Margaret Buell
Wife of Union General Don Carlos Buell
I could find no information about Buell's wife, except that her name was Margaret.
Don Carlos Buell, named for an uncle, was born on March 23, 1818, near Marietta, Ohio. He was the first son of Salmon D. Buell and Eliza Buell, born on the farm of his grandfather, Judge Salmon Buell. He was named after his uncle, Don Carlos Buell, who was a lawyer in Ithaca, New York. His father died in 1825, and Buell grew up with his uncle in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he attended public schools, and proved himself a fair student.
In 1837, Buell received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at
West Point, and graduated in 1841,
ranking 32 in a class of 52 graduates. Buell served in the military, and participated in both the Seminole War and the Mexican War. In the
Mexican War, he was wounded at the Battle of Churubusco. Buell moved slowly up the ranks, finally attaining the rank of brevet major.
In December, 1860, Secretary of War John Floyd sent Major Buell to visit Robert Anderson, then in command of the US garrison at Charleston, South Carolina. Buell carried a message to Anderson that was too sensitive to go over the telegraph wires: "You may occupy any fort within Charleston Harbor." Anderson had wired Washington that at Fort Moultrie his position was threatened. With Washington's approval, Anderson could move to a much more formidable structure,
Fort Sumter.
General Don Carlos Buell
When the
American Civil War began, Buell was serving as an assistant adjutant general. With his military experience, he quickly was promoted to brigadier general. Buell reported to Washington, DC, in September 1861, where he served as a division commander in the Army of the Potomac under his friend, General George B. McClellan. In November of that same year, Buell succeeded William Tecumseh Sherman as commander of the Department of the Ohio. He helped organize the thousands of volunteers reporting for duty from Ohio and surrounding states, and prepared Ohio's defenses for a Confederate attack.
As commander of the Department of the Ohio, Buell was also the leader of the
Army of the Ohio. During 1862, Buell played an important role in securing Kentucky and Tennessee for the Union. As
General Ulysses S. Grant advanced on Confederate Forts Henry and Donelson in February 1862, the Army of the Ohio moved cautiously from Bowling Green, Kentucky toward Nashville, Tennessee.
Buell's hesitation gave CSA Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and William Hardee time to remove manufacturing equipment and goods south by train. Buell's command succeeded in
capturing Nashville in central Tennessee, but
President Abraham Lincoln and General Henry Halleck had wanted Buell to secure eastern Tennessee for the Union. And instead of pursuing the Rebels, Buell stopped when he ran into CSA General Nathan Bedford Forest's rearguard forces.
Sidney Johnston left Murfreesboro, Tennessee, on March 5 and arrived at Corinth, Mississippi on March 25. Buell decided to argue with Henry Halleck about his orders, and Halleck appealed to Washington. The next day, Lincoln combined his three Western Armies into the
Department of the Mississippi, and put Halleck in command. On March 13, 1862, Buell left Nashville and developed a case of the
slows.
Johnston moved a similar size body of troops further in less time to attack Grant at the
Battle of Shiloh on April 6, 1862. On the first day, the Union soldiers were surprised, outnumbered, and almost defeated. That evening, forward division of the Army of the Ohio under Brigadier General William "Bull" Nelson arrived, and the combined forces of Buell and Grant drove the Confederates from the battlefield the following day.
General Buell praises his army for their victory at Shiloh:
GENERAL ORDERS No. 6.
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE OHIO,
Field of Shiloh, Tenn., April 8, 1862.
The general congratulates the army under his command on the imperishable honor which they won yesterday on the battle-field of Shiloh, near Pittsburg Landing. The alacrity and zeal with which they pressed forward by forced marches to the succor of their comrades of a sister army imperiled by the attack of an overwhelming force; the gallantry with which they assaulted the enemy, and the persevering courage with which they maintained an incessant conflict against superior numbers from 6 o'clock in the morning until evening, when the enemy was driven from the field, are incidents which point to a great service nobly performed.
The general reminds his troops again that such results are not attained by individual prowess alone; that subordination and careful training are essential to the efficiency of every army, and that the success which has given them a brilliant page in history is greatly due to the readiness with which they have seconded the labors of their division, brigade, and regimental commanders, who first disciplined them in camp and then led them judiciously and gallantly in battle.
By command of Major-General Buell:
JAMES B. FRY,
Assistant Adjutant-General, Chief of Staff.
General Henry Halleck ordered Buell to proceed to the important railroad center of Chattanooga, Tennessee, on June 10, 1862. In three weeks,
Buell had only moved ninety miles toward that city. On July 8, 1862, Henry Halleck wrote Buell: "The President says your progress is not satisfactory and you should move more rapidly."
Before the Army of the Ohio could capture that city, Buell fell back into Kentucky, because a Confederate army under
CSA General Braxton Bragg had invaded the state. Bragg, in command of the Army of Mississippi, was about to completely fool Buell. On July 21, Bragg ordered a 770-mile flanking movement via railroad and ship. A week later, Bragg's men began arriving in force at Chattanooga. He had beaten the Union commander to that city. As a consolation, Buell took the railhead at Stevenson, Alabama, and reoccupied Nashville.
Buell intended to hold a 400-mile line stretching across the entire state of Tennessee. CSA General Nathan Bedford Forrest severed the connection from Stevenson to Nashville with a raid on Murfreesboro. As the railroad was close to being fixed, Forrest again attacked, burning three bridges south of Nashville.
Abraham Lincoln had more derisive things to say about the commander of the Army of the Ohio. Then CSA General John Hunt Morgan began his raids into Kentucky. Morgan sent word to E. Kirby Smith in Knoxville, encouraging him to move into Kentucky. As Smith moved north, Buell (extending a non-existent line another 100 miles) dispatched 'Bull' Nelson to Kentucky to organize the recruits, but kept his division in Murfreesboro.
Smith took Richmond, Lexington, and Frankfurt, Kentucky, as Bragg screened Buell, who continued to fear an attack on Nashville. Before he knew it, Buell had the Army of Tennessee between himself and Louisville, Kentucky, the major communications and transportation hub for the Union armies in the West. When it finally dawned on Buell that Bragg was not going to attack Nashville but was heading due north towards Louisville, he had to scramble to defend his supply line. Buell regrouped when he arrived at Louisville on September 25 and 26.
Meanwhile the exhortations from the administration continued unabated, as the following
message to Buell from General Henry Halleck demonstrates:
It is the wish of the Government that your army proceed to and occupy East Tennessee with all possible dispatch. It leaves to you the selection of the roads upon which to move to that object; but it urges that this selection be so made as to cover Nashville and at the same time prevent the enemy's return into Kentucky. To now withdraw your army to Nashville would have a most disastrous effect upon the country, already wearied with so many delays in our operations... Neither the Government nor the country can endure these repeated delays. Both require a prompt and immediate movement toward the accomplishment of the great object in view--the holding of East Tennessee.
On October 8, 1862, Braxton Bragg and Don Carlos Buell met at
the Battle of Perryville (Kentucky), the largest battle fought on Kentucky soil. Buell attacked an army of 16, 000 Confederates with almost 60, 000 men (although only 30, 000 were engaged in combat), and came close to losing. While Buell claimed victory, the battle is generally regarded as a draw. When Buell
failed to pursue the retreating Confederates as ordered, claiming that he lacked the necessary supplies to carry out an offensive.
Buell was even so
disliked by his senior officers that they had petitioned Abraham Lincoln and requested Buell be replaced. President Lincoln finally bowed to the pressure and
relieved Buell of command on October 24, 1862, and replaced him with William S. Rosecrans.
For the next six months, a military commission, chaired by General Lew Wallace,
investigated Buell's inaction. Buell remained on inactive duty in Cincinnati for the entire time that the committee met. The commission drafted a report of its findings but did not release it to the public. Buell was eventually offered new battlefield commands, but he
refused to serve under officers he had once outranked. In his memoirs, General Ulysses S. Grant called this "the worst excuse a soldier can make for declining service. Buell resigned his commission on June 1, 1864, and returned to civilian life.
The fact that Don Carlos
Buell was a former slave owner (he had inherited eight slaves when he married the widow of a fellow officer in 1851) left him open to charges that he was a Southern sympathizer. Buell did not help his cause when he strictly enforced a policy of noninterference with Southern civilians while campaigning in Alabama and Tennessee in mid-1862. His own soldiers murmured among themselves that their commanding general was "either a weak imbecile man, or a secession sympathizer."
