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.  

The Slave on the Ten Dollar Note

   We have talked about Confederate currency once before – Lucy Pickens, the first woman on American paper money. You can check out that post here. Another interesting story is found on a Confederate ten dollar note – that of Oscar Marion, the slave of Francis Marion. Francis Marion, of course, was known as the Swamp Fox. Starting in 1780, he often led small bands of men against British supply lines and gathered intelligence for Gen. Nathaniel Greene. Marion’s men would often hide out in the swamps of South Carolina after conducting their raids. In one episode, an officer, wishing to discuss a prisoner of war exchange, was blindfolded and led to Marion’s headquarters in the swamp on Snow Island. As the meeting began, the blindfold was removed, and Marion offered the officer a seat on a log. After the meeting, Marion asked the officer to remain for dinner, which was a sweet potato, roasted on the fire, and served on a piece of bark. The British office then learned that Marion and his men served without pay. According to one Marion biographer, the British “officer was so much impressed with what he had heard and seen, and so convinced of the impossibility of overcoming soldiers who fought thus upon principle, and for the pure love of liberty, that he decided to” resign his commission.[1]

   In 1840, South Carolina artist John Blake White painted this very scene. There is Francis Marion, the British officer, and Oscar, Marion’s slave, cooking the sweet potatoes on the fire. This image was later cut into a plate and appeared in the center on the 1861 Confederate ten dollar note. To the image’s left is Robert M. T. Hunter, Confederate Secretary of State and later Confederate senator and to the right is a statue of Minerva, the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, and victory.[2]

General Francis Marion Inviting A British Officer to Share His Meal or The Swamp Fox

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[1] Marion, The Swamp Fox, 149-50.

[2] https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CDOC-107sdoc11/pdf/GPO-CDOC-107sdoc11-2-83.pdf

Women Imprisoned at Andersonville

   When we think of war-time women prisoners, a few famous spies, like Belle Boyd, Rose O’Neal Greenhow, and maybe Pauline Cushman come to mind. There were a few others imprisoned who are not household names. Margaret Leonard is one of them.

   Margaret Larney was born in Ireland, came to the United States, and married Isaac Newton Leonard. Leonard enlisted in Company H, 2^nd Massachusetts Heavy Artillery the following year and was sent to eastern North Carolina. When Confederates under Robert F. Hoke came to invest Plymouth in April 1864, Margaret did not leave with the other refugees. Instead, according to a veteran’s post-war account, she “engaged in making coffee for the men in a building exposed to a heavy fire. At one time a solid shot passed through the building, taking with it one of her dresses, which hung on a nail by the wall. Another carried away the front legs of her cooking-stove. Yet when the fight was over, on the evening of the 19^th, she had coffee for the men, and supper for the officers. She was in Fort Williams during the remainder of the fight.” She and her husband were both captured and imprisoned at Andersonville.    Margaret Leonard lived in the prison for a time, but eventually Captain Wirz moved her in with his family. After a while, “she began insulting” the Captain’s family and Wirz had her sent to Castle Thunder in Richmond. There she befriended Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, who described her as “a large stout Irish woman.” Before long, Leonard was sent beyond Confederate lines. Isaac survived the war but died in 1869. Margaret lived in California until her death in 1900.[1]

Grave in Florence, South Carolina (findagrave).

   Francis Jane Scadin, wife of Herbert Hunt, arrived a couple of weeks after Margaret Leonard. Hunt was a steamboat captain. Hunt had just married Francis, and with his new bride and other guests, set sail on a “pleasure cruise.” As the story goes, the ran into a United States revenue cutter, who forced Hunt to head to North Carolina to take on a load of corn. In the process of being loaded, Hunt and his ship were captured. His bride, thinking his imprisonment would last only a few days, disguised herself and went with him to Andersonville. Doctor J.J.W. was sent to Andersonville in July 1864 and ordered to oversee the dispensary. On his first night, “I heard a very small infant crying near my office. . . Upon inquiry one of the guards informed me that it was the infant of Captain Hunt and his wife, only three days old.” Kerr visited her the next morning, finding her in a tent with the babe, “in the most abstract poverty I had ever seen.” It appears that while in the prison proper, Federal prisoners had cut the back out of her tent and took her trunk with clothing and cash. Kerr made arrangements to move her to a home nearby and worked with a merchant friend in Macon to secure clothing for new garments. What exactly became of Mrs. Hunt is unknown.[2]

