Civil War Generals-- Part 5: Better Know Your French at the Point

The first ten major generals appointed in the Union had six politicians among them.  Also John A. Dix, George McClellan and David Hunter.

Those not on the list included three who would rise to stature in the war:  Grant, Sherman and Sheridan.

As far as experience for general officers in commanding large groups, there wasn't much.  Before the war (and after the Mexican War) the U.S. Army was involved primarily in fighting Indians and commands were small groups and companies.  Much of the time was spent building forts.

Graduating classes from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point were placed according to what part of the class they graduated in.  The top third became army engineers, Middle third went to the infantry and bottom third to the cavalry.  A lot of your class standing at the Point came from your knowledge and speaking ability of French, which was THE language at the place.  If you couldn't speak it, your chances of rising was not likely.

Duty on the frontier was boring and many officers out there took up drinking to pass the time.

Robert Toombs, Georgia politician and Confederate officer once said:  "The Confederacy died of West Point."

--Old Secesh

Bruce Allardice's Talk 'Poltroons, Patriots & Politicians: Civil War Generals'-- Part 4

A very gifted speaker, this Bruce, who has quite a few different topics he can speak on, even a website (civilwarbruce).  Also a big baseball fan and, even better, a White Sox fan.

Well, of course, the first thing he had to say was what a poltroon was.  This is not a commonly used word these days, although I would say some of our leaders might qualify for it.

A poltroon is an incompetent, lacking in morals, person.

After his talk, I would have to say it was a miracle that any generals emerged from the war as anything but a poltroon.

The U.S. Army was entirely unprepared for the Civil War.  It had only four generals and 16,000 men.  Even little Paraguay in South America had a larger army.  Furthermore, there were only 76 officers in the U.S. Army ranking major or higher.

There would be a need for at least 1,000 generals during the war.

******************************

There were only four generals at the start of the war:

Winfield Scott   (1786-1866)

David E. Twiggs (1790-1862)

John E. Wool  (1784-1869)

William S. Harney  (1800-1889)

They were all quite old to say the least.

--Old Secesh

McHenry Co. CWRT-- Part 3: Preserving the Past: John Brink's Notebook

The McHenry County Civil War Round Table (MCCWRT) has also spent money for repairs to two items in the McHenry County Historical Society Museum in Union (where we met) and we had the opportunity to see where our money went.

One was the Civil War diary of John Brink notebook.  He served from 1862 to 1863 and took a trip to Murfreesboro, Tn. after the Battle of Stones River.  He was from McHenry County.

The other is also a Brink notebook which has the names of about 400 soldiers from McHenry County.

Both are now preserved and in the museum's Civil War exhibit, which also has a lot of GAR artifacts.

The topic for June's MCCWRT discussion group will be Civil War Veterans Organizations and will be held at the Panera Bread Company restaurant in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

--Old Secesh

McHenry County CWRT Meeting, June 8, 2021-- Part 2: Scholarship Winner and Don Purn

We had 15 people there in person and some others via Zoom.

Our president Robert Frenz opened the meeting and we presented a scholarship to a McHenry County high school student for $1000 to further her career in college.

This year's topic for the Dr. Edward  F. Witt Jr. Scholarship was a comparison of todays Coronavirus pandemic and Civil War medicine.  We had nine entries and they were all good (I was on the judging committee).  After reading each one, we ranked them, then had a meeting of the committee to reach a winner.

This year's winner was Julia Vogt of Cary-Grove High School in Crystal Lake, Illinois.  She intends to continue schooling at McHenry County Community College with studies in Library Science.  At high school, she was involved in youth leadership and was on the Teen Group of the American Battlefield Trust.

A very poised young lady.  Congratulations.

We also presented a plaque to Don Purn who was our treasurer and webmaster for many years and was in charge of the Round Table's many McHenry County Civil War gravestones.  I doubt anyone knows more about Civil War graves in our county.  In accepting the plaque, he said he got involved with the Civil War while working on the history of his village, Algonquin.

He will be much missed.

--Old Secesh

McHenry County CW Round Table June Meeting-- Part 1

It was so great getting together with the other members and friends of the McHenry County Civil War Round Table last month in Union, Illinois (I don't know about that name), but still the first time together since March 2020.  Little did we know what was in store for us when we met at the Woodstock, Illinois, Public Library that second Tuesday in March.

It would be 15 months before we met again.