Many Northerners have refused to honor Buell for his military service during the Civil War, accusing him of being sympathetic with the Confederates. He also supported George McClellan in the presidential election of 1864 against Abraham Lincoln, openly
attacking the Union high command for its actions and high loss of life.
Following the war Buell lived again in Indiana, and then in Kentucky, employed in the iron and coal industry as president of the Green River Iron Company. From 1885 to 1889, he was a government pension agent.
Don Carlos Buell Gravesite
Don Carlos Buell died on November 19, 1898, at his home in Rockport, Kentucky, at the age of 80, and was buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri
SOURCES
Don C. BuellDon Carlos BuellDon Carlos Buell BiographyWikipedia: Don Carlos BuellDon Carlos Buell Source PageDon Carlos Buell: Most Promising of AllPersonal Memoirs of General U. S. Grant Source: feedproxy.google.comEmily Hoffman Fiancée of Union General James Birdseye McPherson
Emily Hoffman was born at Baltimore, Maryland, in 1839. Her father was a prominent businessman. Born in Clyde, Ohio, in 1828,
James Birdseye McPherson left home at 13 to clerk in the Green Springs store of Robert Smith, who helped McPherson get an appointment to West Point. There he excelled academically, developing into a skilled engineer, horseman, and tactician, graduating first in the class of 1853.
In 1858, McPherson took charge of the Pacific Coast harbor defenses at Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay. Handsome, worldly, and personable, he became a favorite with fellow officers and San Francisco society. There
he met Emily Hoffman, of a prominent Baltimore family, who became his fiancee. He idolized her Victorian combination of
blue eyes, golden hair, and chaste daintiness.
Major General James B. McPherson
At the outbreak of
the Civil War, McPherson returned east where he served as General Henry Halleck's aide, and later as General Ulysses S.
Grant's chief engineer. With Grant at Forts Henry and Donelson and at Shiloh, McPherson became deeply attached to his commander. McPherson's courage under fire, professionalism, and loyalty brought rapid promotion.
Following the Battle of Shiloh in May of 1862, he was appointed
Brigadier General of Volunteers. On October 8, 1862 he was promoted to
Major General. His next appointment was to lead the Union's 17th Corps during the campaign to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was his first time as commanding officer in charge of a military campaign.
On July 4, 1863, Grant gave McPherson the honor of leading the victorious Union troops into
Vicksburg. He drew criticism in the North for his compassionate treatment of Vicksburg's war-torn families. He responded, "When the time comes that to be a soldier, a man must forget... the claims of humanity, I do not want to be a soldier."
When
General Grant went east in early 1864 to take command of all the Union armies, he credited his trusted friends, McPherson and Sherman, with his successes of 1862 and 1863. Sherman received command of the West, and McPherson succeeded him as commander of the 30, 000-man
Army of the Tennessee.
During the spring of 1864, McPherson was
granted leave for the first time in three years, and headed for Baltimore
to marry Emily Hoffman, but en route General William Tecumseh Sherman ordered him back to Huntsville, Alabama, to prepare for the drive against Atlanta. During
the Atlanta Campaign, he earned the respect of his superiors and the trust and affection of his army.
With all these grave responsibilities, it's no wonder that he
didn't write his Baltimore fiancee as often as he should. He knew that Emily, the daughter of a prosperous local merchant, was exposed to many attentions, and perhaps he had also heard that a girl won't wait forever. In any case, by the summer of 1864, he feared that Emily was growing impatient. Now, with the Atlanta campaign under way, there would be even less time to write.
At this point,
General Sherman wrote a letter to Emily, explaining her fiance's importance to the army and begging her to be patient.
Head-Quarters
Military Division of the Mississippi
Acworth, Ga.
June 9, 1864
My Dear Young Lady,
I hardly feel that I should apologize for intrusion, for I can claim an old acquaintance with your Brother and Sister in California, and feel almost that I know you through them, and others of your honored family. It has come to my knowledge that you are affianced to another close friend and associate of mine Maj General McPherson, and I fear that weighing mighty matters of State but lightly in the Realm of Love, you feel that he gives too much of his time to his Country and too little to you.
His rise in his profession has been rapid steady and well earned. Not a link unbroken. Not a thing omitted. Each step in his progress however has imposed on him fresh duties that as a man and a soldier and still more as a Patriot he could not avoid.
I did hope as he returned from Meridian, when his Corps the 17th was entitled to go home on furlough, that he too could steal a month to obey the promptings of his heart, to hasten to Baltimore and I so instructed, but by the changes incident to General Grant's elevation, McPherson succeeded to the Command of a separate Army and Department, and could not leave.
There is no rest for us in this war till you and all can look about you and feel there is Reason & Safety in the Land. God purifies the atmosphere with tempests and storms which fall alike upon the just and unjust, and in like manner he appeases the jarring elements of political discord by wars and famine. Heretofore as a nation we have escaped his wrath, but now with the vehemence of an hundred years accumulation we are in the storm, and would you have us shrink?
But I will not discuss so plain a point with one who bears the honored name of Hoffman, rather tell you of him whose every action I know fills your waking and sleeping thoughts, him so young but so prominent, whose cause is among the gallant and brave, who fight not for oppression and wrong but that the Government bequeathed to us by your ancestors shall not perish in ignominy and insult: but which shall survive in honor & glory, with a power to protect the weak, and shelter the helpless from the terrible disasters of a fratricidal war.
I know that at the outset of this war many of the Class with whom you associated, were wont to style us the barbarian hosts of the North, not unlike the hordes that followed Alaric from the wood of northern Europe to desolate the fair field of the dynastic Romans. This may be a parallel but not a fair one.
The People of the South were bound to us by a solemn compact which they have broken, and they taunted us with cowardice and poltroonery, which had we borne with submission, we would have passed down to history as a craven and coward race. I doubt even now if our brothers of the South would if free again to choose make so base an issue, but now we go further. We of the North have Rights in the South, in its rivers & vacant Land, the right to come & go when we please, and these Rights as a brave people we cannot & will not surrender on compulsion.
I know McPherson well, as a young man, handsome & noble soldier, activated by motives as pure as those of Washington, and I know that in making my testimony to his high & noble character, I will not offend the Girl he loves.
Be patient and I know that when the happy day comes for him to stand by your side as one Being identical in heart & human existence you will regard him with a high respect & honor that will convert simple love into something sublime & beautiful.
Yrs with respect
W. T. Sherman
Thus admonished, Emily sat at home trying to be patient while
the Union Army swept through Georgia, establishing the right "to come & go when we please."
On July 17, 1864, Jefferson Davis replaced Joe Johnston with
McPherson's old West Point roommate, John Bell Hood. Hood's first engagement against Union troops as commander, was north of Atlanta at Peachtree Creek. On the 20th, Hood was defeated and moved his forces into Atlanta. Meanwhile,
McPherson advanced from Decatur meeting little opposition so that in the afternoon of the 21st of July, he had captured the outer earthworks guarding Atlanta and held the high ground on Bald Hill overlooking Atlanta. That night,
Hood sent General Hardee with four divisions to circumvent McPherson's forces.
On
July 22, 1864, Sherman felt that, due to the lack of enemy in front of him, Hood had evacuated Atlanta, and ordered an advance. But McPherson knew his old roommate, and knew he wouldn't give up Atlanta without a fight. If Atlanta was void of large concentrations of enemy troops, McPherson believed that Hood planned to attack the Union rear and side.
McPherson was discussing this possibility with Sherman at headquarters, when they heard a large concentration of gunfire from the direction of Decatur. Hardee had begun his attack. McPherson jumped on his horse and sped toward his troops. He found Grenville Dodge's corps struggling against a fierce assault. After giving orders to Dodge, he followed a line of the 16th Corps towards the 17th Corps, traveling only with his orderly.
Entering the woods that separated the two corps, McPherson had traveled only about 150 yards when he heard a cry of "Halt!" He stopped for an instant and saw a line of gray skirmishers, wheeled his horse, raised his hat, and made a quick dash to his right. The skirmishers let go with a volley.
McPherson staggered in the saddle for a short distance, and then
fell to the ground. Within an hour, the Union lines were re-established, but the 35-year-old general lay dead in the arms of a broken-hearted Union private.
The general's body was sent through the lines under a flag of truce, and Sherman wept over his young friend, until tears dripped from his unkempt beard. He felt pangs of guilt for having denied McPherson's request for a furlough to be married. And, he felt tremendous grief over the sudden loss of such a friend.
