Alonzo Cushing Was Last Gettysburg Medal of Honor Recipient in 2014

Same source as last post.

When Pickett's Charge finally reached the famed "copse of trees" on Cemetery Ridge, Union canister continued blowing holes in their ranks.  1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing commanded one of the Federal batteries there.

He received a severe abdomen wound and two of his guns were knocked out.  Even so, he refused to be taken off the field and kept his men firing at the advancing Confederates.  Later, he was hit in the mouth by a Minie ball bullet and was killed.

One hundred and fifty-one years after the battle, he would receive his Medal of Honor from President Obama.

Personally, I think that Alonzo Cushing's brother, Navy Lt. William Cushing should also receive one for his daring deeds, including sinking the feared Confederate ironclad CSS Albemarle with a small steam launch.

--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

Six Civil War Medical Myths That Just Won't Die-- Part 1: About Those Surgeons and Amputations

From Civil War Talk by lelliott19.

MYTH 1:  Civil War Surgeons Were Uneducated, inhumane "butchers" who amputated limbs  arbitrarily and unnecessarily.

Most had at least some medical training.  Very few had performed amputations or surgery in the numbers they were soon faced with, especially after battles.  Most lacked experience with gunshot wounds.  Most had received experience through attendance at medical lectures, apprenticing under an experienced  physician and/or practiced  medicine before the war.

As far as  amputations, minie balls shattered bones and shattered bones do not heal on their own. There were no orthopedic plates or pins like we have today.  Limbs were amputated as the most effective ways to save lives.

I always have a problem with all the sources I've read, however, mentioning piles of legs and arms in operating rooms after battles.  A bit on the gross side for me.

--Old Secesh

Gen. Junius Daniel-- Part 5: Mortally Wounded at Battle of Spotsylvania

During the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse on May 12, 1864,  Daniel led his brigade in a fierce counterattack on the  "Muleshoe" (also known as the "Bloody Angle"), trying to recapture that important position from the Army of the Potomac, which had captured it at dawn.  He was struck in the abdomen by a Minie ball, inflicting a mortal wound.

He died in a field hospital the next day and his body was taken to Halifax and buried in the Old Colonial Cemetery.

Unknown to Daniel, Robert E. Lee had recommended his promotion to major general just prior to his death.

Fellow North Carolinian and close friend, Brigadier General Bryan Grimes later wrote, "He was decidedly the best general officer from our state.  Though in all possibility I gained a brigadier at his death, I would for the sake of the country always remained in the status quo than the country should have lost his services."

General Grimes named one of his sons Junius Daniel Grimes (who would become a well-known Washington, D.C. attorney in the late 19th century).

The Junius Daniel Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy  in Weldon, North Carolina , was named in Daniel's honor.

--Old Secesh

Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith's Civil War Service-- Part 2

Smith had a scar  from a saber cut  on the head which he received in July 1861 in Barboursville, Virginia. Since April 7, 1862, he had been carrying a Minie ball in his hip from the Battle of Shiloh.  He was disabled because of this wound, though he tried to return to duty that summer.

However, the wound would not heal properly.  As such, he became a member of the Invalid Corps where he served for the rest of the war.  In that capacity, he served as a recruiting/mustering officer in Louisville, Kentucky.  Word had it that he was especially good at recruiting colored troops.

While in Louisville on this duty, he met and later married Emma L. Havrety.

--Old Secesh

Gen. Jacob "Howling Wilderness" Smith's Civil War Service

I have been writing a lot about this man this month in my Cooter's History Thing blog.  He was not a general during the Civil War, but an officer.  After the war he continued off and on in the military and then fought in the Spanish-American War, especially during the so-called Philippine Insurrection.  What he did there earned him the nickname "Howling Wilderness" especially when he gave orders to kill all Filipino males over the age of ten after the Belangiga Massacre of American troops.  "I want no prisoners," he ordered.  He also ordered that all of the island of Samar be laid to waste.

You should read about him.

Anyway, I'll talk a little about his Civil War service here.

At his 1902 court martial, Jacob Smith said that he had been wounded in battle three times:

**  Scar on his head from a saber cut he received July 1861 in Barboursville, Virginia.

**  Since April 7, 1862, he had been carrying a Minie ball in his hip from the Battle of Shiloh.

**  Smith also had a bullet  in his body from a wound  at El Caney, Cuba, during the Spanish-American War.

And, Some More.  --Old Secesh