However, we did have several monthly discussion group meetings outside at the Algonquin Panera Bread Co. and Stucky's in Johnsburg.

Right now, the MCCWRT is having the presentations via Zoom, but, I don't do Zoom, so this meeting was special to me.  Also special because of the dinner several of us had together at Checkers II beforehand.  I agree with Frank Crawford when he said after one of our pre-meeting dinners at 3 Brothers Restaurant in Woodstock that he actually enjoys those meals with friends even more.

Anyhow, it sure was good to have this opportunity to have our meeting (with social distancing and face masks) at the McHenry County Historical Society Museum in Union.

--Old Secesh

Oh Those Civil War Generals-- Part 5: Prewar Professions

First number Union, second one Confederate.

LAWYER/JURISTS (Many of whom were also politicians):  126 (22%)  //  129   (30%)

PROFESSIONAL SOLDIERS:  197  (34%)  //  128 (30%)

BUSINESSMEN:  116 (20%)  //  55  (13%)

FARMERS/PLANTERS:  23  (4%)  //  42  (10%)

FULL-TIME POLITICIAMS:  47  (8%)  //  24  (6%)

EDUCATORS:  16  (3%)  //  15  (3%)

CIVIL ENGINEERS:  26  (4%)  //  13  (3%)

OTHERS:  32  (5%)  //  19  (4%)

**********************

TOTAL:  583  //  425

Them's the Figures.  --Old Secesh

Oh, Those Civil War Generals-- Part 5: About All Those 'Brevets'

Notes on Bruce Allardice's figures already printed:

**  More modern research shows that Ezra Warner in his book "Generals in Gray" missed the prewar state militia service and military school attendance of a number of Southern generals.

**  An additional 1,400 Union officers were made "brevet" generals.  Under law, a "brevet" rank entitled an officer to command as a general, without the substantive rank of general.  In practice, most of the promotions to "brevet" general were made after the war (some as late as 1869), to honor and reward their wartime service at a lesser rank.

I found this especially true when going through a list of Union veterans who were buried in a Chicago cemetery and found a whole lot of colonels who had been brevetted to brigadier general.

**  Warner also excludes many officers promoted to general in one fashion or another, but for whom proof of appointment is/was lacking.

--Old Secesh

McHenry County CW Round Table Discussion Group Meets Sat., July 24

The McHenry County Civil War Round Table discussion group will be meeting Saturday, July 24 at Panera Bread in Crystal Lake, Illinois, at the corner of Main Street and US-Highway 14 (Northwest Highway).

And, even better, IT IS IN PERSON.  None of that Zoom stuff.

The time is 10 a.m. to noon.

The topic:

The Lincoln Conspirators.

All welcome, even non-members, so if you have an interest in the war and especially the Lincoln assassination, be there.

Should Mary Surratt have been executed?

Come On By.  --Old Secesh

Poltroons, Patriots & Buffoons: Oh Those Generals-- Part 4: Military Experience and Civilian Inexperience

Continuing with Bruce Allardice's statistical look at Civil War generals:

Again, the first number is Union, second Confederate.

Officers in Foreign Armies:  20  //  3

Mexican War/Other War Experience;  62  //  58

TOTAL WITH EXPERINCE 

395  (66%)  //  272  (64%)*

INEXPERIENCED CIVILIANS

188  //  153

TOTAL   

583  //  425

*  Modern research shows that Warner missed the prewar state militia service and military school attendance of a number of Southern generals.

--Old Secesh

McHenry County CWRT June 8-- Part 3: Poltroons, Patriots & Politicians

Our speaker was Bruce Allardice and his topic was "Poltroons, Patriots & Politicians:  Civil War Generals.  Well, I had to look up "Poltroons" to see what it meant.  In case you also don't know, it means an utter coward.

So, we were going to hear about Civil War generals.  This presentation could also have been called "Civil War generals:  The Good, the Bad & the Ugly."  After hearing the talk, it was amazing that these generals could have fought their way out of a paper bag, even with some help.

But, anyway, he handed out a Civil War Generals Fact Sheet and is was of interest, so I will write it down here.  These numbers taken from Ezra Warner's "generals in Blue" and "Generals in Gray" with, as he says, slight modifications.

********************************

PREWAR MILITARY EXPERIENCE   The first number will be Union generals and the second Confederate.