"The country has lost one of its best soldiers, and I have lost my best friend, " General Grant said after hearing the news.
Scene of General McPherson's Death
The following day, a messenger appeared at
the Baltimore residence of Samuel Hoffman, bearing a telegram for Emily's mother. Mrs. Hoffman's only son was in the Confederate service, and that perhaps made it less inexcusable when she remarked, as she handed Emily the message, that here at last was "some good news:"
REC'D, BALTIMORE, 23 1864,
TO MRS SAML HOFFMAN FRANKLIN ST
GENL BARRY DESIRES ME TO SAY THAT GENL MCPHERSON WAS KILLED IN BATTLE YESTERDAY HIS REMAINS WERE SENT TO HIS HOME LAST EVENING IN CHARGE OF HIS STAFF
JC VAN DUSEN
CAPT & ASST SUPR
Emily fled to her room and locked the door. She was still there three weeks later when a servant handed her a second
letter from General Sherman. It was written from outside Atlanta – the city now lay under siege and victory was in sight – but the General's thoughts were far from jubilant:
HEADQUARTERS, Military Division of the Mississippi
In the Field, near Atlanta Geo.
August 5, 1864
Miss Emily Hoffman, Baltimore.
My Dear Young Lady,
A letter from your Mother to General Barry on my Staff reminds me that I owe you heartfelt sympathy and a sacred duty of recording the fame of one of our Country's brightest & most glorious Characters. I yield to none on Earth but yourself the right to excel me in lamentations for our Dead Hero. Why should death's darts reach the young and brilliant instead of older men who could better have been spared?
Nothing that I can record will elevate him in your mind's memory, but I could tell you many things that would form a bright halo about his image. We were more closely associated than any men in this life. I knew him before you did; when he was a Lieutenant of Engineers in New York, we occupied rooms in the same house.
Again we met at St. Louis, almost at the outset of this unnatural war, and from that day to this we have been closely associated. I see him now, so handsome, so smiling, on his fine black horse, booted & spurred, with his easy seat, the impersonation of the Gallant Knight.
We were at Shiloh together, at Corinth, at Oxford, at Jackson, at Vicksburg, at Meridian, and on this campaign. He had left me but a few minutes to place some of his troops approaching their position, and went through the wood by the same road he had come, and must have encountered the skirmish line of the Rebel Hardee's Corps, which had made a Circuit around the flank of Blair's troops.
Though always active and attending in person amidst dangers to his appropriate duties, on this occasion he was not exposing himself. He rode over ground he had twice passed that same day, over which hundreds had also passed, by a narrow wood road to the Rear of his Established Line.
He had not been gone from me half an hour before Col. Clark of his Staff rode up to me and reported that McPherson was dead or a prisoner in the hands of the Enemy.
He described that he had entered this road but a short distance in the wood some sixty yards ahead of his Staff & orderlies when a loud volley of muskets was heard, and in an instant after, his fine black horse came out with two wounds, riderless. Very shortly thereafter, other members of his staff came to me with his body in an ambulance. We carried it into a house, and laid it on a large table and examined the body. A simple bullet wound high up in the Right breast was all that disfigured his person. All else was as he left me, save his watch & purse were gone.
At this time the Battle was raging hot & fierce quite near us, and lest it should become necessary to burn the house in which we were, I directed his personal staff to convey the body to Marietta & thence North to his family. I think he could not have lived three minutes after the fatal shot, and fell from his horse within ten yards of the path or road along which he was riding. I think others will give you more detailed accounts of the attending circumstances. I enclose you a copy of my official letter announcing his death.
The lives of a thousand men such as Davis and Yancey and Toombs and Floyd and Buckner and Greeley and Lovejoy could not atone for that of McPherson. But it is in this world some men by falsehood and agitation raise the storm which falls upon the honorable and young who become involved in its Circles.
Though the cannon booms now, and the angry rattle of musketry tells me that I also will likely pay the same penalty, yet while Life lasts I will delight in the Memory of that bright particular star which has gone before to prepare the way for us more hardened sinners who must struggle on to the End.
With affection & respect,
W. T. Sherman
The letter did little good.
Emily remained secluded in her room, blinds drawn, mourning her lost love. Food was left on a tray outside her door. She allowed no one to enter except her sister Dora, who gradually ruined her eyes reading aloud in the darkness. It was exactly a year later, when Emily Hoffman finally emerged, and
spent the rest of her life as a spinster.
John Bell Hood had only taken command of the Confederate Army of Tennessee a few days before the battle. He wrote:
I will record the death of my classmate and boyhood friend, General James B. McPherson, the announcement of which caused me sincere sorrow. Since we had graduated in 1853, and had each been ordered off on duty in different directions, it has not been our fortune to meet.
Neither the years nor the difference of sentiment that had led us to range ourselves on opposite sides in the war had lessened my friendship; indeed the attachment formed in early youth was strengthened by my admiration and gratitude for his conduct toward our people in the vicinity of Vicksburg. His considerate and kind treatment of them stood in bright contrast to the course pursued by many Federal officers.
Thirty years after the American Civil War, 16th Corps Commander Grenville Dodge explained why the Army of the Tennessee veterans rarely spoke of their magnificent victory at the
Battle of Atlanta, a "giant among battles." Dodge replied, "The answer comes to all of us. It is as apparent to us today as it was that night. We lost our best friend, that superb soldier, our commander, General McPherson; his death counted so much more to us than victory, that we spoke of our battle, our great success, with our loss uppermost in our minds."
In 1876, the Society of the Army of the Tennessee unveiled its memorial -
an equestrian statue at McPherson Square
in Washington, DC. Five years later, President Rutherford B. Hayes opened ceremonies at Clyde, Ohio, where 20, 000 people cheered as Sherman dedicated the bronze statue erected over McPherson's grave.
McPherson Monument
Clyde, Ohio, 1881
Emily Hoffman died June 15, 1891, at Baltimore.
SOURCES
James Birdseye McPhersonDeath of High-Ranking GeneralMajor General James B. McPhersonGeneral Sherman and the Baltimore BelleBiographical Sketch of James Birdseye McPherson Source: feedproxy.google.com3 Things to Know Before Submitting Your Articles Anywhere Grab my Free Article Marketing Study Course at Gifts from Jim DeSantis - here! No email or sign up required. It's a direct download.You will find a number of my articles scattered across the Internet in more than 150 Article Directories. They have been viewed by thousands of readers, republished, and even emailed to friends of the readers. The benefit has been free information for my readers and traffic to my various blogs and websites. Feel free to copy my formula. Submitting articles to directories is a[...]
Source: on-line-tribune-internet-marketing.blogspot.comCremora (Belle) Cave Kemper Wife of Confederate General James Lawson Kemper
Cremora Cave was born in 1834, the daughter of Cremora and Belfield Cave.
James Lawson Kemper was born on June 11, 1823, to William and Maria Allison Kemper in Madison County, Virginia. He was the sixth of eight children, and his childhood was spent at the two-story family home called Mountain Prospect, which also included 600 acres of land. His immediate family as well as four of his father's sisters, his maternal grandmother, and several domestic servants also lived there.
The first education that James Lawson Kemper received was in a field school built near his home. The Hill and Kemper families hired a teacher to teach their children in this building. One of Kemper's grade school friends, who became a friend for life, was Ambrose Powell Hill, better known as
General A.P. Hill.
James was accepted to Locust Dale Academy when he was 13 years old, where he stayed from 1830-1840. He enrolled at Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), and received a Bachelor of Arts and graduated first in his class in the spring of 1842, and received a Master's Degree in 1845.
After graduating from Washington College , Kemper decided to study law. Under the supervision of Judge George W. Summers of Charleston, Kanawha County, Virginia, he read the law and then successfully took the bar exam, and
began practicing law a year later. At the outbreak of the Mexican War in 1846 Kemper was commissioned a captain in the Virginia volunteers, but did not see active service.
Returning to Virginia and his law practice, in 1853 Kemper was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates for the first of five terms, the last (1861-1863) as Speaker of the House. Early letters (pre-1861) illustrate Kemper's growing law practice and his
involvement in politics.
In 1850, at about the age of twenty-seven, James began to court
Cremora Conway Cave, affectionately called
Belle by her future husband. She was sixteen years old at the time. Despite the age difference, on July 4, 1853, they were married by Reverend J. Earnest at the Madison Court House, and they were to have seven children.
