Surgeon Edward D. Kittoe-- Part 3

From Galena and US Grant Museum.

Dr. Edward Kittoe is not one of Galena's nine generals but his importance to the overall Union war effort was far greater than some of those nine generals.

He served on U.S. Grant's personal staff and later in Sherman's  Georgia campaign.  It was Kittoe who worked to institute more sanitary conditions and better medical procedures during the war.  His efforts probably saved  thousands of lives.

Dr. Kittoe quietly returned to Galena, Illinois, after the war, continuing to serve his town as a beloved family physician until his death in 1887.

--Old Secesh

Surgeon Edward Kittoe of Galena-- Part 2

Civil War Union Army surgeon.

He was commissioned as  Chief Surgeon of the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry on August 10, 1861.

Served on that duty until November 7, 1862,  when he was appointed an Assistant Surgeon in the U.S. Volunteers.    Promoted to  full Surgeon  on December  14, 1862, he was  promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and Medical Inspector on March 30, 1864.

He served until  honorably mustered out on October  31, 1865, having been brevetted to Colonel, US Volunteers on September 30, 1865, "for faithful and meritorious service."

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His son, William Kirby Kittoe (1843-1927) served as a Private in the 45th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

--Old Secesh

Surgeon Edward D. Kittoe of Galena

From Find-A-Grave.

DR. EDWARD DOMINICUS KITTOE

BIRTH:   23 June 1814, Kent, England

DEATH:  25 September 1887 (aged 73)

BURIAL: Greenwood Cemetery, Galena, Illinois.

He was the father of Maria Fiester Kittoe who married Alfred Smith, the son of John E. Smith.

--Old Secesh

Alfred T. Smith-- Part 3: His Service

From Colonels in Blue:  Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Lieutenant, U.S. 8th Infantry May 14, 1861

Assistant Professor of Mathematics  USMA  Sept. 1862-March 18, 1865.

Captain, 8th U.S. Infantry, Sept. 19, 1863.

Colonel, 156th Illinois Infantry, April 4, 1865.

Commanded Post of Chattanooga, TN., June 1865.

Commanded 3 Brigade, 2 Separate Division, District of the Etowah, Department of  the Cumberland, June-Aug. 1865.

Acting AIG, staff of  Major General John E. Smith (his father), District of West Tennessee, Aug.-Sept. 1865.

Honorably mustered out, Sept. 20, 1865.

Bvt. Captain, US Army, July 1862 for gallant and meritorious services during the Peninsular Campaign.

Bvt. Major and Bvt. Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army, March 13, 1865, for gallant and meritorius services during the war.

Battle Honors:  The Virginia Peninsular Campaign.

Education:  Graduated U.S. Military Academy, West Point, NY, 1860.

Was Colonel of 13th U.S. Infantry in the Spanish-American War,

Retired 16 June 1899.

--Old Secesh

Alfred Smith-- Part 2

CAPT. ALFRED THEOPHILUS SMITH

Civil War Union officer.  An 1860 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, he served during the war as a captain in then 8th United States Regular Infantry before being commissioned colonel and commander of the 156th Illinois Volunteer Infantry.

He ended the war with brevets to Major and Lieutenant Colonel in the Regular Service.

After the war, he served as Colonel of the  13th United States Infantry and was promoted to Major General on the retired list.

He died in Buffalo, New York, and was cremated there.  His family erected a cenotaph for him in their family plot in Galena.

--Old Secesh

John E. Smith's Son, Alfred Smith, Also Union Officer

I have been writing about Galena, Illinois, General John E. Smith earlier this month.  He had a son who was also a Union officer and as a cenotaph at the same cemetery as his father.

From Find-A-Grave.

CAPT. ALFRED THEOPHILUS SMITH

BIRTH: 29 May 1838, St. Louis, Missouri

DEATH:  23 May 1905, Buffalo, New York

BURIAL:  Cremated there.   Cenotaph at Greenwood Cemetery, Galena, Illinois.

Alfred Smith was the son of John E. Smith.

In 1862, he married Maria Fiester Kittoe (1841- 1878).  She was the daughter of Union surgeon  Dr. Edward Dominicus Kittoe of Galena, Illinois.

--Old Secesh

Where the Other Four of the Galena 9 Are Buried

In the last post, I wrote about five of Galena, Illinois' nine Union generals being buried at  Greenwood Cemetery in Galena.

Well, what about the other four?

**  U.S. GRANT  

Buried at Grant's Tomb in New York City.

**  JOHN OLIVER DUER

Buried at Oakwood Cemetery in Monticello, Iowa.

**  ELY S. PARKER

Buried at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.

**  JOHN AARON RAWLINS

Buried at Arlington National Cemetery

Who's Buried in Grant's Tomb.  --Old Secesh

Many of the Galena Nine Buried at Greenwood Cemetery

From Find-A-Grave.

