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

Edward Bragg's Law Book-- Part 4: Diplomatic Career and the San Francisco Earthquake

In 1902, Bragg was appointed  Consul General  to Havana, but later that year was transferred to Hong Kong by President  Theodore Roosevelt because he  disliked living in Cuba.

When he returned to the United States from that posting in 1906, he was in San Francisco and had just retired to bed at a hotel and the chandelier above his wife and his bed started shaking and then crashed down on their bed.  They had returned just in time for the San Francisco Earthquake of April 18, 1906.

They were not hurt, but they lost all their possessions in the fire that took place afterwards.  They went and joined the many other city residents who slept outdoors at Knob Hill.

The book ends in December 1907, when Edward Bragg retired from his law practice.

He died June 20, 1912, at the age 85.  Beside his monument at Fond du Lac's Rienzi Cemetery stands a broken pillar for his only son, William Kohl Bragg, who died  at age 22.

Along with William Bragg and his wife Cordelia they had two daughters, Kate and Margaret.  Their children were known as Will, Kit and Daisy.

--Old Secesh

Edward Bragg's Law Book-- Part 3

Author Kenneth Grieb described Bragg as :  "short, squat, barrel-chested with ramrod straight bearing."  He wore his bushy hair brushed forward.  Grieb said the New York World newspaper as saying  the storied general had the air of "a bad man from Bitter Creek, who would lick  any blanked man  in town."  

Throughout his military career, Bragg's conduct and bravery impressed his commanding officers.  For a civilian with no military training or background, to reach the rank of brigadier general was an impressive feat.

Following the war, Edward Bragg was elected a Wisconsin Congressman (1876-1880 and 1884)  In 1884, at the Democratic National Convention, he seconded the nomination of Grover Cleveland, using the phrase:  "We love him for the enemies he had made."

--Old Secesh

Edward Bragg's Law Book Found-- Part 2: Raised Two Companies and Commanded the Iron Brigade

When news of the outbreak of the Civil War reached Wisconsin, Edward Bragg was defending a woman in a murder trial in Oshkosh, Wisconsin,   Once court was adjourned, he returned to Fond du Lac and raised an entire company of men for immediate service at the battlefront.

The training took place at Camp Hamilton in Fond du Lac, located where Playmore Park now sits on East Division and North Seymour streets.

Bragg stayed behind when the men left to tie up loose ends of his law practice, but then raised another company in June for the 6th Regiment Wisconsin  Volunteer Infantry and was elected its captain.   The regiment spent most of the war as the part of the famed  Iron Brigade  in the Army of the Potomac.

Joan Brusoe, a volunteer at the library,  recalls her great-grandfather's story of walking from Green Bay  to Fond du Lac at age 10 1/2  to join Bragg .  She says he became the drummer boy, but got dysentery at the Battle of Vicksburg.

Possessing a commanding presence, Bragg eventually rose to the command of the Iron Brigade, known for their Black Hats, from June 1864 to February 1865.  Known as one of the best brigades in the Union Army,  the unit suffered the highest percentage of casualties.

--Old Secesh

Charles V. Gridley's Family: 'You May Fire....'

I have been writing about this Civil War naval officer in my Running the Blockade: Civil War Navy blog.  He made his greatest fame, however, in the Spanish-American War, when he commanded the USS Olympia when George Dewey gave his famed order:  "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley!"

Charles Gridley also had two other relatives involved in the Civil War.  His brother, Lucius Gridley, was a musician in Company A, 2nd Michigan Infantry and his mother, Ann Eliza Sholes Gridley was a Civil War nurse.

You can read about these three people in my Running the Blockade blog from last and this week.  Just go to My Blog List to the left of this and click on that blog.

--Old Secesh

Edward Bragg's Law Book Found in Fond du Lac-- Part 1

From the May 17, 2018, Fond du Lac Reporter "Fond du Lac attorney general Edward Bragg's record book found" by Sharon Roznik.

Buried in a cardboard box in the newspaper archive room of the Fond du Lac Historical Society's library, the book smelled old and felt weighty, wrapped in archival paper to keep  the dust out.

Letters on the spine spelled "E.S. Bragg", the name of Fond du Lac's general who took part in  in every major Civil War battle in the east except Gettysburg.

Born in 1827, Edward S. Bragg was a Fond du Lac defense attorney whose practice  traveled a wide circuit through Northeast Wisconsin.

Bragg made this log starting in 1882.  It contains expenses for his clients who were among the movers and shakers of early Fond du Lac history.

--Old Secesh

Edward Bragg's Family-- Part 3: Two Grandchildren Also in Military

Two of Edward S. Bragg's grandchildren were also involved in the military.

Margaret Bragg Sherman's son, Edward Bragg Sherman (1883-1981) is listed as an ensign.

Bertha Bragg Scrivens' daughter was married to Lt.  Col. Detlow Mainch Marthinson, U.S. Army. (1894-1965)

--Old Secesh

Edward Bragg's Family-- Part 2: His Daughter Bertha Married Brig. Gen. George P. Scriven

A third daughter, Bertha Bragg Scriven, married an Army officer., George P. Scriven (1854-1940).