General James Lawson Kemper
Harper's Weekly, January 17, 1874
At the beginning of the Civil War, James Kemper was a member of the Virginia State Legislature and helped organize Virginia troops for the Confederate forces. Rising through the ranks, he fought at Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and was
promoted Brigadier General in June, 1862. He was the youngest of the brigade commanders, and the only nonprofessional military officer in the division that led Pickett's Charge, in which he was wounded and captured.
After a gallant performance at the Battle of Seven Pines during the Peninsula Campaign, Kemper was promoted to brigadier general on June 3, 1862, and briefly commanded a division in Longstreet's Corps. Upon the return to duty of wounded Major General George Pickett, Kemper reverted to brigade command.
In 1863, Kemper's brigade was assigned to Pickett's division in Longstreet's Corps, and missed the Battle of Chancellorsville while the corps was assigned to Suffolk, Virginia. But the corps returned in time for the Gettysburg Campaign, and Kemper rejoined Lee's army as a brigade commander in Pickett's division.
At Gettysburg, Kemper arrived with Pickett's division late on the second day of battle, July 2, 1863. His brigade was one of the main assault units in
Pickett's Charge on July 3, 1863, advancing on the right flank of Pickett's line. After crossing the Emmitsburg Road, Kemper's brigade was hit by flanking fire from two Vermont regiments, driving it to the left and disrupting the cohesion of the assault. Kemper rose on his spurs to urge his men forward, shouting "There are the guns, boys, go for them!"
This bravado made him a more visible target, and he was
severely wounded by a bullet in the abdomen and thigh and
captured by Union forces. Kemper was rescued by Confederate forces and carried back to Confederate lines on Seminary Ridge, but was too critically injured to be transported during the retreat from Gettysburg, and was left behind to be treated and recaptured. Newspaper accounts at the time claimed he was killed in action, and Robert E. Lee sent condolences to his family.
There exists a letter from Major General Ethan A. Hitchock, explaining to
Kemper's wife Belle that she could not see her captured and badly wounded husband because Confederate authorities had refused the same courtesies to a Union family.
For three months, Kemper was a
prisoner in a Federal hospital, and was exchanged September 19, 1863, on a certificate of the Federal surgeons that he could not live long. A long furlough enabled him to recover sufficiently to don his uniform again. For the rest of the war, he was
too ill for combat – the bullet that struck him could not be removed surgically, and he suffered from groin pain for the remainder of his life.
From June 1864 until the Confederate surrender, Kemper was in command of the local forces around Richmond. He was promoted to Major General on September 19, 1864. After Appomattox he was paroled by United States military authorities on May 2, 1865.
After the war ended, General Kemper returned to Madison County to practice law and focus on rebuilding the state. He was
concerned about Belle's health. Her condition began to decline – she had not been physically strong before. She came down with an eye infection that deteriorated her sight to the point of blindness within a few years.
Although he was involved with legal matters much of the time, James managed to take time to spend with his family. Depending mostly on income from his legal practices, he managed to make a decent living for himself and his family. Every year, James and Belle would take a vacation to the mineral springs.
James L. Kemper Residence
The land on which the Kemper Mansion sits was originally a 52 acre parcel on the north end of the Town of Madison, Virginia. Kemper bought the house and lot in 1868, after he came home to discover that his old house had been destroyed in a raid led by
General George Armstrong Custer. It was built with an antebellum frame structure that was becoming very popular at the time (circa 1852) - the Greek Revival style. He practiced law in a small log cabin office behind the home after the war.
In 1870, Belle became very ill. Just when they thought she was going to recover, her condition made a turn for the worse. At the time, she was
pregnant with their seventh child, and on September 8, she gave birth to their son, Reginald Heber Johns. The birth complicated things even more and within a month,
Cremora (Belle) Cave Kemper died at the age of thirty-three. James couldn't stand to live in the house anymore, and spent his nights in his office on the grounds.
James Kemper was elected the
first Governor of Virginia after Reconstruction, serving from 1874 to 1878. He became well known for his honesty and integrity, his initiation of the public school system, improvements on the public transportation system, and his strong position on civil rights.
As governor, Kemper fought for
full civil rights and protection for the freedmen. He also supported a new constitution and the restoration of Virginia to normal relations with the United States. After he served his last term as governor, Kemper was offered the position as US Senator, but declined, thus ending his political career.
Kemper was worn out physically and emotionally. In 1882, he moved into a new home at Walnut Hills in Orange County, Virginia. Walnut Hills was a mid-sized farm in a secluded area, where he retired to enjoy sheep farming and practicing law. The home overlooked the Rapidan River and had a lovely Blue Ridge view.
At the time, there were six of his seven children still living.
Eventually, James Lawson Kemper's health deteriorated, and he died in his sleep at Walnut Hills on April 7, 1895, and was buried in the family cemetery there.
SOURCES
James L. KemperMarriage and FamilyJames Lawson KemperEarly Life and EducationA Guide to the Papers of James Lawson Kemper Source: feedproxy.google.comEllen Mary Marcy McClellan Wife of Union General George B. McClellan
Ellen Mary Marcy was born in 1836 in Philadelphia. She was the blonde, blue-eyed daughter of Major Randolph Marcy – explorer of the famous Red River and Federal chief-of-staff in the first years of the war – an army officer who gained a good deal of fame in the decade just before the Civil War, as an explorer of the unsettled West. He was a strictly-business regular who blazed trails across the prairies and paved the way for the opening of the plains country.
Ellen Mary Marcy McClellan
George Brinton McClellan, the son of a surgeon, was born in Philadelphia December 3, 1826. He attended the University of Pennsylvania in 1840 at age 13, resigning himself to the study of law. After two years, he changed his goal to military service. With the assistance of his father's letter to President John Tyler, young George was accepted at the United States Military Academy at
West Point in 1842. The academy had waived its normal minimum age of 16, and George
graduated second in the class in 1846.
McClellan was appointed to the staff of General Winfield Scott during the Mexican War (1846-48), and won three brevets for gallant conduct. He taught military engineering at West Point (1848-51), and in 1855 was sent to observe the Crimean War in order to obtain the latest information on European warfare.
Due to his intimate knowledge of Texas and Indian Territory geography,
Major Randolph Marcy was selected for the
Red River Expedition of 1852. Along with several troops and a young army lieutenant he liked very much –
George B. McClellan – Marcy set out to discover the source of the Red River. Unlike his predecessors, he didn't use a boat, but explored mainly on horseback. He kept a meticulous diary, made friends with the Indians, and wrote a dictionary of the Wichita language.
In 1854 when McClellan was 27 years old, he met 18-year-old
Ellen Mary Marcy, the daughter of his former commander, and it was love at first sight for him. He wrote to Ellen's mother: "I have not seen a very great deal of the little lady mentioned above, still that little has been sufficient to make me determined to win her if I can." Her father did everything he could to persuade the girl to accept him. He had no luck; Ellen simply didn't love McClellan.
She loved
Lieutenant Ambrose Powell Hill (future general in the Army of Northern Virginia). She wrote to her father, telling him that she was going to marry Hill, and Marcy promptly blew his stack. Any woman, he told his daughter, who married an army officer was simply asking for trouble; pay was low, absences from home were frequent and extended, and military life offered no particular future. McClellan was also a soldier, but he was planning to leave the army and enter private industry, and his family had money.
Ellen was to abandon all communication with Lieutenant Hill, and "if you do not comply with my wishes in this respect, " her father wrote, "I cannot tell what my feelings toward you will become. I fear that my ardent affections will turn to hate..." Ellen was stubborn, but she listened to her father, and let the matter rest for nearly a year. In the end, Marcy had his way, and Lieutenant Hill at last faded out of the picture. General Ambrose Powell Hill was killed in battle one week before the Confederate surrender at Appomattox.
In June,
McClellan proposed and Ellen promptly rejected him. It probably didn't help that she was two or three inches taller than McClellan. Leaving Washington, McClellan continued to keep in touch with Ellen and the family. Life for Ellen was going quickly as George continued his quest by mail. Before she reached the age of 25, she had received and rejected nine proposals of marriage.
McClellan left the United States Army in 1857 to become chief of engineering and vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad, where he became acquainted with
Abraham Lincoln, the company's attorney. He became president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1860. He performed well in both jobs, but despite his successes and lucrative salary ($10, 000 per year), he was frustrated with civilian employment and continued to study classical military strategy.
In 1859, Major Marcy was ordered west, and the family visited McClellan in Chicago. On October 20, George again proposed marriage, and this time Ellen accepted.
Ellen and George were married at Calvary Church, New York City, on May 22, 1860. McClellan was 33 and Ellen was 25.
