Harvard University’s Boys in Gray

 The Blue versus the Gray, or the North versus the South, is often how we interpret the two opposing sides during the war. That is true to a degree, but often forgotten is just how connected the North and South were. Cotton grown in the South by slaves fueled textile miles in New England; wheat and rye grown in the Ohio River Valley floated down the Mississippi River en route to plantations to feed workers; farm machinery manufactured up North could often be found in Southern fields. This even holds true to education. For the elite, attending a college in the North was seen as a way for  advancement.

Each of what we consider the Ivy League schools, like the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University), Yale University, and Harvard University, had Southern students who, despite their Northern education, fought for the South.

Harvard University was founded in 1636. It is the oldest university in the country. Some famous graduates include astronomer John Winthrop; U.S. Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story; Revolutionary War Major General Artemas Ward; and minister Cotton Mather.

357 Southerners attended or graduated from Harvard prior to the war. Of that number, sixty-four were killed in action, and twelve died of disease. Sixteen achieved the rank of general.

Major General Henry C. Wayne, class of 1834, transferred from Harvard to West Point, graduating in 1838. He fought in the Mexican American War and worked with camels out west. Wayne resigned his commission in December 1861, and returning to Georgia, was commissioned Georgia’s adjutant and inspector general. In December 1861, he was promoted to brigadier general in Confederate service. When he was ordered to Virginia, Wayne resigned, preferring to serve in Georgia. During the Atlanta Campaign, he commanded a two-brigade division of Georgia militia and cadets. After the war, he returned to Savannah and worked in the lumber industry.

Brigadier General William Preston, class of 1838, Harvard Law School, was born in Kentucky. Besides practicing law, he served as lieutenant colonel of the 4^th Kentucky Infantry during the Mexican American War, served in the state house, in the US House, and as Minister to Spain. During the war he served as an aide-de-camp to Albert Sidney Johnson, was promoted to brigadier general in April 1862, and commanded a brigade under Breckinridge. Eventually, Preston was sent as an envoy to Mexico. After the war, he practiced law in Kentucky.

Alexander Lawton

Brigadier General Alexander Lawton, class of 1843, Harvard Law School, graduated from West Point, but resigned to study law. After graduation, the South Carolinian practiced law in Savannah, Georgia. He then ran a railroad and served in the Georgia house and senate. After secession, Lawton was elected colonel of the 1^st Georgia Volunteers. Lawton was promoted to brigadier general in February 1861. His brigade served in Jackson’s division in the Shenandoah Valley, Seven Days, and Ewell’s Division at Second Manassas. After Ewell was wounded, Lawton took command of the division, and was wounded at Sharpsburg. He never returned to active field command. Lawton was assigned as Quartermaster General. After the war, Lawton served in the state legislature and was minister to Austria.

Brigadier General John Echols, class of 1843, Harvard Law School, was born in Virginia and served as the Commonwealth’s attorney and in the House of Commons prior to the war. He was also a member of the Virginia Secession Convention. At Manassas, he commanded a regiment under Stonewall Jackson. His action at Kernstown, in which he was wounded, led to his promotion to brigadier general. He commanded the Department of Southwestern Virginia for a time, until ill health led to his resignation. After duty on a court of inquiry regarding the surrender of Vicksburg, Echols returned to active duty, commanding a brigade in the Army of Western Virginia. In August 1864, he assumed command of the District of Southwest Virginia. He was replaced by Jubal Early on March 30, 1865. After the war, Echols was president of a bank, organized a railroad, was on the board of Visitor of Washington and Lee College and the Virginia Military Institute, and ran other businesses.

Major General William B. Taliaferro, class of 1843, Harvard Law School, served in the Mexican American War and the Virginia House and militia. Taliaferro was elected colonel of the 23^rd Virginia Infantry, and by the end of 1861, was commanding a brigade. Although he was feuding with Jackson, he was promoted to brigadier general in March 1862. Taliaferro served under Jackson through the Shenandoah Valley and Seven Days Campaign, and assumed command of Jackson’s old division after Charles Winder was killed at Cedar Mountain. He was transferred to Charleston, South Carolina, commanding the defenses at Battery Wagner, and then James Island, then Savannah, finally commanding a division under Johnston in North Carolina. After the war, he returned to Virginia, serving in the legislature and as a judge.

Lieutenant General Richard Taylor, class of 1845, was born in Kentucky, and was the son of Zachary Taylor. He was a large plantation owner and served in the Louisiana senate. He was elected colonel of the 9^th Louisiana Infantry, and in September 1861, was promoted to brigadier general. Taylor fought in Virginia under Jackson and was promoted to major general in June 1862. He transferred back to Louisiana, where he feuded with E. Kirby Smith. He fought at Fort Bisland, Fort Franklin, Red River Valley, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, and then was appointed commander of the Department of Alabama, Mississippi, and East Louisiana, with a promotion to lieutenant general. After the war, Taylor worked on rebuilding his plantations and worked against the Radical Republicans and Reconstruction.

Brigadier General Stephen Elliott, Jr., class of 1849, was a South Carolina planter, state legislator, and commanded a militia artillery battery. He was present at the capture of Fort Sumter, served as a company commander in the 11^th South Carolina Infantry, and then rejoined the artillery. He was highly active along the South Carolina coast, later serving as the commander of Fort Sumter. In April 1864, Elliott was promoted colonel of the Holcombe Legion, seeing service guarding the Weldon Railroad and at Bermuda Hundred. He was promoted to brigadier general in May 1864, commanding a brigade of South Carolina regiments. Elliott was seriously wounded while repulsing the attack at the Crater and did not return to duty until December 1864. He briefly commanded in North Carolina but returned to South Carolina. Elliott only lived a year after the war, dying of the effects of his wounds.

