Lee and His Generals-- Part 6: Lee Takes Command

Robert E. Lee's first job was as a military advisor to Jefferson Davis and was in charge of coastal defense along the Atlantic Ocean.  He went out in public and said that Fort Pulaski was so strong that it could never be captured.

 Lee essentially got whipped during the early part of the war in command in what became West Virginia.  

In 1862, Johnston was in charge of forces protecting Richmond.  Lee was primarily involved in building up that city's defenses.   So much defensive work he directed that Lee got the nickname "Old Spades.

Johnston was wounded at Seven Pines.  The top Confederate generals in terms of seniority were Samuel Cooper, Albert Sydney Johnston, Lee, Joe Johnston and Beauregard.

Lee took over command of the Army defending Richmond.  He found that he could most rely on Longstreet and the two Hills.  As for Confederate generals Magruder, Holmes and Huger not so much.

--Old Secesh

Writes His Dad- Part 4: The Battle of Shiloh and Death of Harley Wayne

Harley Wayne, however, did not miss U.S. Grant's second major battle, this time against Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston, considered at the time to be the South's best general.

On a Sunday morning, April 6, 1862, the two armies collided at Shiloh in western Tennessee.  Shiloh was virtually little more than a backwoods church, when the Confederates surprised Grant's Army at daybreak.  At daybreak the firing began and by 5 am, the noise and confusion was everywhere on the battlefield.

Johnston was at the front directing his men when he took a bullet to an artery and bled to death.

Harley Wayne was also in the midst of the fighting, right by a place that came to be known as the "Hornet's Nest" because of the bloody confrontation there.  He took a Confederate bullet in the chest and died instantly.

His body was shipped home and he was buried in Marengo Cemetery.

--Old Secesh

Civil War Generals-- Part 6: How They Stood

IRVIN McDOWELL had been a major and a staff officer and had never commanded any men.  At First Bull Run, he was leading 35,000 troops.

P.G.T. BEAUREGARD was an engineer and had never command more than about fifty men which he did during the Mexican War.

JOHN C. FREMONT, known as the Pathfinder, was an explorer and complete failure as an army commander.

WILLIAM T. SHERMAN got his chance at command because of his brother John who was a powerful Ohio politician.  He had essentially failed at everything he had done before the war.

U.S. GRANT was a failure and a civilian when the war came.  Each Congressman had the power to nominate a general.  Elihu Washburne, from Galena, Illinois, where Grant was living pushed for him.

ALBERT  SIDNEY JOHNSTON had commanded a regiment during the Mexican War and had the best pre-war credentials to command an army.

--Old Seecsh

MCCWRT Battle of Shiloh Quiz

Continuing with the quiz.

Side Question, there was a Confederate Army and a Union Army both with the name Tennessee.  How could you tell them apart (and don't say uniforms).  Hint:  The name.

3.  In what intermediate direction would Shiloh be in the state of Tennessee?  (Hint:  Not E,S,W, or N)

4.  What was the objective of Confederate General Johnston?  (to strike Grant before what?)

5.   What was the name given to the sunken road where the very fierce fighting took place?

6.  Where was Johnston's base of operations?

7.  Who were the two Union division commanders named Wallace?

FRANK QUESTION:  (THAT MEANS REALLY HARD):  One of the Wallace's had two middle names,  what were they?  (Hint:  The letters were H.L.)

WAIT, ONE MORE FRANK QUESTION:  Besides the same last name, both Wallaces had commanded the 11th regiment of their respective states.  What were the two states?

Good Luck.  Answers in the Next Post.  --Old Secesh

Dr. Ezra Read-- Part 3: The Texas Revolution

When the Texas Revolution started in 1836, he quit his Cincinnati medical practice and  volunteered his services to an Ohio  military company heading for Texas.

At the Battle of San Jacinto, he treated Mexican leader and general  Antonio  Lopez de Santa Anna.  In 1837, he was attending physician at an infamous duel  between Gen. Felix Huston, for whom he was staff surgeon, and  future Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnson.

Ezra Read was named "acting surgeon-in-chief" of the Texas army and navy, and afterwards commissioned Surgeon General of the Texas Navy, the only person to ever serve in that capacity.

--Old Secesh

Other Events Affecting the Civil War-- Part 5: Improvements in Artillery

**  A turning point of the war was the firing on Fort Sumter.  It didn't have to happen and made the Confederacy look like the bad guys for starting the war.

Fort Sumter would have had to surrender in a few days because of lack of provisions.

**  Incredible improvements in artillery velocity and accuracy made masonry forts obsolete.

**  Ironclads made wooden warships obsolete.

**  Incredible fortunes were made during the war.

**  After the war, the GAR had a huge impact on politics.

**  Was Albert Sidney Johnston as good of a general as everyone thought?

--Old Secesh

Second Texas Infantry-- Part 1: Raised to Defend Texas Coast

This is regards my blog entry of September 1 on Augustus Beckmann who was mortally wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, buried at Camp Dennison in Cincinnati under the wrong name and later moved to Camp Chase in Columbus.

He served in the 2nd Texas Infantry.

From the Texas State Historical Association.

The 2nd Texas Infantry was organized at Galveston, Texas, in September 1861 to protect the Texas coast.  The regiment moved to Camp Bee in Houston that September to complete its training.  It had ten companies.

By March 1862, it moved to Corinth, Mississippi, where it became part of the Army of the Mississippi, under General Albert Sidney Johnston.

--Old Secesh

Some Things You Might Not Know About the Civil War-- Part 1

From the San Angelo Standard Times.

** Federal authorities in Baltimore imprisoned the mayor, police chief and others suspected of Southern sympathy, including the grandson of Francis Scott Key in May 1861 after the attack on Union troops moving through there to protect Washington, DC.

** Texan Albert Sydney Johnston commanded the US Department of the Pacific in California in early 1861. He refused to join in a Southern plot to capture the state, but resigned his commission when he learned Texas had seceded.

He went to Los Angeles where he enlisted as a private in the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles, a pro-Southern group and rode with them across Arizona and New Mexico into Texas. He joined the Confederate Army and rose eventually to the second-highest rank before being killed at the Battle of Shiloh in 1862.

** Union General Lew Wallace later wrote "Ben Hur," but organized thousands of volunteers to defend Cincinnati when it was threatened by Confederates in 1862.

More to Come. --Old Secesh