They had a son and a daughter: George Brinton McClellan, Jr. who was born in Dresden, Germany, during the family's first trip to Europe. Known to the family as
Max, he served as a US Representative from New York State and as Mayor of New York City from 1904 to 1909. Their daughter, Mary ("May"), married a French diplomat and spent much of her life abroad. Neither Max nor May gave the McClellans any grandchildren.
The two would remain married for 25 years and were devoted to each other, writing daily when separated. "My whole existence is wrapped up in you, " he wrote in one such letter. McClellan's personal life was without blemish. If Ellen Marcy ever regretted the turn of events, she left no record of it, coming down in history as a pretty, rather sad young woman looking out of the Brady photographs.
According to legend,
Hill nourished a grudge against McClellan, and fought against him during the Civil War with more than ordinary vigor. Whenever the Confederates attacked the Army of the Potomac (which happened fairly often during the summer of 1862), the Union soldiers ascribed it to A. P. Hill and his personal feud with McClellan.
The story was told that McClellan was aroused from sleep early one morning by the crackling musketry from the picket line where Hill's division was opening another assault. McClellan detached himself grumpily from his blankets, and screamed these words: "My God, Ellen! Why didn't you marry him?"
McClellan offered his services to President Abraham Lincoln on the outbreak of the
American Civil War. On May 3, 1861, he was named commander of the Department of the Ohio, responsible for the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and, later, western Pennsylvania, western Virginia, and Missouri. On May 14, he was commissioned a
major general in the regular army, and at age 34 outranked everyone in the Army except Lt. General Winfield Scott, the general in chief.
General George Brinton McClellan
By Alexander Lawrie
Date unknown
On July 26, 1861, the day he reached the capital, McClellan was appointed commander of the Military Division of the Potomac, the main Union force responsible for the defense of Washington. On August 20, several military units in Virginia were consolidated into his department, and he immediately formed the
Army of the Potomac, with himself as its first commander. He reveled in his newly acquired power and fame.
He grasped the magnitude of his new assignment,
telling Ellen:
I find myself in a new and strange position here — President, Cabinet, General Scott & all deferring to me — by some strange operation of magic, I seem to have become the power of the land... I almost think that were I to win some small success now, I could become Dictator or anything else that might please me — but nothing of that kind would please me — therefore I won't be Dictator. Admirable self-denial!
–
George B. McClellan, letter to Ellen, July 26, 1861During the summer and fall, McClellan brought a high degree of organization to his new army, and greatly improved its morale by his frequent trips to review and encourage his units. It was a remarkable achievement, in which he came to personify the Army of the Potomac and reaped the
adulation of his men.
He created defenses for Washington that were almost impregnable, consisting of 48 forts and strong points, with 480 guns manned by 7, 200 artillerists. But this was also a time of tension in the high command, as he
continued to quarrel frequently with the government and the general-in-chief, Lt. General Winfield Scott, on matters of strategy.
McClellan's antipathy to emancipation added to the pressure on him, as he received bitter criticism from Radical Republicans in the government. He viewed slavery as an institution recognized in the Constitution, and entitled to federal protection wherever it existed.
The dispute with Scott would become very personal. Scott (along with many in the War Department) was outraged that McClellan refused to divulge any details about his strategic planning, or even mundane details such as troop strengths and dispositions. McClellan claimed not to trust anyone in the administration to keep his plans secret from the press, and thus the enemy.
On November 1, 1861, General Winfield Scott retired, and
McClellan became general in chief of all the Union armies. The president expressed his concern about the "vast labor" involved in the dual role of army commander and general-in-chief, but McClellan responded, "I can do it all." But Lincoln, as well as many other leaders and citizens of the northern states, became increasingly impatient with McClellan's slowness to attack the Confederate forces still massed near Washington.
McClellan further damaged his reputation by his insulting insubordination to his commander-in-chief. He
privately referred to Lincoln, whom he had known before the war, as "nothing more than
a well-meaning baboon", a "gorilla", and "ever unworthy of... his high position." On November 13, the president visited McClellan at his house, he made him wait for 30 minutes, only to be told that the general had gone to bed and could not see him.
McClellan insisted that his army should not undertake any new offensives until his new troops were fully trained. He developed a strategy to defeat the Confederate Army by
invading Virginia from the sea, and to seize Richmond, and then other major cities in the South. McClellan believed that to keep resistance to a minimum, it should be made clear that the Union forces
would not interfere with slavery and would help put down any slave insurrections.
Ellen Mary Marcy and Major General George B. McClellan
McClellan appointed Allan Pinkerton to employ his agents to spy on the Confederate Army. His reports
exaggerated the size of the enemy, and McClellan was unwilling to launch an attack until he had more soldiers available. Under pressure from Radical Republicans in Congress, Abraham Lincoln decided in January, 1862, to appoint Edwin M. Stanton as his new Secretary of War.
Soon after this appointment,
President Abraham Lincoln ordered McClellan to appear before a committee investigating the way the war was being fought. On January 15, 1862, he had to face the hostile questioning of Benjamin Wade and Zachariah Chandler. Wade asked McClellan why he was refusing to attack the Confederate Army. He replied that he had to prepare the proper routes of retreat.
Chandler then said: "General McClellan, if I understand you correctly, before you strike at the rebels you want to be sure of plenty of room, so that you can run in case they strike back." Wade added, "Or in case you get scared." After McClellan left the room, Wade and Chandler came to the conclusion that McClellan was guilty of "infernal, unmitigated cowardice."
As a result of this meeting, Abraham Lincoln decided he must find a way to force McClellan to attack. On January 31, he issued General War Order Number One, which ordered McClellan to begin the offensive against the enemy before February 22. Lincoln also insisted on being consulted about McClellan's military plans.
On March 11, 1862, Lincoln removed McClellan as general in chief, leaving him in command of only the Army of the Potomac, so that McClellan could devote all his attention to the capture Richmond, the Confederate capital. Lincoln's order was ambiguous as to whether McClellan might be restored following a successful campaign.
Lincoln, Stanton, and a group of officers, called the
War Board, directed the strategic actions of the Union armies that spring. Although McClellan was assuaged by supportive comments from Lincoln, in time he saw the change of command very differently, describing it as a part of an intrigue "to secure the failure of the approaching campaign."
The Peninsula Campaign
McClellan and the Army of the Potomac took part in what became known as the Peninsula Campaign, a major Union operation launched in southeastern Virginia from
March through July 1862, the first large-scale offensive in the Eastern Theater. Lincoln disagreed with McClellan's desire to attack Richmond from the east, and only gave in when the division commanders voted eight to four in favor of McClellan's strategy. The main objective was to capture Richmond, the Confederate capital.
In March 1862, McClellan moved his troops into the Shenandoah Valley, and along with John C. Fremont, Irvin McDowell, and Nathaniel Banks surrounded
Thomas Stonewall Jackson and his 17, 000 man army. Jackson won victories in the valley at McDowell, Front Royal, Winchester, Cross Keys, and Port Republic before withdrawing to help in the defense of Richmond.
Abraham Lincoln, frustrated by McClellan's lack of success, sent in Major General John Pope, but he was easily beaten back by Jackson. McClellan wrote to Abraham Lincoln, complaining that a lack of resources was making it impossible to defeat the Confederate forces. He also made it clear that he was unwilling to employ tactics that would result in heavy casualties. He claimed that "every poor fellow that is killed or wounded almost haunts me!"
On April 2, 1862, McClellan arrived with 100, 000 men at the southeastern tip of the peninsula. He took Yorktown after a month's siege but let its defenders escape. McClellan encountered the Confederate Army at Williamsburg on May 5. He was initially successful against the equally cautious General Joseph E. Johnston.
On May 31, Johnston's 41, 800 men counterattacked McClellan's slightly larger army at Fair Oaks, only 6 miles from Richmond. Johnston was badly wounded during the
Battle of Fair Oaks, and the aggressive General Robert E. Lee replaced him as commander of the Army of Northern Virginia. The Union Army lost 5, 031 men, and the Confederate Army 6, 134.
McClellan had been unable to command the army personally because of a recurrence of malarial fever, but his subordinates were able to repel the attacks. Nevertheless, he received criticism from Washington for not counterattacking, which some believed could have opened the city of Richmond to capture. McClellan spent the next three weeks repositioning his troops and waiting for promised reinforcements, losing valuable time as Lee continued to strengthen Richmond's defenses.