Five of the Galena Nine are buried at Galena's Greenwood Cemetery, including John E. Smith.

The other four:

Augustus Louis Chetlain

Jasper Adalmorn  Maltby

Willima Reuben  Rowley

John Corson Smith

In addition, a very important politician who helped Grant's career immensely, Elihu  Benjamin Washburne is buried there.  Also, Edward Kittoe, a Union surgeon.

--Old Secesh

Galena's Gen. John E. Smith-- Part 6: Postwar Service in U.S. Army

John Smith commanded at Fort Phil Kearny and was in command there during the Red Cloud War in the late 1860s.  He was an advocate for Indian rights and treatment.

Later, he was with the 14th U.S. Regiment at Fort Laramie.

After that, he administered several Indian reservations.

His retirement from the Army came in 1881 and he lived in Chicago for the remainder of his life.  He is buried in Galena, Illinois, at Greenwood Cemetery.

He also served as executor of John Rawlins' estate.

He remained friends with Grant and was one of Grant's earliest and truest friends.

His bust is at Vicksburg.

--Old Secesh

Galena's Gen. John E. Smith-- Part 5: Service to End of War

Ely Parker got a job as an engineer on John Smith's staff.  Grant needed an engineer and got Parker who served in that capacity on Grant's staff for the remainder of the war.

Smith's division was the first to enter Vicksburg after its surrender on July 4, 1863.

Then the division went to Chattanooga.  After Chattanooga, Smith was in charge of the task of keeping Union railroads open during the Atlanta Campaign.  His troops were at Altoona Pass, but he wasn't there.

Smith went with Sherman in his March to the Sea and during the Carolina's Campaign, Smith said that the water was "not deep enough for navigation, but too deep to say we came by land."

He was still with Sherman when Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston surrendered at Bennett Place.

He didn't go to the Grand Review in Washington, D.C., and was sent to Memphis to serve as military governor of Western Tennessee.

John Smith mustered out in 1866 as commander in the volunteer service, but chose to remain in the regular Army and was made colonel of the 27th U.S. Infantry.

--Old Secesh

Galena's John E. Smith-- Part 4: At Fort Donelson and Shiloh

When the Star of the West was fired upon at Charleston Harbor, Smith went to Springfield to get Governor Richard Yates to do something.  He got a colonel's commission and was apponted aide-de-camp in charge of  Illinois militia.

He got Grant to train Galena's troops which ultimately became part of the 12th Illinois Infantry.  Grant wanted a commission in the regular U.S. Army, not militia and went to Ohio to get it, but McClellan refused him.

Then, Smith introduced Grant to Governor Yates.

Smith received command of the Leadmine Regiment from the Galena area, which became the 45th Illinois Infantry.  Their nickname was the Washburne Leadmine Regiment.  Smith commanded this regiment at Fort Donelson and Shiloh.

Smith was courageous in both actions.  He was in the open at Shiloh and was seen cleaning and filling his pipe and then took a puff while under fire.

The regiment took heavy losses at Shiloh and had to cut their way out.

----Old Secesh

Galena's Gen. John E. Smith-- Part 3: Born Overseas

In 1861, John E. Smith probably was the most important man in Galena.  He was born overseas and in 1832, at age 16, arrived in St. Louis where he lived for three years before coming to Galena, Illinois. He had a store at 85 Main Street there.   (Grant was at 15 Main Street.  They became friends.)

Smith was very active in Galena's civic affairs.

Ely Parker was an Indian civil engineer and built the Galena Custom House.  (One of the Galena Nine.)

He also became friends with Joseph Russell Jones who owned the Belvedere Mansion in town.  Jones was very involved in the steamboat industry. 

Smith was a staunch anti-slavery man.  He became a supporter of Lincoln.

Grant did not come to Galena until April 1860.

--Old Secesh

The Galena Nine

Nope, not a baseball team.

For most communities, having one person reaching the rank of general during wartime is something to be proud of.  However, a city in the northwestern corner of Illinois, Galena, had not just one (and, he was then biggest of all generals) but nine.

Here is a list of the nine in case you were wondering who they might be from the last post:

Augustus Louis Chetlain

John Oliver Duer

Ulysses Simpson Grant

Jasper  Adalmorn Maltby

Ely Samuel  Parker

John Aaron Rawlins 

William Rueben Rowley

John Corson  Smith

John Eugene Smith

Grant?  Who?  --Old Secesh

MCCWRT Sept. 2022 Meeting-- Part 1: 'Gen. John E. Smith: Galena's Forgotten General'

The McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table September 2022 meeting was held at the Woodstock Library.

The presentation was on a Union general I had never heard of, John E. Smith, described as one of the most important people of the Civil War that you've never heard of.  He was from Galena, now sometimes called the City That Time Forgot, but in the early 1800s it was a very important town and busy port.  

From 1827 to 1850, some 85% of lead mined in the U.S. came from the Galena area.  Galena was the largest river port north of St. Louis.

