its toll on Forrest and he passed away a frail man in 1877.

Born: Chapel Hill, Tennessee, July 13, 1821

Died: Memphis, Tennessee, October 29, 1877

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, February 1998

Some More Facts about N. B. Forrest

Born of English/Irish stock, a farmer and blacksmith. Place of residence, Duck River Country, Chapel Hill. Much chastised by his mother. Many childhood legends abound. Killed a rattlesnake whilst blackberrying; dived naked into a muddy creek to recover a lost knife and retrieved it; hurled from his horse into the maws of two watch dogs he was tormenting and escaped from further punishment because the dogs were startled; travelled west at 13 years in 1834 when the family moved to Salem, Mississippi. Was not very good at reading and writing; took over as head of the family in 1837 when his father died.

At 12 he could shoe a horse, cast and weld. The Forrests gave seven sons to the service of their country, from the Mexican wars to the end of the civil war. The baby brother, Nathan who died in his arms at the Battle of Oklona. Nathan's mother remarried - a Scots/Irishman (Joseph Luxton) and had a further three girls and three more boys. During a heated argument in Hernando 1845, he became embroiled in a fight, saw his uncle shot dead, was given a Bowie knife to defend himself, with which he took out one assailant and shot two others. A fourth fled the field. Nathan himself was wounded by a pistol ball. All were arrested, charged and fined. Though Nathan was set free for acting in self defence, the victim of several "bush whack" attempts, surviving by the quickness of his draw. Always the gentleman, the love of his life was a Miss Mary Ann-Montgomery, a young lady of Irish descent. She came from fighting stock - at least one of her forebears had died a soldier's death in Quebec in 1775 and she was a woman. Nathan was married in September 25th, 1845. He ran a successful business dealing in real estate and a dealer in slaves. Nathan took great care of his slaves, making them bathe then dressing them in good clean clothes. He wouldn't split a family up and would always purchase the whole unit! He was a fair man who didn't beat his workers and proof, by 1860, over 1000 bales of cotton had been sent from the Forrest plantation. He was a proven orator and leader of men.

An Alderman of the city in 1861 and rigid opponent of sharp practice and graft. It was only by hard and honest work that the Forrests became rich.

In the first clash of arms at Charleston, April 1861, he was of the opinion that "good citizens made good soldiers", and as such he handed over his affairs to his wife and set out to Memphis and enlisted as a trooper in Dr White's company of the Tennessee Mounted Rifles. But it wasn't long before he was called upriver to Nashville by Governor Harris to form his own regiment of Cavalry. His appeal for "Mounted Rangers" eventually led him to a Captain Overton at Brandenburg on the Ohio. Called "Boone Rangers". Forrest met up, enrolled them all, arriving at Nolin in dribs and drabs to avoid the "Northern Home Guards". The Company eventually mustered some 650 men. Apart from N.B's own purchase of 500 pistols and saddles, most were armed only with shotguns and pistols. The arms "furnished by the state" failed to materialise. The whole unit were situated in Fort Donaldson and had an area of 60 miles from Cumberland and Green Rivers to patrol.

N.B. Forrest's first encounter was with a steamer - the "Conestoga".

Gleanings from several sources.

B S Spencer, 28th Mass. Vol. Inf.

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, June 1999

Ambrose Powell Hill

Hill was born in Culpepper, Virginia and educated at the United States Military Academy. He served in the Mexican-American War and Seminole Wars and from 1855 to 1860 with the US Coastal Survey. In 1861, just before the outbreak of the Civil War, Hill resigned from the army to become a colonel in the Confederate service. He fought with distinction in many major campaigns, and in 1863 he was made a lieutenant general, commanding one of the three corps of the Army of Robert E Lee. His troops led the attack that began the Battle of Gettysburg. Hill played an important part in the Wilderness Campaign of 1864; he was killed in 1865 in the fighting around Petersburg, Virginia.

A P Hill Biography provided by Alan Grimes (From Microsoft's Encarta 98 Encyclopaedia)

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, February 1998

JOHN BELL HOOD

When Confederate General John Bell Hood rode into Atlanta in July 1864 to take charge of the embattled Army of Tennessee, he was already in the midst of another desperate campaign: a frustrating and ultimately heartbreaking love affair with South Carolina belle Sally Buchanan "Buck" Preston. The ill-fated Hood would lose both campaigns, one by fighting too hard, the other - ironically - by not fighting hard enough.