McClellan maintained his
estrangement from Abraham Lincoln by continuously calling for reinforcements. He also wrote a lengthy letter in which he proposed strategic and political guidance for the war, continuing his opposition to abolition as a tactic. He concluded by implying he should be restored as general in chief, but Lincoln named Major General Henry W. Halleck to that post without even informing McClellan.
A series of engagements known as the
Seven Days' Battle took place, lasting from June 25 through July 1, 1862. On the second day, Union General Fitz-John Porter drove back a Confederate attack at Mechanicsville, 5 miles northeast of Richmond. Joined by Thomas Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate troops constantly attacked McClellan.
As Lee continued his offensive, McClellan played a passive role, taking no initiative and waiting for events to unfold. In a telegram to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, reporting on these events, McClellan blamed the Lincoln administration for his reversals. "If I save this army now, I tell you plainly I owe no thanks to you or to any other persons in Washington. You have done your best to sacrifice this army."
On June 27, a Confederate charge led by
General John Bell Hood broke through the Union center at Gaines Mill. McClellan ordered the army to fall back toward the James River, where he would have the cover of Union gunboats. On July 2, after sharp rear guard actions at Savage's Station, Frayser's Farm, and Malvern Hill, the last engagement in the Seven Days' Battle, McClellan's troops
reached Harrison's Landing and safety.
On July 1, 1862,
McClellan and Lincoln met at Harrison's Landing, and McClellan once again insisted that the war should be waged against the Confederate Army and not slavery. Salmon P. Chase (Secretary of the Treasury), Edwin M. Stanton (Secretary of War) and vice president Hannibal Hamlin, who were all strong opponents of slavery, led the campaign to have McClellan sacked, but Lincoln decided to put McClellan in charge of all forces in the Washington area.
After General John Pope's defeat at Second Bull Run in August 1862, President Lincoln reluctantly returned to the man who had mended a broken army before. He realized that McClellan was a strong organizer and a skilled trainer of troops, able to recombine the units of Pope's army with the Army of the Potomac faster than anyone.
On September 2, 1862, Lincoln named McClellan to command "the fortifications of Washington, and all the troops for the defense of the capital." The appointment was controversial in the Cabinet, a majority of whom signed a petition declaring to the president "our deliberate opinion that, at this time, it is not safe to entrust to Major General McClellan the command of any Army of the United States."
The president admitted that it was like "curing the bite with the hair of the dog." But Lincoln told his secretary, John Hay, "We must use what tools we have. There is no man in the Army who can man these fortifications and lick these troops of ours into shape half as well as he. If he can't fight himself, he excels in making others ready to fight."
The Maryland Campaign
Northern fears of a continued offensive by
General Robert E. Lee were realized when he launched his Maryland Campaign on September 4, 1862, hoping to arouse pro-Southern sympathy in the slave state of Maryland. McClellan's pursuit began on September 5. He marched toward Maryland with six of his reorganized corps, about 84, 000 men, leaving two corps behind to defend Washington.
Lee divided his forces into multiple columns, spread apart widely as he moved into Maryland. On September 10, 1862, he sent Stonewall Jackson to capture the Union Army garrison at Harper's Ferry,
and moved the rest of his troops toward
Antietam Creek. This was a risky move for a smaller army, but Lee was counting on his knowledge of McClellan's temperament.
However,
Little Mac soon received a miraculous stroke of luck.
Union soldiers accidentally
found a copy of Lee's orders, and delivered them to McClellan's headquarters in Frederick, Maryland, on September 13. Upon realizing the value of this discovery, McClellan threw up his arms and exclaimed, "Now I know what to do!" He waved the order at his old Army friend, Brigadier General John Gibbon, and said, "Here is a paper with which if I cannot whip Bobbie Lee, I will be willing to go home."
He
telegraphed President Lincoln:
I have the whole rebel force in front of me, but I am confident, and no time shall be lost. I think Lee has made a gross mistake, and that he will be severely punished for it. I have all the plans of the rebels, and will catch them in their own trap if my men are equal to the emergency... Will send you trophies.
Despite this show of bravado, McClellan continued his cautious line. After telegraphing the president at noon on September 13, he ordered his units to set out for the South Mountain passes the following morning. The 18-hour of delay allowed Lee time to react, because he received intelligence from a Confederate sympathizer that McClellan knew of his plans.
The Union army reached Antietam Creek, to the east of Sharpsburg, on the evening of September 15. A planned attack on September 16 was put off because of
early morning fog, allowing Lee to prepare his defenses with an army less than half the size of McClellan's.
On the morning of September 17, 1862, McClellan and Major General Ambrose Burnside attacked Lee at
the Battle of Antietam. The Union Army had 75, 000 troops against 37, 000 Confederate soldiers. Although outnumbered, Lee committed his entire force, and held out until Ambrose Powell Hill arrived from Harper's Ferry with reinforcements.
Burnside's Bridge at Antietam
McClellan sent in less than three-quarters of his army, enabling Lee to fight the Federals to a standstill. During the night, both armies consolidated their lines. McClellan did not renew the assaults. In spite of crippling casualties, Lee continued to skirmish with McClellan throughout the 18th, while removing his wounded. After dark, Lee ordered the battered Army of Northern Virginia to withdraw into the Shenandoah Valley, and crossed the Potomac River, unhindered.
McClellan wired to Washington, "Our victory was complete. The enemy is driven back into Virginia." Yet there was obvious disappointment that McClellan had not crushed Lee, who was fighting with a smaller army with its back to the Potomac River. Lincoln was angry at McClellan because his superior forces had not pursued Lee across the Potomac.
The Beginning of the End
The Battle of Antietam was the single bloodiest day in American military history. Despite significant advantages in manpower, McClellan had been unable to concentrate his forces effectively, which meant that Lee was able to shift his defenders to parry each of three Union thrusts, launched separately and sequentially against the Confederate left, center, and finally the right.
Historian James M. McPherson has pointed out that the two corps McClellan kept in reserve were in fact larger than Lee's entire force. The reason for McClellan's reluctance was that, as in previous battles, he was convinced he was outnumbered. The battle was tactically inconclusive, although Lee technically was defeated because he withdrew first from the battlefield.
As with the decisive battles in the Seven Days, McClellan's headquarters were too far to the rear to allow him personal control over the battle. He made no use of his cavalry forces for reconnaissance, and didn't share his overall battle plans with his corps commanders. And he was far too willing to accept cautious advice about saving his reserves, such as when a significant breakthrough in the center of the Confederate line could have been exploited.
It was the most costly day of the war with the Union Army having 2, 108 killed, 9, 549 wounded and 753 missing. The
Confederate Army had 2, 700 killed, 9, 024 wounded and 2, 000 missing. As a result of being unable to achieve a decisive victory at Antietam, Abraham Lincoln postponed the attempt to capture Richmond.
Lincoln and McClellan After Antietam
Here the gaunt figure of the Great Emancipator confronted General McClellan in his headquarters two weeks after Antietam. Brady's camera has preserved this remarkable occasion, the last time these two men met each other. "We spent some time on the battlefield and conversed fully on the state of affairs. He told me that he was satisfied with all that I had done, that he would stand by me. He parted from me with the utmost cordiality, " said General McClellan.
A few days later came the order from Washington to "cross the Potomac and give battle to the enemy or drive him South." However, McClellan refused to move, complaining that he needed fresh horses. Radical Republicans now began to openly question McClellan's loyalty.
Frustrated by
McClellan's unwillingness to attack, Abraham Lincoln recalled him to Washington with the words: "My dear McClellan: If you don't want to use the Army I should like to borrow it for a while." On November 7, 1862,
Lincoln removed McClellan from all commands and replaced him with Ambrose Burnside.
McClellan wrote to Ellen:
Those in whose judgment I rely tell me that I fought the battle splendidly, and that it was a masterpiece of art... I feel I have done all that can be asked in twice saving the country... I feel some little pride in having, with a beaten & demoralized army, defeated Lee so utterly... Well, one of these days history will, I trust, do me justice.
In October 1863, George B. McClellan openly declared his entrance into the political arena as a Democrat, and was nominated by the Democratic Party to run against Abraham Lincoln in the
1864 US presidential election. Following the example of Winfield Scott, he ran as a U.S. Army general still on active duty; he did not resign his commission until election day, November 8, 1864. In an attempt to obtain unity, Lincoln named a Southern Democrat, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, as his running mate.