Brigadier General Albert G. Jenkins, class of 1850, Harvard Law School, was a lawyer and United States Congressman prior to the war. He organized a cavalry company, then served as colonel of the 8^th Virginia Cavalry. He gave up that command to serve in the first Confederate Congress, then secured an appointment as a brigadier general. He led a couple of raids into present-day West Virginia before being assigned to the Army of Northern Virginia prior to the Gettysburg Campaign. Following the campaign, he was mortally wounded at the May 1864 battle of Cloyd’s Mountain.

Brigadier General John R. Cooke, class of 1851, civil engineering, was born in Missouri, the son of Philip St. George Cooke. After graduating from Harvard, he entered the military, serving in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. Once the war began, he served as a staff officer, commanded an artillery battery, and was colonel of the 27^th North Carolina. Cooke was promoted to brigadier general in November 1862. His North Carolina brigade fought behind the stone wall at the foot of Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg, and was wounded seven times throughout the war, including at Bristoe Station and at the Wilderness. After the war, he founded the Confederate Soldiers Home in Richmond.

Brigadier General Bradley Johnson, class of 1852, Harvard Law School. Born in Maryland, Johnson was the state’s attorney general. Once the war came, he organized a company of men, then served in the 1^st Maryland, fighting at First Manassas. He fought at various battles in the campaigns of 1862, and Stonewall Jackson recommended him for promotion to brigadier general. That promotion did not come until June 1864. Johnson commanded Grumble Jones’s brigade during Early’s advance on Washington, D.C. In November 1864, Johnson was assigned as commander of Salisbury Prison. After the war, he served in the Virginia Senate and practiced law before returning to Maryland.

Brigadier General States Rights Gist, class of 1852, Harvard Law School. Born in South Carolina, he practiced law and served in the militia prior to war. At Manassas, he served as a volunteer aide-de-camp to Barnard E. Bee. Promotion to brigadier general came in March 1862. Gist commanded on James Island, serving along the coast until May 1863 when he was sent to Mississippi, and then with the Army of Tennessee, fighting at Chickamauga, Chattanooga, the battles for Atlanta, and Franklin, where he was killed.

Brigadier General Martin W. Gary, class of 1854, was a state legislator. He served as a captain in Hampton’s Legion. When the Legion was reorganized in 1862, Gary was elected lieutenant colonel, commanding the infantry battalion. The list of battles he fought in is lengthy. In April 1864, he was commanding the cavalry brigade, Department of Richmond. He was promoted to brigadier general in June 1864. His brigade supplied the only mounted troops protecting Richmond from September to December 1864. Gary refused to surrender at Appomattox and escaped. He was a leader in South Carolina after the war.

Brigadier General John Clark, Jr., class of 1854, Harvard Law School, was born in Missouri and was a practicing attorning when the war came. He rose through the ranks, serving as a company grade and field and staff officer in the 6^th Missouri Infantry. At the battle of Pea Ridge, Colonel Clark commanded the Third Division, Missouri State Guard. Clark was first promoted to brigadier by Edmund Kirby Smith in April 1864. Later, his name was passed to the senate by Jefferson Davis for confirmation. Clark commanded infantry and later cavalry under Sterling Price. After the war, Clark served in the US House, and later as clerk in the US House, and then practiced law in Washington, D.C.

Brigadier General Benjamin Hardin Helm, class of 1854, Harvard Law School, was a brother-in-law to Abraham Lincoln, who first graduated from West Point, then resigned his commission to study law. He also served in the Kentucky House, and as one of Kentucky’s state lawyers. Helm was offered a job as an army paymaster by Lincoln, but declined, raising Confederate cavalry companies instead. In March 1862, he was promoted to brigadier general, commanding an infantry brigade under John C. Breckinridge. He was seriously wounded when his horse fell on him at Baton Rouge. Helm was back with the army in Mississippi. Helm was mortally wounded fighting with the Army of Tennessee at Chickamauga in September 1863.

John S. Marmaduke

Major General John S. Marmaduke, class of 1854, was born in Missouri, attended Yale, then Harvard, then West Point. After commissioning, he served in the west. After Lincoln’s call for troops, Marmaduke resigned from the army, and joined state forces in Missouri, being commissioned colonel, but later resigned and went to Richmond, joining the Confederate army. He served on William J. Hardee’s staff, then was promoted to lieutenant colonel in the 1^st Arkansas Infantry Battalion, then colonel of the 3^rd Confederate Infantry. He fought at Shiloh, Corinth, Tupelo, and Prairie Grove. Marmaduke’s promotion to brigadier general came in November 1862. He participated in most of the battles in Arkansas and Missouri. He even fought a duel with Brigadier General L. Marsh Walker, in which Walker was mortally wounded. Marmaduke was captured late in the war and imprisoned at Fort Warren. After the war, he was an insurance agent, editor, governor of Missouri.

Major General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, class of 1858 and the son of Robert E. Lee, transferred from Harvard to West Point. Lee served in the Utah War against the Mormons but resigned from the US Army prior to the 1861. When the war came, he served in various cavalry commands before being appointed lieutenant colonel of the 9^th Virginia Cavalry. Both his father and JEB Stuart recommend Lee for promotion, which came in November 1862. He fought against Stoneman during Chancellorsville, and at Brady Station, was wounded in the thigh. He was captured by a Federal raiding party while recovering, and was not exchanged until March 1864. Lee was promoted to major general in April 1864. When Wade Hampton was transferred to South Carolina, Lee commanded the cavalry on the south side of the James River. After the war, he served in the state senate and the US House.

All biographical sketches taken from Davis, editor, Confederate Generals.

The Fate of the Confederate Governors

   As the war ground to a close, orders went out for the arrest of various political figures, including both sitting governors and former governors.