West Point Graduates:    217  //  146

West Point Non-Graduates:     11  //  10

Attended Other Military Schools:      9  // 23

Regular Army/Navy Officers:    36  //  22

State Militia:    40  // 10

And More.  --Old Secesh

McHenry County CW Round Table Meeting, June-- Part 2: The Portabella Burger Incident

And, even better, eight of us met up at Checkers II restaurant in "downtown" Union (there isn't much of a downtown) before the meeting and enjoyed conversation and good food, including me being "trucked" by what they called the Portabella Burger. 

It was listed under handcrafted sandwiches (which also included burgers) and I figured it was a hamburger paddy topped by a huge mushroom and it also included three of my favorite things on any sandwich, but especially on a burger and that would be  sauteed onions, peppers and melted bleu cheese.  All served on a pretzel roll.

Wow, my mouth watered at this prospect.

But, when I got it. there was no hamburger.  A huge slice of portabella mushroom took the place of the burger paddy.  Disappointed, but I bit into it and boy, was that good.  I'd order it again, even without a burger.

We then adjourned over to the McHenry County Historical Society Museum for the meeting.

Everyone was required to wear face masks and social distancing was practiced.

--Old Secesh

Finally, an In-Person McHenry County Civil War Round Table Meeting in June-- Part 1: Back in the Saddle Again

Little did I know when I attended the McHenry County Civil War Round Table Meeting in March 2020, but that was going to be the last one until June 8, 2021.  And, you know why.  Our usual meeting place, the Woodstock Public Library (Illinois) was closed and still is until sometime in the fall for meetings.

Now, we had had several meetings with presentations via Zoom, but since I don't do Zoom, I was left out (by my own choice of course).  We did have several discussion group meeting in person starting in the summer and fall of 2020.

Because there were no meetings, it was decided that anyone who had paid dues for 2020, did not have to do so for 2021.

Sadly, in the interim, we lost several members who died and several who have moved away or in extremely poor health.

I tell you, this virus has been rough on all history groups.  Of course, a big part of  the problem is that history groups tend to be a bit long in the tooth if you know what I mean.

Anyway, out president is a member of the McHenry County Historical Society and he was able to arrange to have their museum in Union, Illinois, open for a Tuesday night meeting on June 8, 2021.  That is about a 30 mile drive for me, but, as they say, I was "chomping at the bit" to get back with history.

Welcome Back.  --Old Secesh

7th Minnesota Infantry, Henry Mills' Outfit-- Part 2: Battle of Nashville and the End of the War

Late in November 1864, the 7th Minnesota arrived at Nashville, Tennessee and joined Genera; George Thomas' army who were  fighting Gen. John Bell Hood's Confederates. 

On December 15, Thomas' troops attacked the Confederate lines outside the city.  The 7th Minnesota's brigade charged a gun position and captured three cannons.  Unfortunately, Colonel Sylvester  G. Hill, the brigade commander, was killed.  The 7th's Col. Marshall then took command of the brigade.

The Union forces renewed the attack the following day  which was rainy.  The 7th and their comrades charged over soft rain soaked ground across a corn field and captured the Confederate works.  Union forces were successful all along the line  and Hood's army was all but destroyed.

The 7th had six men killed and fifty-four wounded in the two-day battle.  One of those wounded was Henry Mills.

Following the Battle of Nashville, the 7th served in Tennessee and Mississippi.

In March and April, 1865, they fought in Gen.  E.R.S. Canby's campaign against Mobile, Alabama.  This was the last campaign of the 7th, and they returned home and were mustered out of service on August 16, 1865.

--Old Secesh

7th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, Henry Mills' Outfit-- Part 1

From MNopedia.

The 7th Minnesota Infantry served on Minnesota's troubled frontier in the summer of 1862 and into the  first half of 1863.  The regiment eventually headed south, taking part in a key battle that essentially destroyed a Confederate army.  They also participated in one of the final campaigns of the war.

They fought in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 and were at the Birch Coulee and Wood Lake battles.

Then, they went south and fought Confederate Gen. Forrest's cavalry at the Battle of Tupelo July 14-15.  Then they pursued Confederate Gen. Sterling Price's army across Arkansas and Missouri.

Late in November, they arrived at Nashville where they joined Union Gen. George Thomas's troops facing Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood's Army of Tennessee.

--Old Secesh

Henry Mills' Bloody Shirt-- Part 2

The collections at the Minnesota Historical Society are filled with items like the shirt.