During the campaign, McClellan declared the war a failure and urged immediate efforts for a cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of the states, or other peaceable means, to the end that peace may be restored on the basis of the federal Union of the States. McClellan made it clear that he disliked slavery because it weakened the country but he opposed forcible abolition as an object of the war or a necessary condition of peace and reunion.
The deep division in the party, the unity of the Republicans, and the military successes by Union forces in the fall of 1864 doomed McClellan's candidacy. Lincoln won the election handily, with 212 Electoral College votes to 21 for McClellan, and a popular vote of 403, 000, or 55%. While McClellan was highly popular among the troops when he was commander, they voted for Lincoln over him by margins of 3-1 or higher. Lincoln's share of the vote in the Army of the Potomac was 70%.
After the 1864 election,
McClellan set sail for Europe, and
wrote to President Lincoln:
It would have been gratifying to me to have retired from the service with the knowledge that I still retained the approbation of your Excellency — as it is, I thank you for the confidence and kind feeling you once entertained for me, and which I am conscious of having justly forfeited...
In severing my official connection with your Excellency, I pray that God may bless you, and so direct your counsels that you may succeed in restoring to this distracted land the inestimable boon of peace, founded on the preservation of our Union and the mutual respect and sympathy of the now discordant and contending sections of our once happy country.
McClellan spent
three years in Europe, returning to the US in 1867 to head the construction of a newly designed warship called the Stevens battery, a floating ironclad battery intended for harbor defense. McClellan, who lived with his family in Manhattan, rented an apartment in Hoboken, New Jersey, across the Hudson River from New York City. In 1869, the project ran out of money, McClellan resigned, and the ship was eventually sold for scrap metal.
In 1870, McClellan became chief engineer for the New York City Department of Docks, and built a second
home on Orange Mountain, New Jersey. Evidently the position did not demand his full-time attention because, starting in 1872, he also served as the president of the Atlantic and Great Western Railroad.
After resigning this position in the spring of 1873, McClellan established
Geo. B. McClellan & Co., Consulting Engineers & Accountants, and then left for a two-year trip through Europe, from 1873 to 1875. His essays on Europe were published in
Scribner's, and his analyses of contemporary military issues in
Harper's Monthly and
The North American Review.
In 1877, the Democratic Party in New Jersey was divided into several contentious factions, producing a deadlock in the race for the gubernatorial nomination. At the state convention in early September, a delegate surprised many in the assembly by suggesting George McClellan. The response was enthusiastic, and he was nominated on the first ballot.
The general, who was attending dedication ceremonies for a Civil War memorial in Boston, had apparently expected his name to be presented, but had not anticipated receiving the nomination. He accepted the call and, still only 50 years of age, hoped that it would return him to public service. McClellan drew large, adoring crowds as he campaigned across the state, and won in November by almost 13, 000 votes. He served as
governor of New Jersey from 1878 to 1881.
In late 1880, McClellan moved his family to
Gramercy Park in Manhattan, two months before the expiration of his gubernatorial term, and commuted to Trenton to attend to the duties of office. Over the next few years, McClellan and his wife spent winters in New York City, Augusts at a resort in New Hampshire's White Mountains or Maine's Mount Desert Island, and the rest of each year in New Jersey.
McClellan's final years were devoted to traveling and writing. He justified his military career in
McClellan's Own Story, published posthumously in 1887.
In 1884, George campaigned for Grover Cleveland, the Democratic presidential nominee. In early 1885, McClellan was expected to be named secretary of war in the Cleveland administration, but his candidacy was torpedoed by Senator John McPherson of New Jersey, a member of a Democratic faction that begrudged the general's gubernatorial nomination in 1877.
General George B. McClellan died unexpectedly at age 58 at Orange, New Jersey, after having suffered from chest pains for a few weeks. His final words, at 3 am were, "I feel easy now. Thank you." He is buried at Riverview Cemetery, Trenton, New Jersey.
Ellen Mary Marcy McClellan, although in poor health, outlived George. She died in 1915 in Nice, France, while visiting May at her home.
General George B. McClellan Statue
In front of Philadelphia City Hall
When this sad war is over we will all return to our homes, and feel that we can ask no higher honor than the proud consciousness that we belonged to the Army of the Potomac.
-General George B. McClellan
Abraham Lincoln, in a discussion with journalists about
General George McClellan (March, 1863):
I do not, as some do, regard McClellan either as a traitor or an officer without capacity. He sometimes has bad counselors, but he is loyal, and he has some fine military qualities. I adhered to him after nearly all my constitutional advisers lost faith in him. But do you want to know when I gave him up? It was after the Battle of Antietam.
The Blue Ridge was then between our army and Lee's. I directed McClellan peremptorily to move on Richmond. It was eleven days before he crossed his first man over the Potomac; it was eleven days after that before he crossed the last man. Thus he was twenty-two days in passing the river at a much easier and more practicable ford than that where Lee crossed his entire army between dark one night and daylight the next morning. That was the last grain of sand which broke the camel's back. I relieved McClellan at once.
SOURCES
George McClellanGeorge B. McClellanOhio History CentralPeninsular CampaignNational Park ServiceHeavy Victorian FatherAll Quiet on the Hudson1864: Lincoln v. McClellanGeorge Brinton McClellanMr. Lincoln and New YorkGeneral George B. McClellanEnter George McClellan – HeroWikipedia: George B. McClellanGeorge B. McClellan (1826-1885) Source: feedproxy.google.comEliza McCardle Johnson First Lady of the United States
Eliza McCardle was born October 4, 1810, at Leesburg, Tennessee, the only child of John and Sarah Phillips McCardle. Eliza lost her father when she was still a small child, and was raised by her widowed mother in Greeneville, Tennessee. After her father's death, Eliza McCardle helped her mother make quilts to support themselves. She was rather tall, and had hazel eyes and brown hair.
Born in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1808,
Andrew Johnson was the younger of two sons born into the Johnson family. His father rescued two or three friends from drowning in 1812, but the effort cost him his health, and he died within a year, leaving his mother Mary to raise Andrew and his brother William. In an effort to provide a trade for her sons, Mary Johnson apprenticed her sons to a tailor in Raleigh when Andrew was fourteen, but Andrew ran away two years later.
Eliza McCardle Johnson
Andrew eventually settled in
Greeneville, Tennessee, and established a tailor's shop by nailing a sign over the door stating simply, "A. Johnson, Tailor." Eliza met Andrew Johnson soon after he arrived in Greeneville in September 1826. They immediately liked each other – Eliza was almost 16, and Andrew only 17.
Eliza McCardle married Andrew Johnson May, 17, 1827, at the home of the bride's mother in Greeneville. Mordecai Lincoln, a distant relative of Abraham Lincoln presided over the nuptials. They set up housekeeping in the living quarters in the back of the shop, and both of them were sewing and running the business.
As Andrew became intrigued with political discussions of his customers, he realized he was handicapped by the lack of a good education. Eliza was better educated than Andrew, and she tutored him patiently. She helped him improve his reading, writing, and arithmetic. While he worked in his tailor shop, she often read aloud to him.
Eliza was a handsome woman with a strong nose and a wide mouth. She had brown hair, parted in the middle and blue eyes. She dressed well, but modestly, and in dark colors. Considered modest and retiring, Eliza's personality contrasted sharply with her husband's more aggressive, outgoing nature. With their limited means, her skill at keeping a house and bringing up a family had much to do with Johnson's success.
The Johnsons had
three sons and two daughters, all born in Greeneville, Tennessee: Martha (1828-1891), Charles (1830-1863), Mary (1832-1883), Robert (1834-1869), and Andrew Jr. (1852-1879). In August, 1852, at age 42, Eliza gave birth to her fifth child, Andrew, Jr. Soon thereafter she was stricken with what a doctor diagnosed as consumption, now known as tuberculosis. Her face became lined earlier in life than normal due to illness.
Andrew
became involved with local politics, and Eliza supported him in his political career. While maintaining his growing tailoring business, Andrew was elected alderman and later mayor of Greeneville. After his election to the state legislature in Nashville in 1835, Eliza stayed at home, taught the children, and managed the family and business finances.
Andrew Johnson rose rapidly serving in the state and national legislatures. He served as
Governor of Tennessee from 1853 to 1857, and was elected to the United States Senate and served there from October 1857 to March 1862, but Eliza did not join him in Washington.
Despite frequent,
lengthy periods of separation while he held political office in Nashville or Washington, DC, the couple were apparently devoted to each other. From a study of Andrew Johnson's letters, there is no doubt of the importance of Eliza's influence on her husband.