Alabama had three men who served as governors. Andrew B. Moore served from 1857 to 1861. The Alabama constitution did not allow Moore to run for a third term, although he remained active in the war effort. Moore was replaced by John G. Shorter, who served one term, and was replaced by Thomas H. Watts, then serving as Confederate Attorney General. Watts served as governor until the end of the war. US Secretary of War Edwin Stanton ordered Moore to be arrested on May 16, 1865. He was imprisoned at Fort Pulaski in Savannah until being released in August 1865. Shorter apparently avoided arrest, while Watts was arrested on May 1, 1865, and sent to Macon, but appears to have been released by mid-June 1865.

Arkansas had three men in the governor’s chair during the war years. Henry M. Rector served from November 16, 1860, until he resigned after losing an election on November 4, 1862; President of the Senate Thomas Fletcher served from November 4, 1862, until November 15, 1862, when Harris Flanagin was elected. Flanagin served until May 26, 1865, often as governor in exile. None of these men appear to have served jail or prison time after the end of the war.

Florida had two war-time governors. Madison S. Perry and John Milton. Perry could only serve two-terms, and following his second term, became colonel of the 7^th Florida Infantry. His health was poor, and he returned to Florida, dying at home in March 1865. John Milton, realizing that the war was over, took his own life on April 1, 1865.

Georgia had one war-time governor: Joseph E. Brown. He was in office from November 6, 1857 to June 17, 1865, when he resigned. Brown was arrested on May 23, 1865 and imprisoned at the Old Capitol Prison in Washington, D.C. He was released after meeting with President Andrew Johnson. (The Atlanta Constitution, August 7, 1910)

Kentucky, as a border state, is complicated. George W. Johnson was the first Confederate governor. He was serving as an aide-de-camp on Breckinridge’s staff at Shiloh when his horse was shot from under him. Johnson continued on foot, attaching himself to the 4^th Kentucky Infantry (CS). Johnson was mortally wounded in the afternoon of April 7, 1862, dying two days later. Richard Hawes was selected by the state council as Johnson’s replacement, often making his headquarters with the Army of Tennessee. Hawes returned home after the end of the war.

Louisiana had two Confederate governors: Thomas O. Moore and Henry Watkins Allen. Moore could only serve two terms. He returned to his home near Alexandria, but after Federal troops burned his plantation, he fled to Mexico, and then Cuba. He eventually returned to Louisiana. Hawes also lost his home to fire, and with Moore, also went to Mexico. Allen, who was colonel of the 4^th Louisiana infantry, was wounded at Shiloh and Baton Rouge and died of his unhealed wounds in Mexico City on April 22, 1866.

Mississippi had John Pettus and Charles Clark. At war’s end, Pettus, wanted for questioning regarding the Lincoln assassination, went into hiding. He died of pneumonia in Lonoke County, Arkansas, on January 28, 1867. Clark was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Pulaski and was held until he took and signed the Oath of Allegiance in September 1865.

Missouri’s Claiborne F. Jackson took office on January 3, 1861, and after June 1861, was basically a governor in exile. Jackson was deposed by the General Assembly in July 1861, followed various Confederate military forces around on campaign, and died in Little Rock, Arkansas, December 7, 1862. Lieutenant Governor Thomas C. Reynolds assumed the role of governor, but really did not have a large role in political affairs. At the end of the war, he also went to Mexico, but returned to St. Louis.

North Carolina had three war-time governors. John W. Ellis led the state out of the Union in May 1861, only to die in July 1861. He was replaced by Speaker of the North Carolina Senate Henry T. Clark. Clark did not pursue election and stepped down at the end of the term in September 1862. Zebulon Baird Vance, colonel of the 26^th North Carolina, was elected as governor twice during the war years. At the end of the war, he attempted to surrender and was told to go home. In Statesville, he was arrested on his birthday, May 13, 1865, and imprisoned in Old Capital Prison. Vance was released after receiving his parole on July 6, 1865.

South Carolina had three men in the role of governor: Francis W. Pickens, Milledge L. Bonham, and Andrew G. Magrath. Pickens and Bonham were limited in the number of terms they could serve. Pickens retired to his plantation, and Bonham was reappointed a Confederate general and served in the Army of Tennessee. Magrath was arrested and imprisoned at Fort Pulaski, not being released until December 1865.

Tennessee had only one Confederate governor: Isham G. Harris. After the fall of Nashville, Harris served on the staffs of several Confederate generals, including Joseph E. Johnston, Braxton Bragg, and Albert S. Johnston. The US Congress issued a $5,000 reward for the capture of Harris at the end of the war. He fled to Mexico, then England, only returning to Tennessee once the bounty was removed.

Texas had Sam Houston, who was removed in March 1861; Edward Clark, the lieutenant governor, who lost the election in November 1861; Francis Lubbock who did not run for reelection and stepped aside in November 1863; and Pendleton Murrah.  Houston died in 1863. Clark served as colonel of the 14^th Texas Infantry but fled to Mexico at the end of the war. Lubbock was commissioned lieutenant colonel on the staff of Maj. Gen. John B. Marguder, and then aide-de-camp for Jefferson Davis. Lubbock was captured with Davis in Georgia and imprisoned at Fort Delaware for eight months.

Virginia had two governors. John Letcher and William Smith. Letcher’s arrest order was issued by U.S. Grant, and he was taken into custody on May 20, 1865, and imprisoned at Old Capital Prison. He was released forty-seven days later. Likewise, Smith turned himself in on June 8, 1865, and was paroled.

More information on these governors can be found in Years, editor, The Confederate Governors. For information on biographies on each governor, check out this link.  

Most decisive Confederate victories.