Objects like this ordinary shirt, worn and frayed and dark with blood of its last two owners.

If you look closely , you can see faint embroidery on the pockets, spelling out the initials J.B.

Maybe these initials were stitched by a mother or a sweetheart.  Maybe some future historian will be combing through the casualty lists of the Battle of Nashville  and put a name on the Confederate soldier who never came home.

"This shirt  saved the life of a Minnesota soldier, said Sondra Reierson of the Historical Society.  The fact that even with the shirt, Mills was able to survive his battlefield wounds in that day and age is only matched by the shirt surviving.

The Mills family kept the shirt safe and beautifully  preserved for 157 years, donated it to the Minnesota Historical Society last week.  It will go on display at the new visitor center opening next year at the Historic Fort Snelling at Bdote.

The story of Henry Mills, who was about 31 years old at the Battle of Nashville, had many more chapters after his Civil War years.  He came home, raised a family and lived to see a brand new century.  He served as a state arsenal keeper, ran a grocery and was elected Justice of the Peace.

Born in 1833, he died in 1925 at the age of 92.

--Old Secesh

Henry Mills' Bloody Shirt-- Part 1

From the July 3, 2021, Minneapolis Star Tribune "Minnesota Historical Society looks to the future" by Jennifer Brooks.

I wrote about the shirt that may have saved Henry Mills' life at the Battle of Nashville in 1864 earlier this month.  It is now housed  in the collections of the Minnesota Historical Society.  Here is some more information on it.

Henry Mills held on to the shirt that saved his live for the rest of his long life.

It was a dead man's shirt.  Likely taken off a dead Confederate soldier on the icy Battle of Nashville on a bitter day in December 1864.  Mills took the shirt and wrapped it tightly around  the bleeding bullet wound in his leg.

He ended up losing the leg, but kept the shirt.  After the war, it came home with him to Minnesota -- first to Fort Snelling, where Lt. Henry Mills mustered out of the 7th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, then to his home in St. Paul.

No matter how many times the Mills family washed that shirt, the blood stains would not come out.  But, instead of burning it or cutting it into strips for rags so he wouldn't be reminded of its story, Mills carried this bit if his past into the future.

--Old Secesh

Further Research on the 7th Minnesota, Henry Mills and the 'Bloody Shirt'

In July 2 I wrote about the newly acquired "Bloody Shirt" of Henry Mills of the 7th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry.  He used it to staunch the flow of blood from a wound he received at the Battle of Nashville in December 1864.

I am going to be doing some more research on this event.

From Wikipedia.    The Union Order of Battle for the Battle of Nashville.

The 7th Minnesota was part of a detachment serving there from the Army of the Tennessee under Major general Andrew J. Smith.

They were in:

FIRST DIVISION under Brig. Gen. John McArthur

THIRD BRIGADE under  Col. Sylvester G. Hill (killed), then Col. William R. Marshall.

12th Iowa-- Lt.C. John H. Stibbs

35th Iowa--  Major William Dill, Capt. Abraham N. Snyder

7th Minnesota--  Col. William R. Marshall, then Lt.C. George Bradley (Marshall took command of the Third Brigade after the death of Col. Sylvester G. Hill.

33rd Missouri--  William H. Heath

Battery I, 2nd Missouri Light Artillery--  Capt. Stephen H. Julian

--Old Secesh

Civil War Events in July: Draft Riot in New York City, First Manassas, Emancipation Proclamation and the Crater

JULY 11, 1864

Battle of  Fort Stevens.  Confederates fail to capture Washington, D.C.

JULY 13, 1863

Riots erupt in New York City in protest of the draft

JULY 18, 1863

the 54th Massachusetts attacks Fort Wagner near Charleston, S.C.

JULY 21, 1861

First Battle of Manassas, Virginia (or do you say First Battle of Bull Run?)

JULY 22, 1862

President Lincoln presents the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet

JULY 24, 1864

Second Battle of Kernstown, Virginia

JULY 28, 1864

Battle of Ezra Church, Georgia

JULY 30, 1864

Battle if the Crater at Petersburg, Virginia

--Old Secesh

Civil War Events in July: Gettysburg, Vicksburg and Port Hudson

From the American Battlefield Trust July 2021 Calendar.

