The Answers to the 'Frank' Questions-- Part 1: Cmdr. Maxwell Woodhull

As I said in the last post, McHenry County Civil War Round Table (MCCWRT) member Frank Crawford always has, or sends in if he is not there, some VERY difficult questions for us discussion group members to ponder and finally, most of the time anyway, give up and ask for the answer.  They almost always are about some person from the war.

1.  Who was Cmdr. Maxwell Woodhull, USN?

Killed by accident in Baltimore while inspecting defenses of that city when a 32-pdr. cannon fired a 32-pdr. right as he drove by and he took the full brunt of the impact.  Died instantly.

And, I should have known about him, but didn't.  I have written about him in my Running the Blockade :  Civil War Navy blog in the past.  Like they say, the first thing to go as you get older.  Go to the Running the Blockade blog, click on the Woodhull label and find out more about him and his accidental death.

Talk About Being In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time.  --Old B-Runner

And Now for the 'Frank' Questions

Most every discussion group receives several fairly impossible to answer questions from good buddy Frank Crawford.  We refer to them as  The Frank Questions and they are, as I said, fairly impossible to answer.  We believe he looks them up.  Nobody could know all those people he asks about.

But, once in a great while, one of us actually has heard of the person.

These were the "Frank" questions for August 2020:

1.  Who was Commander Maxwell Woodhull?

2.  Who was Andrew  Jackson Riddle?

3.  Who was Sgt. Ivey Ritchie?

See you next post.

--Old Secesh

Maxwell Van Zandt Woodhull, U.S. Army

From Wikipedia.

Was a Union officer during the Civil War.  Entered the U.S. Army in 1862 as a captain.

He was the son of Union naval officer Maxwell Woodhull who commanded the USS Cimarron and later died in an accidental discharge of a Union cannon.

Maxwell Van Zandt Woodhull received a brevet to brigadier general on March 13, 1865.

He was largely responsible for bringing George Washington University to its present site in Washington, D.C..  There is a memorial flagpole at Arlington National Cemetery which he had erected in his father's memory.

I wrote a lot about his father in my Running the Blockade: Civil War Naval blog.

--Old Secesh