   There was one goal for army commanders: to obliterate the opponent. While this was their objective, it seldom happened. The enemy often escaped to fight again another day. The American Battlefield Trust has 10,000 battles and engagements fought between 1861 and 1865. Which ones were the most decisive Confederate victories is a hard list to determine. Here are five on my list.[1]

Brice’s Crossroads, Tennessee

   Fought in June 1864, this battle pitted Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, with 3,500 men, against 8,122 Federal soldiers under Brig. Gen. Samuel D. Sturgis. The Federals were moving from Memphis toward Northern Mississippi in an effort to keep Forrest preoccupied and away from the major supply line stretching from Nashville into North Georgia. Federal forces were able to slowly push back Confederate cavalry. With Confederate reinforcements arriving, the Federals called for infantry support. Confederate attacks forced the Federals into a tighter defensive line. A Confederate attack across a bridge spanning the Tishomingo River failed but caused panic in the Federal lines. Federal soldiers fled in disorder, and many were captured by the pursuing Confederate cavalry. The Federals lost sixteen of their eighteen artillery pieces, and 2,249 men, a loss of about 27%. Sturgis finished the war “awaiting orders.” Brice’s Crossroads is considered one of Nathan Bedford Forrest’s greatest victories.[2]  

Olustee, Florida

   The often-overlooked February 1864 battle of Olustee, Florida, could have been another Richmond, Kentucky, had Confederates cavalry been a little more active in securing the fleeing Federal army. Once again, the two sides were almost evenly matched. Federal general Thuman Seymour, with a force of 5,500 men, faced off against general Joseph Finegan, with 5,000 men (all estimates). The Federals had disembarked at Jacksonville and were moving toward Lake City. The Confederates were waiting for them at Ocean Pond/Olustee, and the Federals attacked in piecemeal fashion. Federal losses were 1,861, about 34%, including six artillery pieces. The Civil War Book of Lists, due to the ratio of troops involved, places Olustee as the second bloodiest battle of the war for the Union. The Federals retreated back to Jacksonville. [3]

(Historical Marker Database.)

Richmond, Kentucky

   Fought at the same time as Second Manassas, the August 1862 battle of Richmond, Kentucky, often gets overshadowed. Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. E. Kirby Smith tangled with Federal forces under Brig. Gen. William “Bull” Nelson. The forces were about even: 6,580 US v. 6,500 CS. Often described as a “running fight,” the Federals took up at three defensive positions, the last being in and around the cemetery in Richmond. In the end, the Federals lost an estimated 5,353, killed, wounded, and captured, including Bull Nelson, who was wounded, but escaped. Smith wrote that the Federals lost “some twenty pieces of artillery,” or, all that the Federals brought to the field. “Indeed, everything indicates the almost entire annihilation of this force of the enemy,” Smith wrote. Confederate forces were able to capture the capital of Kentucky a few days later. Federal losses were 81% of those engaged.[4]  

Plymouth, North Carolina

   Combined Confederate army and navy operations during the war were rare, and the April 1864 battle of Plymouth might be the pinnacle of Confederate success. The Federal garrison at Plymouth was commanded by Brig. Gen. Henry W. Wessells, with about 3,000 men, excluding the US Navy, which included four ships. Confederate commander Brig. Gen. Robert F. Hoke commanded around 4,500 men, excluding two Confederate naval vessels. At the end of the three-day siege, two Federal vessels were sunk, while Wessells listed his losses in killed, wounded, and captured at 2,843. A handful of members of the 2^nd North Carolina Volunteer Infantry (US) and Black recruits for various United States colored Troop regiments escaped. Losses were around 97%, including some twenty cannons, mostly heavy seacoast guns.

Munfordville, Kentucky

   Located south of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Munfordville just might just vie with Plymouth as one of the most complete victories of the war. Munfordville was garrisoned by a Federal force just over 4,000 men under the command of Col. John T. Wilder. Braxton Bragg, commanding 16,000 Confederate soldiers, launched his campaign to wrest control of Kentucky from the Federals in September 1862. Initial Confederate attacks were repulsed with losses. Bragg brought up the rest of his command, encircling the Federal garrison. All 4,133 Federal soldiers were surrendered by Wilder. Federal loss was 100%.[5]

   So, how doe these battles stack up? Federal losses at Gettysburg were 24%; Chickamauga 26%; Chancellorsville, 17%; Sharpsburg, 14%; Perryville, 7%; Pea Ridge, 12%; Murfreesboro, 31%; Cedar Mountain, 29%; Port Republic, 28%.[6]

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[1] https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/civil-war-facts

[2] Boatner, The Civil War Dictionary, 85.

[3] The Civil War Book of List, 97.

[4] Lambert, When the Ripe Pears Fell, 234; OR, Vol. 16, pt. 1, 932-33.

[5] Boatner, The Civil War Dictionary, 575.

[6] Aall American Battlefield Trust numbers.

Famous Confederate Nurses

Drew Gilpin Faust, in Mothers of Invention: Women of the Slaveholding South in American Civil War, writes that it was “not the Confederacy’s ladies but its African Americans who care for the South’s fallen heroes. In the domain of nursing, as in the domestic world of cooking and washing, many Confederate ladies would prove themselves less able and less effective than their supposed inferiors.”[1] If Faust has any background research that examines the numbers of White verses Black hospital workers, it is seems to have been left out of her end notes. Of course, part of the problem with Mothers of Invention is that it focuses too much on women from slaveholding families, and not the other 99% of the Southern population.

The work of those mostly silent voices of Black hospital workers I cover in a post that you can read here. They were vital members of the staffs of Southern hospitals during the war. But to say that White Southern women were “less able and less effective” is a stretch. There were undoubtedly some African-American women who balked at the sight of the wounded and sick. Their voices are just silent, unrecorded then as they are now. There were many Southern women who did answer the call to serve as nurses and matrons in hospitals, and countless others who took soldiers into their homes to care for them when the hospital system became overwhelmed.