And, when the Civil War came, Galena supplied nine generals to the Union cause, the best-known being one U.S. Grant.   As a matter of fact, the U.S. Highway that runs through Galena, US-20, is called the U.S. Grant Highway.

--Old Secesh

Civil War Technology-- Part 7: Longstreet, Railroads and Cannons

**  General Longstreet was able to move his corps from Virginia to Georgia by rail and took Union forces by surprise which led to victory at Chickamauga.

**  Improvements were made in steam engines plus safety measures.

**  Smoothbore cannons were best against infantry.  

**  Whitworth cannons had a range of 5 miles.  There were some at Fort Fisher.

**  Two main Union foundries:  West Point and Pittsburgh.

**  Trench warfare.

--Old Secesh

Civil War Technology-- Part 6: All About Railroads

**  At the beginning of the war, the Confederacy had 1/3 of the rolling freight, 1/5 of the locomotives and 1/10 of the telegraph stations.

**  Neither the Union or Confederate railroads were ready for war.

**  Rails at the time were made of iron, not steel.  This caused frequent derailments.

**  The Wilmington & Weldon Railroad was one of the longest continuous ones in the country.

**  A major problem facing war railroads was the differing gauges of railroad tracks (how far apart they were).  In 1986, the U.S. adopted a standard railroad gauge.

**  Gauge was based on the standard distance that Roman chariot wheels were apart.

**  Then, there were Sherman's Neckties.

--Old Secesh

This Month in the Civil War: Emancipation, Fisher, New Bern, Monitor and Lee

From the January 2023 American Battlefield Trust calendar.

JANUARY 1, 1863

**  President Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation.

JANUARY 15, 1865

**  Fall of Fort Fisher, North Carolina.

JANUARY 19, 1862

**  Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky

JANUARY 28, 1864

**  Operations around New Bern, North Carolina.

JANUARY 30, 1862

**  The USS Monitor launched at Greenpoint, Long Island, New York.

JANUARY, 31, 1865

**  Robert E. Lee assumes command of the Confederate armies.

A Little Too Late.  --Old Secesh

Civil War Technology-- Part 5: About Dem Shoes and Shoddy Uniforms, Ben Butler's Nest and Railroads

**  Left and right shoes.

**  Shoddy uniforms  (where the term shoddy came from  in the Civil War)

**  Lincoln had his own private telegraph.

He went to Fortress Monroe 14 times during the war and had private meetings there.  It was away from the prying eyes of Washington, D.C..  Plus, the commander there, Benjamin Butler had his iwn private netwodk of spies and informants.

**  Repeating rifles, but the knock against them was that they used too much ammunition.

**  Railroads had a boom in the 1840s and 1850s.  In 1850, there were 9,000 miles of rails, by 1860 there were 30,000.

However, of that, 21,000 miles were in the Union and 9,000 in the Confederacy.

--Old Secesh

Civil War Technology-- Part 4: Money, Lincoln and Lowe

From the McHenry County Civil War Round Table discussion group, October 2022.

**  MONEY

GREENBACKS:  As a way to pay the Army.  Use of stamps as money.    Lincoln's wallet (at Ford's Theater) has a compartment for stamps.

Confederate money was only redeemable ten years after the war.

**  LINCOLN

A big supporter of any and all things new with technology and innovation.  He even had a patent for a way to get boats over shallow water.

**  THADDEUS LOWE

He had a competitor at Fortress Monroe.  A Union barge as a base to launch balloons could be considered the first U.S. aircraft carrier.

A Balloon Corps was established.  Zeppelin came to visit Lowwe during the war.

Thomas Jefferson had seen the Montgofier Brothers launch a balloon in Paris.

--Old Secesh

Some More Technology

**  Standard shoe sizing

**  Aerial surveillance

**  Signal Corps

**  Dart-tipped grenades

10.  Jelly Beans  (an ideal candy to send to soldiers)

Give Me Those Jelly Bellies.  --Old Secesh

Civil War Technology-- Part 2

Continuing with the opening questions for the McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table discussion group's October meeting.

Answer the question and tell what technology it refers to.

6.  Who was the Union Secretary of the Treasury?   What did he do in regards to raising money for the war effort?

7.  Who was the Union man responsible for bringing observation to new heights?  And what did he push?

8.  Who's system was used  by the pass messages on the battlefield other than the telegraph??

9.  What were limelights?

10.  What were they also known as?

Answers below.

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6.  Salmon P. Chase.  Instituted the Federal Income Tax.  This continued until 1872, when it was rules unconstitutional.

7.  Professor ThaddeusS.C. Lowe.  Balloons.

8.  Albert James Myer.  These messages were passed by flags during the day and by turpentine torches at night.

9.  Bright incandescent lights which had been used in theaters before the war.

10.  Calcium or drummond lights.

--Old Secesh