The tall, handsome general and the lovely young socialite met in Richmond in the winter of 1862-63. Hood, at 31, was a dozen years older than Buck Preston chronologically, but he was far behind her in drawing-room polish and matters of the heart. His first compliment to her was typical of his romantic maladroitness. Miss Preston, he told his aide John Darby (who would later marry Buck's sister Mary). "stood on her feet like a thoroughbred". What the cultured young lady thought about being compared to a horse may be readily guessed.

Buck Preston's suitors had a bad habit of turning up dead - one was killed in a duel with his cousin, two others died at Gaines' Mill and Fredericksburg - and Hood must have wondered if he would be next. At Gettysburg he lost the use of his left arm, and two months later at Chickamauga he had his right leg amputated at the hip. Neither wound, however, prevented him from pressing his suit with Buck, who received the twice-wounded general "with tears not quite in her eyes but audible in her voice".

Mary Boykin Chestnut, the celebrated diarist and Richmond socialite, was a long time friend of the Preston family, and she recorded Hood's stumbling courtship dryly, if sympathetically. She was well aware of Buck Preston's flirtatious nature. Her young protégéé had "a knack of being fallen in love with at sight, and of never being fallen out of love with". Certainly, she had that effect on Hood, who had barely gotten up on crutches after his Chickamauga wound before he was back at Buck's side. He could not know that the object of his adoration had already told Mrs Chestnut: "I never cared particularly about (Hood)…I would not marry him if he had a thousand legs instead of having just lost one".

Still, Hood persisted, in love, as in war; he knew only one method of combat - full-scale attack. Despite being turned down at least twice by Buck when he proposed marriage, the general kept after her, In Richmond, the on-again, off-again affair was the source of both merriment and sympathy. Colonel Charles Venable, one of Robert E Lee's aides and a relative by marriage of the Prestons, observed to Mrs Chestnut: "Buck can't help it. She must flirt…She does not care for the man. It is sympathy with the wounded soldier. Helpless Hood".

But Hood was not as helpless as Venable thought. By dint of pure persistence, he managed to win from Buck a somewhat contingent acceptance of marriage. "I am so proud, so grateful. The sun never shone on a happier man", he told Mrs Chestnut. "Such a noble girl, a queen among women". The worldly Mrs Chestnut was still not convinced. "So the tragedy has been played out", she wrote in her diary, "for I do not think even now that she is in earnest". It did not speak well of Buck's devotion that when Hood went to church with Confederate President Jefferson Davis before leaving Richmond for the Georgia front in 1864, she was seated one row behind him, but did not raise her head - or her veil - to look at him throughout the entire service.

Probably the resistance of Buck's family to having the uncultured Hood as a new in-law doomed the courtship from the start. To Buck's credit she seems to have withstood the general's headlong advances with as much grace and comparative kindness as she could muster. Nevertheless, she and Hood seemed to have entertained some thought of marriage as late as February 1865, when Hood stopped to visit the Prestons at their home in Columbia, S.C. the visit did not go well. Buck's sister Mary, together with her new husband, Charles Darby, joined Buck's parents in opposing the marriage. Hood, already demoralised by his long string of defeats at Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville, had lost the will to fight - even for the woman he loved. He rode away, never to see Buck Preston again.

Sadly, he never realised how close he had come to victory. Buck herself alluded to the lost moment when she told Mary Chestnut: "If he had been persistent, if he had not given way under Mamie's (Mary's) violent refusal to listen to us, if he had asked me. When you refused to let anybody be married in your house - well, I would have gone down on the sidewalk; I would have married him on the pavement, if the parson could be found to do it. I was ready to leave all the world for him, to tie my clothes in a bundle, and live like a soldier's wife, trudge after to the ends of the earth, Does that sound like me? It was true that day". In the end, "the Gallant Hood" had not been gallant enough.

Article Supplied by Len Boardman (General Lee)

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, August 1998

Stonewall Jackson - Legend or Looney?

They do say that the first casualty of War is Truth. This is probably particularly the case in the American Civil War, where even the reason given for the conflict varied depending on where you lived. So it came as no surprise to me to happen across the following claims whilst reading something otherwise not connected with the American Civil War.

General Thomas J Jackson had many odd habits. He was a hypochondriac of the first order and believed, among other things, that one of his arms was bigger than the other. He therefore always walked or rode with one arm held straight up so that his blood would drain into his body.