From Find-A-Grave

BIRTH:  23 July 1963

DEATH:  3 February 1914,  Washington, D.C.

BURIAL:  Arlington National Cemetery.

From the February 4, 1914, Washington Post

Mrs. Bertha Bragg Scriven wife of  the Chief Signal Officer of the Army, Brigadier General George P. Scriven, died at 9 o'clock yesterday morning at her home, 2009 N. Street Northwest.  Although ill for some months,  her death was not expected as her condition was not considered serious.

Mrs. Scriven was the daughter of the late General Edward S. Bragg, Commander of the Iron brigade of Civil War fame.  She was fifty years old and is survived by her mother, who resides in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, by her husband and two daughters.

Funeral services will be held tomorrow afternoon at two o'clock at St. John's Episcopal Church.  The Rev. Roland Cotton Smith will officiate and internment  will be in Arlington National Cemetery.

--Old Secesh

McHenry County CW Round Table Discussion Group Meets Sat. June 26: Topic Is CW Veterans' Associations North and South

The McHenry County (Illinois) Civil War Round Table (MCCWRT) will be meeting Saturday, June 26, at Panera Bread in Crystal Lake, Illinois, (U.S. Route 14 and Main Street) at 10 a.m. to noon.

This Saturday's discussion topic is Civil War Veterans' Associations:  North and South.

Of course the biggest Union one was the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) and the Confederate one was the United Confederate Veterans (UCV).

Plenty of room and everyone is welcome, members and nonmembers.  Where there is always good discussion and debate and, on occasion, we have even managed to stay sort of on topic.

Stop on in if you're in the area.

--Old Secesh

Edward Bragg's Family-- Part 1: A Commodore in the U.S. Navy

Edward S. Bragg married Cornelia Colman Bragg ((1830-1914) and they had three daughters ab d a son.  The son, William Kohl Bragg (1856-1878) died young at age 21.   The oldest daughter, Kate Colman Bragg Henry (1854-1895) married Clarence W. Henry.  All three of these people are buried at Rienzi Cemetery in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

Two daughters married military men.

Margaret Bragg Sherman (1859-1937) married Francis H. Sherman.  She and her husband are buried at Mount Mora Cemetery in Saint Joseph, Missouri.

U.S. Navy Commodore.  He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy as a midshipman in 1871 and served as an officer in the Navy.

During the Spanish-American War in 1898, he was a lieutenant-commander in the North Atlantic Squadron in command of the monitor USS Passaic.

After the war, he served as Captain on the Navy Flag Staff and retired as one of the Navy's last commodores.

--Old Secesh

Find-A-Grave: Edward S. Bragg-- Part 2

 After the war, President Andrew Johnson  appointed him postmaster of Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, in 1866 and he was a member of the State Senate in 1868 and 1869.  In 1885, he was elected  as a Democrat to the Forty-ninth Congress , serving until1887.

He was also the Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico in 1888, consul general  at Havana, Cuba, in  1903 and consul general to Hong Kong, China, 1903-1906.

--Old Secesh

Find-A-Grave: Edward Stuyvesant Bragg-- Part 1

BIRTH:   20 February 1827, Unadilla, New York

DEATH:  20 June 1912 (aged 85) Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

BURIAL: Rienzi Cemetery, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin

Civil War Union brigadier general,  U.S. Congressman, diplomat.

At te outbreak of the Civil War, he was a Wisconsin district attorney when commissioned a captain in the 6th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment in July 1861.

He participated in numerous battles and was promoted to colonel and commanded his regiment.  The 6th Wisconsin was part of the famed Iron Brigade.  He led  assaults on Petersburg and made a heroic advance at Fitzhugh's Crossing, where his troops crossed the Rappahannock under enemy fire and captured the Confederate works.

For this action, he was brevetted to brigadier general of U.S. volunteers in June 1864.

--Old Secesh

Edward S. Bragg's Postwar Career and Family

After the war, Bragg returned to Fond Du Lac, Wisconsin, and continued with his legal career.  He was very involved in politics, serving in the Wisconsin State Senate and as a U.S. Representative.    Most of the time we was very active as a Democrat, but eventually split with that political party, becoming a Republican.

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

FAMILY

Bragg married  Cornelia Colman on January 2, 1854.  She was the granddaughter of Colonel Nathaniel Rochester, a Revolutionary War soldiers and namesake and one of the founders of Rochester, New York.  They had three sons and three daughters, although two of the sons died young.  One daughter married George Percival Scriven, career soldier and the first chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the forerunner of today's NASA.

Bragg was also a cousin to Frederick William Benteen of the U.S. 7th Cavalry under  George Armstrong Custer.  he was a major figure in the action at the Battle of the Little Big Horn

He was also cousin to Confederate General Braxton Bragg, though they never met each other on the battlefield.

--Old Secesh

I'd Vote to Rename Fort Bragg after the Union Bragg

The Wisconsin Bragg, Edward S. Bragg, definitely established a good war record for himself, as you have been reading in the last posts,  so I'd be in favor of renaming Fort Bragg, North Carolina, from being for Confederate General Braxton Bragg to being for the Union General Bragg.

It would certainly save a whole lot of money and would accomplish the "Woke" folks' desire to continue with their Confederadication.

--Old Secesh