JULY 1, 1862

Battle of Malvern Hill, Virginia

JULY 1 1863

Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, begins

JULY 3, 1863

Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania concludes with Pickett's Charge

JULY 4, 1863

Confederate surrender Vicksburg, Mississippi

JULY 7, 1865

Conspirators in the assassination of Lincoln executed

JULY 8, 1863

Surrender of Port Hudson, Louisiana

JULY 9, 1864

Battle of Monocacy, Maryland

--Old Secesh

Battle of Gettysburg

From the American Battlefield Trust July 2021 calendar.

GETTYSBURG, PA.

1,183 acres saved.

On the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, Confederates under Gen. John B. Gordon attacked the position of Brig. Gen. Francis Barlow's division of the Union's Eleventh Corps on a small rise known as Barlow's Knoll.

In 2020, the Trust commemorated the anniversary of the 1863 battle by transferring 35 acres at Barlow's Knoll to the National Park Service as a permanent addition to the Gettysburg National Military Park.

A photograph of Barlow's Knoll by Noel Kline accompanied the month.

--Old Secesh

Kentucky Union Soldier Gets New Gravestone-- Part 3: To the End of the War

The men made their way back down the mountain to their horses and were dismayed to find that the horses had starved to death where they had been tied.  

Incidentally, the volunteer who had allowed himself to be captured to start the ruse, was never seen or heard from again.

The situation was turned around when Gen. Joseph Hooker and two corps of Union soldiers arrived to relieve the besieged Gen.  William Rosecrans. They drove the Confederates off the mountain in what is called "The Battle Above the Clouds."

The Union forces seized Chattanooga and gained control of the Tennessee River and cut off the Confederate supply line and paved the way for the decisive Battle of Missionary Ridge.

On May  31, 1864, Johnny Lobb was injured at the Battle of Burnt Hickory near  Kingston, Georgia, when a minie ball struck his right arm above the elbow.  After treatment in a hospital, he returned to his company.  He was honorably discharged on March 19, 1865,  and returned to Hammonsville and began farming.

He was born on February  25, 1844, and died Jan. 2, 1911.

--Old Secesh

Kentucky Union Soldier Gets New Gravestone-- Part 2: Trapped on a Mountain and Then, a Ruse Works

John Robert Lobb served in Company e, 27th Kentucky Infantry (Union).

In late November of 1863, he and several comrades were trapped for eighteen days by Confederate soldiers on Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee.

With the Confederates in hot pursuit, the Union soldiers rode their horses as far up the mountain as they could, then dismounted, tied their horses and continued further up on foot.  Food and water became scarce and they were reduced to half rations and the  to five men to one man's ration.

After fifteen days, their captain asked for a volunteer to carry a message down the mountain with plans to be captured by the enemy. indicated that there were a thousand or more Union soldiers on their way to reinforce and resupply the men on the mountain.

A volunteer was found and within about 24 hours, John Lobb and his fellow soldiers could see the Confederates  retreating and that their man had been captured by them.  The ruse had worked.

--Old Secesh

Kentucky Union Civil War Soldier Has Gravestone Dedication

From the June13, 2021, WTVQ Hart County, Ky. "Ky Civil War Union soldier gravestone dedication."

The gravestone was made and put in place in 2020, but the dedication was postponed until now because of the pandemic.

The gravestone is that of John Robert Lobb, Co. E, 27th Kentucky Infantry.  He was known as "Johnny" and then "Grand Pap" by his family.  The dedication was held at Three Forks of Bacon Creek  Baptist Church Cemetery near Magnolia in Hart County.

The family had applied to the VA for a new gravestone.  Re-enactors were present for the ceremony.

The family related an interesting story about the time he survived  18 days trapped on a mountain surrounded by Confederate soldiers.

Next Post.  --Old Secesh

A Piece of the War Acquired in Minnesota

From the June 30, 2021, Red Lake Nation News  Recently acquired Confederate shirt and 1906 cavalry uniform speak to expanded   military stories at historic Fort Snelling."

The Minnesota  Historical Society recently acquired a Confederate shirt used to bind a wound received by a Minnesota soldier.

On the second day of the Battle of Nashville on December 16, 1864, Henry L. Mills, a sergeant in the 7th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry was shot in the leg.  In an effort to staunch the flow of blood, Mills grabbed the shirt of a slain Confederate soldier and used it as a tourniquet.  

The shirt remains stained with Mills' blood.

Mills mustered out of Union service at Fort Snelling and returned to St. Paul, where he recovered and lived to the age of 92.

--Old Secesh