He was also a very deep sleeper, and apparently could fall asleep at the table with food still in his mouth. (Nowadays he would probably be diagnosed as a narcoleptic)

At the Battle of White Oak Swamp, it proved impossible to wake him, whereupon he was lifted onto his horse where he continued to slumber amid the noise of exploding shells.

He seemed also to have been a compulsive book-keeper, detailing each and every item captured from the Union army right down to such entries as "six handkerchiefs, two and three-quarter dozen neckties, and one bottle of red ink".

He repeatedly disobeyed instructions and would not impart knowledge of his strategies to anyone. One officer under his command, when on the verge of a decisive victory, was ordered to withdraw from the town of Gordonsville and proceed to Staunton. Upon arrival, he found further orders to go at once to Mount Crawford, where he was then told to return to Gordonsville!

Jackson earned his reputation as a wily strategist by marching his men all over the Shenandoah Valley in an illogical and inexplicable way, which totally bewildered the enemy (I thought that was the general idea?).

Although it cannot be disputed that Jackson was a brave soldier, it has been suggested (not by me, I hasten to add) that he actually earned his famous nickname not by action but by inaction. The popular version is, of course, that while all around were retreating in disarray, Jackson stood "Like a stone wall". The other version has it that Jackson should have been advancing but had, once again, fallen asleep in the saddle. Since General Barnard Bee, who gave him the famous nickname at the First Battle of Manassas, was killed that same day, who is to say which version is closer to the truth?

Personally, I reckon this is a tissue of lies put about by the Yankees because their Generals didn't measure up. But then I would, wouldn't I?

Pvt. P Baker, 2nd South Carolina

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, October 1999

General Robert E. Lee - Early Years

General Robert E Lee's long and distinguished career was only to be expected, when you look at his Ancestors. One of his forebears had fought with William the conqueror. Another was involved in the third Crusade. Queen Elizabeth I had even knighted one of them. With a pedigree like that, I don't think even Lee would have considered life as a farmer to be in his future.

He was born in1807 on the lower Potomac, at the estate of his father Light horse Harry Lee who had won fame in the Revolutionary War as a Cavalry General. The estate (Stratford Hall) passed to Robert's half brother and harry moved his family into a smaller house in Alexandria due to his spiraling debts. When that failed to keep his creditors at bay, he fled to Barbados, leaving the then 6 year old Robert and his mother behind in Virginia. He never saw his father again.

Robert's Mother doted on Robert and was determined to instill in him her code of conduct as befits a member of the new Aristocracy. Lee went to West Point in 1825 and four years later had earned himself high praise. Coming second in his graduation class, without a single d-merit (black mark), on graduation he was posted to the corps of engineers and was sent to Georgia to work on Cockspur Island which later became Fort Pulaski on the mouth of the Savannah River.

In June 1831, Robert married a distant cousin, Mary Custis, who was related to the Washingtons.

Unfortunately, after giving birth to their second child in 1835, Mary developed arthritis, although this did not stop her from bearing Robert five more children.

Lee hated the long absences from his family that his duties required.

Lee's first taste of battle came during the Mexican war, where he further distinguished himself. He was breveted three times.

In 1852 he was appointed as Superintendent at West Point, a posting he apparently did not want and tried to avoid by stating to the Secretary of War, that the post needed "more skill and experience than I command". The Secretary did not agree and Lee reluctantly launched himself into his new duties with selfless zeal. he had stables erected for the horses and expanded the Officers quarters and the Cadet Hospital. He also tightened discipline and raised academic standards.

Lee avoided politics before the War but was thrust into the events of his time. In October 1859, Lt. Col. Lee led 93 US marines to quell John Brown's efforts to start a Slave Rebellion at the Armoury in Harpers Ferry.

In 1861, Lee was offered command of a new Army being formed to suppress the rebellion in the South. Lee declined stating "I could take no part in an invasion of the Southern States".

The die was cast!

Pvt S C Munro, 2nd US Art., Bty. B.

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, June 2002

General Robert E. Lee

Robert Edward Lee was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia on January 19, 1807. He was educated in Alexandria schools before graduating from West Point second in the Class of 1829. Lee was commissioned a 2^nd lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers and served various assignments. During the Mexican War he was breveted for gallantry three times and made a colonel. He was superintendent of West Point from 1852 through 1855, then served with the cavalry in Texas. While on leave he was put in charge of recapturing the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry from John Brown. He returned to Virginia when Texas seceded in February of 1861, then declined President Lincoln's offer to command of the U.S. Army after Fort Sumter fell.