Home of President Andrew & Eliza Johnson
Greeneville, Tennessee
Eliza Johnson was a thoroughly conventional mid-19th century woman who, though she showed strength and determination, did not question a woman's role in the larger world. From the start, she had a soothing, calming influence on Andrew's easily ruffled feathers. He had a deep inner sense of insecurity that Eliza fought to bolster. She also sought to strengthen his weaknesses. She had a soft voice that could reach Andrew in his darkest moments, and bring him to a more reflective mood.
As her children grew to adulthood, Eliza took great comfort in Martha and Mary, but her sons were trying to Eliza –
sons Charles and Robert suffered from acute alcoholism. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Charles remained loyal to the Union. While recruiting Tennessee boys for the Union Army, he became the object of an intense Confederate manhunt. He joined the Middle Tennessee Union Infantry as an assistant surgeon; he was thrown from his horse and killed.
Robert served for a time in the Tennessee state legislature. During the Civil War, he was commissioned colonel of the First Tennessee Union Cavalry. He was private secretary to his father during his tenure as president, but died an alcoholic at age 35. Andrew Jr. founded the weekly
Greeneville Intelligencer, but it failed after two years. He died soon thereafter at age 27.
Eliza Johnson remained in the background, seen but not often heard. She remained in Greeneville when Andrew was elected to the state legislature and later to the US House of Representatives. But
in 1860, she finally moved to Washington DC to join her husband, who was then a Senator.
When the
Civil War broke out the following year, Andrew was loyal to the North. Eliza returned to Tennessee, but as the wife of a notorious Unionist, was harassed and expelled from Greeneville by the Confederates. She stayed with her daughter Mary (Mrs. Daniel) Stover in Carter County until October 1862, when she was forced to leave again. General Nathan Bedford Forrest at first refused to let her through the lines to join her husband, by then
military governor of Tennessee in Nashville.
In March, 1863, Johnson urged the Confederates to reconsider and rejoin the union, but they refused, and notified Eliza and her family they would have to leave the state. Pleading illness, she declined to leave. Eventually she would travel to Cincinnati and to Indiana to seek out a spa for her health. Their home in Greeneville was destroyed during the war.
Then in late 1863, the
Confederates left Tennessee, and Johnson set up a provisional state government in Nashville, where Eliza joined him. They were still in Nashville when they learned Johnson had been nominated for
Vice President to run with President Lincoln, in an attempt to appeal to Southern supporters of the Union.
In late 1864, Eliza traveled to Boston to get medical help for her son Robert, whose drinking was out of control. Andrew Johnson was elected Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket headed by Abraham Lincoln and was inaugurated March 4, 1865.
Eliza was still in Boston when she heard of
Abraham Lincoln's assassination, and Andrew asked her to join him in Washington. She was devastated with fear for her husband's safety. Andrew Johnson became President of the United States on April 15, 1865, upon Lincoln's death. He was the first Vice President to succeed to the US Presidency because of an assassination.
President Andrew Johnson
By this time, Eliza Johnson had been ill for many years with tuberculosis. While her health periodically worsened or somewhat improved, she remained an invalid, and generally withdrawn from the public eye. She didn't join Andrew in Washington, DC, until June 1865.
When the Johnson family moved in, they comprised one of largest presidential families to enter the Executive Mansion. There were twelve in all – Martha Patterson, and her Senator husband, their two children, the widowed Mary Stover and her three children, as well as the two Johnson sons, Robert and 13-year-old Andy.
The president's office was directly across the hall from her second-floor bedroom, and she always listened for his voice. Whenever it grew excited or angry, she slowly crossed the hall and admonished him for losing his temper. Her calming influence always proved to be beneficial.
Aside from these visits to the President's office and two public appearances – one at a reception for Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands and the other at a birthday party for her son Andy – Eliza Johnson remained totally out of the public eye. Most of her time was spent reading, knitting, and visiting with family.
Despite her infirmity and her opposition to a public life, Eliza was an important political adviser to President Johnson. She was an avid reader of national newspapers, administration papers, and political journals, and often assisted her husband in preparing his speeches. Eliza may well have influenced his lenient Reconstruction policy regarding former soldiers and the Proclamation of Amnesty.
Eliza steadfastly supported her husband at a time when his administration was under attack and no doubt served as a model and an inspiration to future
First Ladies who found themselves in similar situations. She clipped newspaper and magazine articles about the President, and divided them into two parts. Those supporting her husband she gave him in the evening to assure him a pleasant night's sleep, and saved the more critical ones for the morning.
Eliza's oldest daughter,
Martha Johnson Patterson, took over the
duties of the First Lady. She was a competent, unpretentious, and gracious hostess. Eliza appeared publicly as First Lady on only two occasions - at a reception for Queen Emma of the Sandwich Islands in 1866, and at her son Andrew's birthday party in 1867.
Washington and the White House weren't new to Martha. She had attended school in the capital while her father was a congressman, and enjoyed friendships with former First Ladies Sarah Polk and Harriet Lane, who acted as hostess for the only President who never married: James Buchanan. Martha had spent several holidays at the Polk White House.
Frail in health but strong in the face of adversity, Eliza McCardle Johnson was an important presence behind the scenes of the Johnson White House, influencing both her daughter's and her husband's agendas. According to Eliza, while a First Lady's public persona was "all very well for those who like it, " she did "not like this public life at all. I often wish the time would come when we could return to where I feel we best belong."
The Johnsons found the presidential mansion in a state of disrepair, after four years of war and a stampede of visitors to President Lincoln's funeral. After her husband's assassination, Mary Todd Lincoln had remained in the White House until early June 1865. While she was bedridden in grief, vandals had free rein to slash carpet and furniture, rip wallpaper, and pilfer art objects and china.
As a result, the drapes and rugs were torn, much of the furniture was dirty and broken, the walls and floors were stained with tobacco juice, and the entire house was infested with insects. Congress granted $30, 000 for the remodeling, and Martha remained within her budget, buying new wallpaper, slipcovers for old furniture, and muslin cloth to cover the carpets during receptions. She brought the long-forgotten portraits of former presidents out of storage and hung them on the ground floor.
In 1868, during the height of Andrew
Johnson's quarrel with Congress that almost led to his impeachment, Eliza read all the newspapers, clipping out articles that she thought he should read. During those difficult days Eliza held
daily prayer vigils for his acquittal and dictated that all White House social events continue as usual.
Martha's husband David Trotter Patterson was an attorney serving as a US Senator from Tennessee. In his father-in-law's
impeachment trial provided
President Johnson with the one-vote margin by which he escaped being removed from office. "I knew he'd be acquitted; I knew it, " Eliza declared when she was told the results of the Senate vote. Her faith in him had never wavered during those difficult days in 1868.
The Johnson's departed from Washington before Grant's inauguration and returned to their home in Greeneville, Tennessee. Eliza had become
a complete invalid, and Andrew assumed her care. The last years of her life were quiet.
Andrew ran for the US Senate in 1874 and won, which the Johnsons viewed the election as a vindication of his life and career. Eliza remained in Tennessee as he traveled to Washington to take his seat in 1875. Her health had remained poor, and she was in serious decline by that time.
Andrew Johnson only served a few months of his term. While visiting at his daughter Mary's home at Carter's Station, Tennessee, he
suffered a stroke and died on July 31, 1875. He was buried in a private grave on their property, which later reverted to the federal government, and was designated as the Andrew Johnson National Cemetery in Greeneville. Eliza was too ill to attend his funeral.
Andrew and Eliza Johnson Grave Marker
Andrew Johnson National Cemetery
Eliza McCardle Johnson died of tuberculosis on January 15, 1876, at age 67, having survived her husband by only six months. She was buried next to him.
SOURCES
Eliza JohnsonEliza McCardle JohnsonAndrew Johnson 1865-1869The First Lady From TennesseeEliza Johnson, Martha JohnsonEliza McCardle Johnson 1810-1876Wikipedia: Eliza McCardle JohnsonFirst Lady Biography: Eliza Johnson Source: feedproxy.google.comVideo & Free Guide: How To Use ClickBank’s Marketplace To Make Money! Free ClickBank Cash System After The Video. No Email Required! For more videos like this, see: TRCB at YouTube.comClick the ebook cover below for your free step-by-step ClickBank System! Be sure to visit Answers Plus Info for my latest recommendations and Gifts from Jim DeSantis for All Freebies and No Baloney! Read More & Leave Comment>>>[...]
Source: on-line-tribune-internet-marketing.blogspot.com