   Another woman imprisoned at Andersonville appears to have been Florena Budwin. Our information about her comes from a Pvt. Samuel Elliott, a member of the 7^th Pennsylvania Reserves. Elliott was captured during the battle of the Wilderness in May 1864. He, along with Florena Budwin and her husband, were sent to Andersonville. It appears that Florena had disguised her sex when she enlisted. At least Florena and Elliott were transferred to the prison in Florence, South Carolina. Elliott wrote in 1890 that “I knew the female prisoner at Andersonville, having seen her frequently pass our detachment on her way to the swamp for water. I remember her as a woman rather above medium height, sunburnt, with long, unkempt hair. Her clothing consisted of a rough gray shirt, a pair of worn out army trousers, and what was once a military cap, but scarcely enough of it was left to afford protection from the burning sun.” When transferred to Florence in September 1864, her “sex was discovered…and she was taken… to be a nurse in the hospital.” She served several months as a nurse at Florence, then contracted pneumonia and died on January 25, 1865. She just might be the first woman buried in a national cemetery.[3]

   There are probably many more stories like these that are lost to history.

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[1] Marvel, Andersonville, 174; Davis, Ghosts and Shadows of Andersonville, 147; Goss, The Soldier’s Story of his Captivity at Andersonville, 60.

[2] Marvel, Andersonville, 56;  Sheppard, Andersonville, 38; Confederate Veteran, vol. XXIII, 318; Speer, Portals to Hell, 264.

[3] The Independent-Records, June 24, 1890; The State, May 29, 1934.

The other first shots of the war.

   Everyone is familiar with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861.  Confederate forces demanded the return of the property, and Federal forces declined. After word arrived that the Federals were going to reinforce the fort, Confederate forces, on April 12, opened fire. After a thirty-six-hour bombardment, Federal forces surrendered a smoking, partially burned-out fort. This event is widely heralded as the first shot of the war.

   However, what if the war actually started three months earlier, in January 1861?

Fort Barrancas (Florida Memory)

   January 8, 1861 - If Charleston Harbor was ablaze with excitement in March and April 1861, Pensacola Harbor was on fire. There were three forts in Pensacola. All three, Fort Pickens, Fort McRae, and Fort Barrancas, were unoccupied. There was a company of forty-six men at nearby Barrancas. After conferring with Commodore James Armstrong at the nearby naval yard, who promised no help, Lt. Adam Slemmer moved his men into Fort Barrancas, put the guns into working order, established a guard, and on the night of January 8, raised the draw bridge. “About midnight on the eighth a group of men approached the fort and failing to answer when challenged, were fired upon by the guard. The alarm was sounded as the group retreated in the darkness. . . Slemmer doubled the guard and they waited through the night to see if another attempt would be made to take possession of the fort.” The following day Slemmer began to move his small command from Fort Barrancas to Fort Pickens. Florida passed its ordinance of secession the following day.[1]

   January 9, 1861 - Major Robert Anderson’s forces at Fort Sumter were on short on men. When Anderson abandoned Fort Moultrie in Charleston Harbor on the evening of December 26, 1860, and moved to Fort Sumter, he had eighty men under his command. Seeking to reinforce the Fort Sumter garrison, Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott secretly boarded 200 Federal soldiers into the Star of the West. Except, it was not a secret. The Star of the West left New York Harbor on the evening of January 5. Newspapers, both North and South, were starting to carry the news the following day. Waiting for the day to get light enough to enter the harbor and head to the fort, the Star of the West was spotted by a patrol boat that alerted a masked battery on shore. The battery was manned by cadets from the Citadel. They fired several shots, two hitting the vessel. Gunners at Fort Moultrie aimed their pieces as the Star of the West came into sight, firing a few rounds but doing no damage. With no signal from Fort Sumter, and an unknown vessel heading swiftly in their direction, the Star of the West broke off and headed back out to sea and back to New York.[2]  

Marker in Vicksburg (HMdb)