Others have pointed out conflicting evidence regarding Faust’s assumptions. In Susan Barber’s thesis “Sisters of the Capital: White Women in Richmond, Virginia, 1860-1880,” she found “that more upper class women worked as matrons than Faust suggests in Mothers of Invention.”[2] Elise A. Allison in her thesis, “Confederate Matrons: women who served in Virginia Civil War hospitals,” argues that Faust (and others) “focus their analyses on the writings left by a few prominent matrons and draw generalizations about all matrons based on this unrepresentative sample.”[3]

The Hospital Bill, passed into law in September 1862, stated that each hospital could employ two chief matrons, two assistant matrons, and two ward matrons for each ward. The chief matrons “exercise a superintendence over the entire domestic economy of the hospital.” The assistant matrons supervised the “laundry. . . the clothing of the sick, [and] the bedding of the hospital, to see that they are kept clean and neat.” The duties of the two war matrons were “to prepare the beds and bedding of their respective wards, to see that they are kept clean and in order, that the food or diet for the sick is carefully prepared and furnished to them, the medicine administered, and that all patients requiring careful nursing are attended to.”[4]

Ada Bocot was born in South Carolina in 1832. A widow by the time of the war, she volunteered as a nurse and in December 1861, arrived in Charlottesville, Virginia, working in the Monticello Hospital. She continued nursing through 1863 when she returned to her home in South Carolina. Her diary was published in 1994 and offers glimpses of her life while in Charlottesville. Berlin, ed., A Confederate Nurse: The Diary of Ada W. Bacot, 1860-1863.

Emily Mason was born in Kentucky, but by the time of the war was living in Virginia. Mason helped establish the hospital at White Sulphur Springs, and later worked at hospitals in Charlottesville, Lynchburg, and Richmond. Her war-time accounts were also published in The Atlantic Monthly: “Memories of a Hospital Matron,” 90, No.1039 (September 1902).  

Kate Cumming, born in Scotland, came to the United States with her family, settling in Mobile, Alabama. She volunteered as a nurse in Corinth, Mississippi, in April 1862, and went on to serve in several different hospitals throughout the war, including those in Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. Her diary was published in 1866: A Journal of Hospital Life in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.

Juliet Opie Hopkins was born in present-day West Virginia, and after her marriage, relocated to Mobile, Alabama. During the war, she helped establish Alabama hospitals in Richmond, Virginia, and earned the title “Florence Nightingale of the South.” She was wounded twice in the left hip while supervising the removal of wounded soldiers during the battle of Seven Pines in May 1862. Hopkins died in 1890 and was buried with military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.[5]

Sallie Chapman Gordon Law was born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and later moved to Georgia, and then to Tennessee. In April 1861, she helped organize a hospital in a home in Memphis. Later, Law worked at Overton Hospital in Memphis, and then Law Hospital (named for her) in La Grange, Georgia. In 1892, her story was published in Reminiscences of the War of the Sixties between the North and South.  

Ella King Newsom was born in Mississippi and, after marrying, moved to Tennessee. She worked on the Southern Mothers’ Home Hospital and the Overton Hospital, both in Memphis. Newsom also organized or worked in hospitals in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Corinth, Mississippi, the Crutchfield House Hospital in Chattanooga, and in Marietta and Atlanta. The Newsom Hospital, originally organized in Chattanooga, was named for her. Newsom was also called “The Florence Nightingale of the South.”[6]

Phoebe Yates Levy Pember was born to a Jewish family in Charleston, South Carolina. She was widowed and living in Georgia when, in December 1862, she began working at Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. Pember was chief matron of one of the five divisions at Chimborazo, the largest military hospital in the world, and left some remarkable and often quoted details of her experience in A Southern Woman’s Story: Life in Confederate Richmond, published in 1879.

Kate Mason Rowland was born in Detroit, Michigan, and moved to Richmond, Virginia, prior to the war. During the war, she worked in several hospitals and was matron at the Marine or Naval Hospital at the end of the war. Her diary has never been published.

Sally Tompkins, from Matthews County, Virginia, ran the Robertson Hospital in Richmond during the war. When the Confederate government began consolidating small hospitals in the summer of 1861, the Robertson Hospital, due to its efficiency, remained open. To circumnavigate the regulation requiring hospital administrators to be commissioned, Jefferson Davis appointed Tompkins a captain of cavalry. Her hospital had the lowest death rate of any hospital in Richmond, although many serious cases were sent there. Tompkins’s hospital remained open until June 1865.[7]

Joanna Fox Waddill was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Mississippi when young. When the war came, she served in hospitals in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, eventually becoming a matron in a hospital in Lauderdale, Mississippi.

Augusta Jane Evens Wilson was born in Columbus, Georgia, and lived in Russell County, Alabama, and San Antonio, Texas, prior to the war. In 1860, she was living in Mobile, Alabama. She worked at a hospital in Mobile during the war and corresponded with Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard.[8]

These are just a few of the many women who were clearly able and effective in their roles as caregivers for the injured and sick, regardless of their stations in Southern society.  

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[1] Faust, in Mothers of Invention, 112.

[2] Barber, “Sisters of the Capital,” 103-104.

[3] Allison, “Confederate Matrons,” 7.

[4] Official Records, Series IV, Vol. II, 199.

[5] Schroeder-Lein, Civil War Medicine, 138-39.

[6] Schroeder-Lein, Civil War Medicine, 229-30.

[7] Schroeder-Lein, Civil War Medicine, 303-04.

[8] http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-1072

Site Visit Saturday: the Grave of Abraham Buford, Lexington, Kentucky

    Cemeteries are wonderful history lessons. Often, the larger cemeteries have scores of lessons. We could spend the rest of the year just in today’s cemetery, the Lexington Cemetery in Lexington, Kentucky. For now, we’ll concentrate on just one story, the life of Abraham Buford.