Lee resigned his commission on April 20, 1861, became commander and chief of Virginia's military forces and was appointed brigadier general in the Regular Confederate States Army on May 14, 1861, and became special military advisor to Confederate President Davis. Lee took command of what he named "The Army of Northern Virginia" in March of 1862, then launched an offensive known as the Seven Days campaign on June 26, 1862. He drove McClellan back down the peninsula then defeated Pope at Second Manassas, August 29-30, 1861. The battle of Sharpsburg on September 17, 1862 proved to be a tactical victory but a strategic defeat when Lee had to retreat to Virginia. He soundly defeated Burnside at Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862, and won an even more decisive victory against Hooker - but lost his chief lieutenant "Stonewall" Jackson - at Chancellorsville, May 2-4, 1863, the turning point of the war. His much-depleted army opposed Grant's drive on Richmond, inflicting some 50,000 Federal casualties, but was pushed into defensive positions around Richmond and Petersburg. Lee was appointed commander of all Confederate armies during Sherman's march through Georgia and South Carolina. He abandoned the defences of the Confederate capital in March of 1865 and attempted to link up with Johnston against Sherman, but Grant brought him to bay at Appomattox. Lee surrendered on April 9, 1865.

Lee declined many prestigious job offers, and became president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) at Lexington, Virginia. Throughout the remainder of his life he urged his fellow Southerners to put the war behind them and become loyal Americans again. Lee died at Lexington on October 12, 1870, and is buried there.

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, February 1998

Longstreet and the Confederate Light Division, I Corps

James Longstreet, whose nicknames were 'Old Peter' and 'Old Pete', was seriously wounded on the 4th May 1864, on the Orange Plank Road at Spotsylvania. This was not five miles from where Jackson had met his fate a year before. He was placed on a litter and carried to the rear of the action. His hat was over his face to shield him from the sun. The men began murmuring along the line that he was dead and not wounded as they had been told. Wanting to reassure them, Longstreet recalled, "I raised my hat with my left hand. A cheer went up. The burst of voices and the flying of hats in the air eased my pain somewhat". Longstreet's chief medical officer pronounced his wound 'not necessarily mortal'. The troops under Longstreet's command - Mississippi's, Texans and Alabama's all went on to give both honourable and distinguished service, better men than we could ever hope to be today. His effect can clearly be seen when Early caused his signal station on Massanutten Mountain to send a false message, saying Longstreet's famous Army corps was coming up the valley so that together they could destroy Sheridan. This caused Sheridan to order 2 cavalry divisions back to Cedar Creek and cut short a trip to Washington. Don't take my word for it!!. Read the book as I did ('I Rode with Stonewall' by Henry Kydd Douglas) To borrow an expression of Twiss' "a thundering good read". After the war, Longstreet accepted reconstruction, turned Republican and accepted office. He died in Gainesville, Georgia on January 2nd 1904.

Pvt. A B Spencer, 1st Maryland Inf.

Major General George E. Pickett

George Edward Pickett was born in Richmond, Virginia on January 28, 1825. He graduated from West Point last (59^th) in the Class of 1846. He was breveted twice in Mexico, then served on the Texas and Washington frontiers.

Pickett resigned his commission in 1861 and entered the Confederacy as a colonel. He was placed in charge of the defences of the Lower Rappahannock, then on January 14, 1862 was promoted to brigadier general. He led a brigade during the peninsular campaign and was wounded at Gaines' Mill. Promoted to major general on October 14, 1862, Picket commanded a division on Longstreet's Corps at Fredericksburg and Suffolk. On July 3 at Gettysburg his division formed the right flank of the ill-fated charge on the Union centre which came to bear his name. He himself remained behind at the Codori Farm as his men approached the Federal line. Later he commanded the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, fought at Petersburg, and at Five Forks. General Lee relieved him from command after Sayler's Creek, a few days before the surrender at Appomattox. Pickett never forgave Lee for subjecting his men to the slaughter they endured at Gettysburg.

After the war Pickett became an insurance agent in Norfolk, Virginia, where he died on July 30, 1875. He is buried in Richmond.

The above article first appeared in the ACWS Newsletter, February 1998