   January 13, 1861 – Named for its owner, the A.O. Tyler started life as a 180-foot-long, three-side-wheeled packet steamboat that plied the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. With the secession of states bordering the Mississippi River, orders went out to gain control of the waterway to “prevent any hostile expedition from the Northern States descending the river.” Part of the Jackson Artillery was ordered to Vicksburg, and permission given to call out local militia companies. One account says that on the night of January 13 (or maybe January 11), the A.O. Tyler, heading south from Cincinnati, was fired upon, stopped, and searched. It was then allowed to continue on. Another account states that a blank charge was used and had not the A.O. Tyler stopped, a live round would have been used next. Later, the A.O. Tyler was purchased by the Federals and used as a river gunboat.[3]  

   These are just three accounts. There are undoubtedly more waiting to be discovered.

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[1] Taylor, Discovering the Civil War in Florida, 27-28; Coleman and Coleman, Guardians of the Gulf, 39.

[2] Detzer, Allegiance, 152-59.

[3] Rowland, Military History of Mississippi, 35-6; The Louisville Daily Courier, January 21, 1861.

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

North Carolina’s Hospitals in Charleston

   Samuel Cooper, Adjutant and Inspector General of the Confederate armies, issued General Order No. 95 on November 25, 1862. The twelve-point order dealt with the administration of Confederate hospitals, items such as the hospital fund, the requisition of clothes for the wounded, the duties of matrons, etc. Point number 10 specified that “Hospitals will be known and numbered as hospitals of a particular State. The sick and wounded, when not injurious to themselves or greatly inconvenient to the service, will be sent to the hospitals representing their respective States, and to private or State hospitals representing the same.”[1]

   It is not clear to what extent this order was adopted. In Richmond, the Confederate city with the best book on Confederate hospitals, there were several state hospitals. Many of these had more than one name or were later absorbed into the Confederate hospital system. These include the Mississippi Hospital (General Hospital #2); Second Georgia (General Hospital #14); First Georgia (General Hospital #16); Fourth Georgia (General Hospital #17); Third Georgia (General Hospital #19); First Alabama (General Hospital #20); North Carolina Hospital (General Hospital #24); Texas Hospital (General Hospital #25); Louisiana Hospital; South Carolina Hospital. There were at least 140 hospitals in Richmond.[2]

   Charleston, South Carolina, also became a hospital center for the Confederacy, with at least twenty-five hospitals. The war-time history of Charleston is well known. Many consider the bombardment of Fort Sumter to be the beginning of the war. The battle of Secessionville was fought in June 1862. Naval bombardments of the city and surrounding fortifications began in 1863, and the first and second battles of Fort Wagner were waged in 1863 as well.  There were numerous regiments that were assigned to duty in Charleston over the course of the war. The majority of soldiers who were there were, of course, from South Carolina, but there were troops from Georgia, Virginia, and North Carolina there as well. 

White House, Charleston, SC

   North Carolina regiments assigned to the defenses of Charleston include the 8^th North Carolina, 31^st North Carolina, 51^st North Carolina, and 61^st North Carolina. Those four North Carolina regiments, part of the brigade commanded by Thomas L. Clingman, were assigned to the defenses of Charleston in February 1863 and remained in the city through the end of the year. The 8^th and 31^st participated in the battle at Battery Wagner on July 18, 1863. The 1^st North Carolina Hospital in Charleston was established in August 1863 on one of the city wharves, but it was forced to relocate when the bombardment commenced. The new location was a “fine dwelling” at the intersection of Mary and American Streets. A chimney fire destroyed this building in January 1864.[3] It is unclear if during one of their moves if the hospital was redesignated the 2^nd North Carolina Hospital. The 3^rd North Carolina hospital was established at the White home on Charlotte Street. It was a large brick home that served as Daniel Sickle’s headquarters after the war.[4] Artilleryman Daniel E.H. Smith was taken to the hospital on Charlotte Street at one point during the war. “I was carried to the very top of the house and put to bed in an attic room. The Matron, or head nurse, was Mrs. Lining, a lady of good birth, who was very kind to me.” Smith mentions that a Dr. Meminger was in charge of the hospital.[5] It is not clear who Doctor Meminger was. 