    Born in Woodford County, Kentucky, on January 18, 1820, Buford was educated by a private tutor before attending Centre College and then West Point, where he graduated in 1841. Among his classmates were Richard B. Garnett, Robert S. Garnett, Josiah Gorgas, John Marshall Jones, Samuel Jones, and Claudius Wistar Sears, all Confederate generals. (There were a few Union generals in his class as well, including Horatio G. Wright, Schuyler Hamilton, John F. Reynolds, and Nathaniel Lyon.) After graduation, Buford was assigned to the 1^st US Dragoons, seeing duty in Kansas, Mexico (where Buford was breveted to captain for gallant and meritorious service in the battle of Buena Vista), New Mexico, and at Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Buford resigned from the army in 1854 and took up farming in Woodford County. He was soon breeding racehorses and shorthorn cattle, gaining a national reputation.

   A biographical sketch states that while Buford was an ardent advocate of states’ rights, he counseled

Abraham Buford. 

against secession, and remained neutral until the summer of 1862 when he joined with John H. Morgan. Buford raised what amounted to a brigade composed of the 3^rd, 5^th, and 6^th Kentucky Cavalry regiments. Buford led the brigade at Perryville and during the Murfreesboro campaign. Official promotion to brigadier general came on November 29, 1862. Following a dispute with one of his regimental commanders, Buford was transferred to Mississippi and placed under John Pemberton. He led his brigade at the battle of Champion Hill and served in W. W. Loring’s Division for several months, escaping the surrender at Vicksburg. In March 1864, Buford was assigned to Nathan Bedford Forrest’s command, and Buford’s infantry raided into Kentucky to supply itself with horses. Buford was assigned to command one of Forrest’s cavalry divisions.

   The battle of Brice’s Cross Roads in June 1864 is considered Buford’s finest hour, and Forrest’s greatest victory. Buford rode with Forrest until November when his division was attached to the Army of Tennessee. They opened the battle at Spring Hill, fought at Murfreesboro, and Buford was wounded in the shoulder near Franklin on December 17, and in the leg at Richland Creek on December 24. He returned to the war in February 1865, and fought at Selma, Alabama in April 1865. Buford was paroled at Gainesville, Alabama, on May 10, 1865.

Lexington Cemetery 

   Following the war, Buford returned to Kentucky to raise racehorses, advocate reconciliation, and serve in the Kentucky legislature in 1879. However, the death of his only son and his wife, as well as a series of severe financial reverses that resulted in the loss of his home, led Buford to commit suicide at his brother’s home in Danville, Indiana, in June 1884. He was buried next to his wife in Lexington. The Lexington Cemetery is the final resting place of a number of Confederate generals, including John H. Morgan, John C. Breckinridge, and Basil Duke.

   There is no stand-alone biography on Abraham Buford. However, there is an excellent sketch in Kentuckians in Gray, edited by Bruce Allardice and Lawrence Lee Hewitt (2008)

   I have visited the Lexington Cemetery once, in the fall of 1997.

Biographies on Kentucky’s Confederate Generals

Part of three of an infrequent series related to biographies on Confederate generals, this installment features the state of Kentucky. Other states covered include North Carolina and Florida. Like the posts on other states, this list only covers men born in Kentucky. Others who were born elsewhere but associated with Kentucky are not included on this list (such as John Hunt Morgan). This list includes only book-length biographies (and if I have missed any, please feel free to drop me a line with the title and author). There is a book, Kentuckians in Gray: Confederate Generals and Field Officers of the Bluegrass State (2008) by Bruce Allardice and Lawrence L. Hewitt that might be able to fill in a few holes. 

Adams, Daniel W. (1821-1872)

Adams, William W. (1819-1888)

Beall, William N. R. (1825-1883)

Bell, Tyree H. (1815-1902)

                Hughes, Moretti, and Browne, Brigadier General Tyree H. Bell, C.S.A. (2004)

Breckinridge, John C. (1821-1875)

                Davis, Breckinridge: Statesman, Soldier, Symbol (2010)

                Heck, Proud Kentuckian: John C. Breckinridge, 1821-1875 (1976)

                Stillwell, Born to be a Statesman: John Cabell Breckinridge (1936)

Buckner, Simon B. (123-1914)

                Stickles, Simon Bolivar Buckner: Borderland Knight (1940)

Buford, Abraham (1820-1884)

Churchill, Thomas J. (1824-1905)

Cosby, George B. (1830-1909)

Crittenden, George B. (1812-1880)

                Eubank, In the Shadow of the Patriarch: the John J. Crittenden Family in War and Peace                                  (2009)

Duke, Basil W. (1838-1916)

                Duke, The Civil War Reminiscences of General Basil W. Duke, C.S.A. (1911)

                Matthews, Basil Duke, CSA: The Right Man in the Right Place (2005)

Fagan, James F. (1828-1893)

                Luker, Mature Life of General James Fleming Fagan (1987)

Field, Charles W. (1828-1892)

Gano, Richard M. (1830-1913)

                McLaurin, Richard M. Gano: Physician, Solder, Clergyman (2003)

Gholson, Samuel J. (1808-1883)

Gibson, Randall L. (1832-1892)

                McBride and McLaurin, Randall Lee Gibson of Louisiana: Confederate General and New                              South Reformer (2007)

Grayson, John B. (1806-1861)

Hanson, Roger (1827-1863)

Hawes, James M. (1824-1889)

Helm, Benjamin H. (1831-1863)

                McMurty, Ben Hardin Helm: Rebel Brother-in-law of Abraham Lincoln (1943)

Hodge, George B. (1828-1892)

Hood, John B. (1831-1879)

                Brown, John Bell Hood: Extracting Truth from history (2012)

                Coffey, John Bell Hood and the Struggle for Atlanta (1998)

                Davis, Texas Brigadier to the Fall of Atlanta: John Bell Hood (2019)

                Davis, Into Tennessee & Failure: John Bell Hood (2020)

                Dyer, The Gallant Hood (1950)

                Hood, Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate                                  States Armies (1880)

                Hood, John Bell Hood: The Rise, Fall, and Resurrection of a Confederate General (2013)

                Hood, The Lost Papers of Confederate General John Bell Hood (2015)

                McCurry, John Bell Hood and the War for Southern Independence (1992)

                Miller, John Bell Hood and the Fight for Civil War Memory (2010)

                O’Connor, Hood, Cavalier General (1949)

Hughes, John T. (1817-

Jackson, Claiborne F. (1806-1862)

Johnston, Albert S. (1803-1862)

                Cook, Albert Sidney Johnston, the Texan (1987)

                Johnston, The Life of Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston (1878)

                Roland, Jefferson Davis’s Greatest General: Albert Sidney Johnston (2000)

                Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston: A Soldier of Three Republics (2001)

Lewis, Joseph H. (1824-1904)

Lyon, Hylan B. (1836-1907)

                Lee, General Hylan B. Lyon: A Kentucky Confederate and the War in the West (2019)

Marshall, Humphrey (1812-1872)

Martin, William T. (1823-1910)

Maxey, Samuel B. (1825-1895)

                Horton, Samuel Bell Maxey: A Biography (1974)

                Waugh and McWhiney, Sam Bell Maxey and the Confederate Indians (1998)  

Preston, William III (1816-1887)

                Sehlinger, Kentucky’s Last Cavalier: General William Preston, (2010)

Robertson, Jerome B. (1815-1890)

Shelby, Joseph O. (1830-1897)

                Bartels, The Man who wouldn’t Surrender, even in Death: General Jo Shelby (1999)

                Davis, Fallen Guidon: The Saga of Confederate General Jo Shelby’s March to Mexico (1995)

                Edwards, Shelby and his Men: Or, the War in the West (1867)

                Scott, The Forgotten Cavalier: Confederate Raider Joseph Orville Shelby and his Great Missouri Raid of 1862 (1900)  

Slack, William Y. (1816-1862)

Smith, Gustavus W. (1821-1896)

                Smith, Confederate War Papers (1884)

                Smith, The Battle of Seven Pines (1891)

                Smith, Generals J.E. Johnston and G.T. Beauregard at the Battle of Manassas (1892)

Taylor, Richard (1826-1879)

                Parrish, Richard Taylor, Soldier Prince of Dixie (1992)

                Taylor, Destruction and Reconstruction: Personal Experiences of the Late War (1879)

Williams, John S.  (1818-1898)

Torn families – the Flussers

 

   Often we hear that the Civil War was a war fought brother against brother. And that’s true, but really oversimplified. It was brother against brother, and father against son, and mothers and sisters against fathers and sons, and uncles, and cousins. One of those families were the Flusser family.

   Charles T. Flusser was born in Prague in 1798. He immigrated to the United States, settling in Maryland and marrying Juliana S. Waters. They had several children, including Ottokar (1830); Charles (1832); and Guy (1833). It is thought that the family moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi, and then later Louisville, Kentucky. Thomas died in 1858 and is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.

Flusser stone at Cave Hill Cemetery

   The war found the family on different sides. Charles W. Flusser graduated from The United States Naval Academy in 1854. He stayed with the Union, arising to the rank of lieutenant commander. He spent much of the war along the coastal waters of North Carolina, and in April 1864, he was commanding the USS Miami, when the CSS Albemarle sailed down the Roanoke River. The Albemarle engaged the USS Southfield, sinking the gunboat. Flusser fired a shell at the Albemarle, but the Albemarle and the Miami were so close that a piece of shrapnel rebounded back and killed Flusser. He is buried at the United States Naval Academy Cemetery in Maryland. (Three different US destroyers have been named in his honor.)

   Oldest brother Ottokar Flusser joined the Fourth Texas Infantry on July 11, 1861, at Camp Clark, Texas. He apparently was mustered in as a second sergeant in Company B. In March 1862, he was nominated to be a captain in the regular Confederate army. However, when Flusser was killed in the battle of Sharpsburg, Maryland, in September 1862, his rank was listed as private. Ottokar Flusser is buried in the Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.

   Younger brother Guy Flusser also served. On June 1, 1863, in Abington, Kentucky, Guy Flusser enlisted in Company K, 4^th Kentucky Cavalry (CS). He was mustered in as a private. The 4^th Kentucky Cavalry was a part of John Hunt Morgan’s command. At some point, it appears he was promoted to Lieutenant. Flusser was killed in a skirmish at Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, September 14, 1864. Guy Flusser is also buried at the Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.

   It appears that none of the three brothers was married at the time of death. On a marker in the family plot in Cave Hill Cemetery is a stone that reads “TO MY SONS.” The marker has both a cavalry sword and a ship’s anchor.  

Site Visit Saturday: Cumberland Gap

 

Lay down boys, take a little nap

Lay down boys, take a little nap

Lay down boys, take a little nap

14 miles to the Cumberland Gap!

   For those of us living in the east, Cumberland Gap has a special history. It is the site of an ancient road used by Natives to travel, at times trading with others, and at other times, making war. Daniel Boone passed through the Gap in 1775. He traversed the Gap several times on a route we now call the Wilderness Road, taking settlers into Kentucky.

   During the Civil War, both North and South viewed Cumberland Gap as a strategic stronghold. The gap sits on the juncture of the state lines of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia. The Cumberland Mountains are a long mountain chain that runs along the Kentucky-Virginia border, and on into West Virginia. There are other gaps (like Pound Gap), but Cumberland is the most accessible.

Braxton Bragg and his rebel band

Braxton Bragg and his rebel band

Braxton Bragg and his rebel band

Run George Morgan in the Bluegrass land

   At the beginning of the war, many thought that the Cumberland Gap area would be the site of a major conflict. If Federal forces could seize the gap, then Federal soldiers could move into Unionist East Tennessee, seizing control of the railroad in the area. Southwest Virginia with its salt and lead mines could be easily taken; after that, western and central North Carolina, then back into middle Tennessee could all be vulnerable. And there was a plan kind of like this in November 1861. East Tennessee Unionists planned to destroy several of the railroad bridges in East Tennessee, while Federal soldiers passed through the Gap and seized control before Confederate sources could react. Several of the bridges were burnt on the night of November 8, but the Federal soldiers never came.