The Charleston Daily Courier August 10, 1863. 

   More information about these North Carolina hospitals in Charleston is sparse. The Charleston Daily Courier advertised on August 5, 1864, that two good cooks were wanted at the “North Carolina General Hospital on East-Bay Street and Fraser’s Wharf.” The Soldier’s Relief Association of Charleston donated fifty shirts, fifty pairs of drawers, twenty-four fans, linen, and arrowroot, along with fifteen chickens, one bag of meal, three dozen eggs, potatoes and tea in August.[6] T. Player Edwards, hospital steward, acknowledged the receipt of cash from churches in Wilmington and the Ladies’ Aid Society in Asheville, along with items like potatoes, eggs, blackberry and catsup, shirts, drawers, socks, and six bottles of Calisaya bitters from individuals.[7] W. H. McDowell, assistant superintendent of the Wilmington and Manchester Railroad, informed the people of Wilmington that the railroad would transport food and other provisions to the North Carolina Hospital in Charleston for free.[8]

   Finding a list of those treated at the North Carolina Hospital in Charleston is difficult. It appears that most of the records were lost. One newspaper informs us that there were eight South Carolina soldiers at the hospital in September 1863, while there were several North Carolina soldiers at the Citadel Square Hospital.[9] C. F. Townsend, Co. E, 51^st North Carolina Troops, was sent to the North Carolina Hospital after being struck by a shell at Sullivan’s Island.[10]

   The Rev. E. T. Winkler, the Senior Chaplain of Hospitals in Charleston, wrote to the Biblical Recorder in late September, telling the editor that the North Carolina Hospital in Charleston was “thronged with the sick and wounded from” North Carolina and asked for fifty copies of the Biblical Record for the convalescing soldiers. Winkler wrote of one patient from North Carolina whom he considered one “of the bravest men whom I have ever met. . . who told me with his dying breath, ‘Tell my wife that when I fell in the field, I fell in the arms of Jesus.’”[11]

   In November there was an advertisement for two white male nurses, “recommended for sobriety and honesty” to work at the hospital. Not only was it a paid position, but rations were also furnished.[12]

   While Clingman’s brigade of North Carolina Troops was transferred in late 1863, the North Carolina Hospital in Charleston remained open. In June 1864, an article mentioned the new location and that surgeon J. G. Thomas was in charge.[13] This is undoubtedly Dr. James G. Thomas. A native of Kentucky. Thomas served in several hospitals in Oxford and Jackson, Mississippi, then as surgeon of the 39^th Alabama Infantry before being assigned to Charleston. While in Charleston, he not only worked at the North Carolina Hospital, but also in the South Carolina and Georgia hospitals as well. Doctor Thomas was reassigned to Macon, Georgia, in June 1864. Thomas’s listing as surgeon seems to be the last time the North Carolina Hospital in Charleston is mentioned. Just when the hospital closed is unknown.

   It is possible that more information about the hospital might be difficult to obtain. Rebecca Calcutt tells us that many of the military records from Charleston were moved to Columbia towar the end of the war for safe keeping, and then lost in the fire in February 1865.[14] While there is a history of Clingman’s brigade, there are no histories of the 8^th, 31^st, 51^st, of 61^st North Carolina regiments. Maybe by looking into these regiments and others in the greater Charleston area, we can learn more about the North Carolina Hospital.

 

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[1] Official Records, Series 4, Vol. 2, 199-200.

[2] Calcutt, Richmond’s Wartime Hospitals.

[3] The Charleston Mercury January 5, 1864.

[4] Calcutt, South Carolina’s Confederate Hospitals, 24, 27.

[5] Smith, A Charlestonian’s Recollections, 91.

[6] The Charleston Daily Courier August 2, 1864.

[7] The Charleston Mercury August 15, 1863.

[8] The Daily Journal August 19, 1863.

[9] The Charleston Daily Courier September 8, 1863.

[10] The Greenville Enterprise September 10, 1863.

[11] The Biblical Recorder October 7, 1863.

[12] The Charleston Mercury November 27, 1863.

[13] The Charleston Mercury June 7, 1864.

[14] Calcutt, South Carolina’s Confederate Hospitals, 1.