   Cumberland Gap changed hands several times during the war. Confederate forces held the Gap from the start of the war until June 1862. Then in September 1862, it was abandoned by the Federals, and the Confederates again assumed control September 1863. The defenses at Cumberland Gap were seen as impregnable. While the Gap never fell in a battle, it was all to easy to cut off lines of supply and starve out the defenders. Confederate forces that defended the Cumberland Gap at various times included the  29^th North Carolina Troops, 58^th North Carolina Troops, 55^th Georgia Infantry, 62^nd North Carolina Troops, 64^th North Carolina Troops, 64^th Virginia Infantry, 1^st Tennessee Calvary, and others.

Rebels now give a little yell

All you rebels give a little yell

All you rebels give a little yell

Scare the Yankees all to Hell

   Cumberland Gap has been a national park since 1940. The park today covers 24,000 acres and is one of the largest parks in the eastern United States. There is a great visitor center, campground, and numerous trails, some of which explore some of the defensive works constructed by Confederate and Federal forces during the war.

   I have explored this park numerous times over the years. My last visit was in December 2020.

Churches in the Crossfire

    Battles fought during the 1860s often encompassed great swaths of ground. Gettysburg alone comes in at almost 18 square miles. As these battles rolled back and forth, they passed by people’s homes, their farms, and their community structures, like railroad depots, schools, and churches. Churches were community spaces. Besides religious services, they often held schools during the week, and could be the place where political oratory was presented as elections drew near. As the soldiers squared off to fight, many churches could become hospitals. The following list is nowhere complete, but just an introduction to some of these historic sites and structures.

Dunker Church, Sharpsburg, MD

   Dunker Church, on the Antietam National battlefield, is probably the most recognized church of the war. One of the bloodiest battles of the war was fought around the church in September 1862, and a photograph taken by Alexander Gardner right after the battle, showing the church, has become a staple of images in many war-time histories. The Dunkers were a part of the German Baptist Brethren, and the church near Sharpsburg was built in 1852 on land given by local farmer Samuel Mumma. During the battle, Confederate artillery and infantry were posted in and around the Dunker Church. While modest in structure, the church was a focal point during the early morning fighting on September 17. During the battle, the church was struck with small arms and artillery projectiles, and then went on to serve as a makeshift hospital. The building was used as a church after the battle, but in the early 1900s, the congregation moved to town, and the building fell into disrepair. What was left of the original building was dismantled. After passing through several hands, the property was acquired by the Federal government; in the 1960s, using many of the original materials, the structure was rebuilt and re-dedicated on September 2, 1962. (You can read a more in-depth history here.)

   The Shiloh Meeting House, on the Shiloh National Battlefield in Tennessee, was a one-room log structure built by the Methodists in 1853. In April 1862, Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman posted his division on either side of the church. They considered Shiloh Church a “rude structure in which…the voices of the ‘poor white trash’ of Tennessee mingle in praise to God.” The Confederates attacked on April 6, and two hours later, succeeded in driving Sherman’s Federals from their position. Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston’s body was carried into the church after his death, and later, Confederate Lieutenant General P.G.T. Beauregard established his headquarters at the building the next day. After the battle, the Federals reportedly tore down the structure, using the logs to build breastworks. Ironically, Shiloh means “place of peace.” A log chapel was reconstructed in 2001. (You can read more here)

Salem Church was a focal pointing of the fighting of the second battle of Fredericksburg, a part of the Chancellorsville Campaign of May 1863. Sometimes, this fighting is actually called the battle of Salem Church. The church was originally constructed in 1844 by local Baptists. The main part of the battle was a Federal flanking maneuver to the west, an action that bogged down at Chancellorsville. The second part of the action featured a Federal advance from Fredericksburg. The thin line of Confederates left behind in the trenches were unable to hold and fell back toward the west. Brigadier General Cadmus Wilcox’s Confederate brigade was reinforced by Confederates from McLaws and Anderson’s divisions, concentrated on a line around the Salem Church. Federals were able to break the line around the church, capturing Confederates from Alabama firing out of the windows of the church. A counterattack by Wilcox drove the Federals back and recaptured the area around the church. Salem Church, now a National Park Service site, is an original structure. You can learn more about the battle by following this link

Fredericksburg Baptist Church 

Fredericksburg Baptist Church likewise saw its share of the war. Built in 1855 of brick and standing two stories tall, the building was one of the most elaborate examples of the Gothic Revival architecture in the area.  There were a dozen holes in the building that had to be patched following the end of the war. The building served as a hospital during both battles of Fredericksburg. The building survives, although it has been heavily expanded over the past 150 years.

Old Bluff Presbyterian Church was host to Federal soldiers during Sherman’s march to the sea. Old Bluff Church is in Cumberland County, North Carolina. Scottish immigrants founded the church in 1758 and constructed the present building in 1853. While there was a skirmish nearby, no large battle was fought near the church. Instead, the church served as a headquarters to Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman on the night of March 15, 1865. The original church building survives. You can learn more about this church
here

Mt. Zion Christian Church in Madison County, Kentucky, was constructed in 1852. During the battle of Richmond, Kentucky, in August 1862, the building was struck by artillery fire. It was used as a Federal field hospital in one of the most overwhelming Confederate victories of the war.

There are countless churches that doubled as hospitals during the war. A sample listing would include St. Mark’s Episcopal in Raymond, Mississippi; Bethesda Presbyterian Church in Morristown, Tennessee; Blanford Church in Petersburg, Virginia; Old Stone Church in Ringgold, GA; and Old Christ Church in Pensacola, Florida, just to name a few.

There is also much research left to do on this topic, church history, and the war in general.