BIOGRAPHIES

Military

James P. Anderson

James Patton Anderson was born at Winchester, Tennessee on February 16, 1822. His endeavors prior to the Civil War were varied and interesting. At first he practiced medicine in Hernando County, Mississippi, and also practiced law. He then raised and led the 1st Battalion Mississippi Rifles as a lieutenant colonel, serving in the Mexican War.

Anderson next served a term in the Mississippi legislature. In 1853, President Pierce appointed him as U. S. Marshall in Washington Territory, where he also engaged in prospecting for gold. He represented Washington Territory in the U. S. Congress from March, 1855 until March, 1857.

In 1857, Anderson moved to Florida and managed a plantation. On January 11, 1861, he gained a captaincy in the Florida Militia. He was a member of the state secession convention, and was a member of the Provisional Congress from February 4, 1861 until his resignation on May 2. He was appointed to command the 1st Florida Infantry, effective March 26, 1861 and promoted to colonel on April 1. His first duty was at Pensacola under General Bragg.

After promotion to brigadier general on February 10, 1862, Anderson fought well at Shiloh and Perryville, and very well at Murfreesboro. He was in command of a division at Chickamauga and at Chattanooga, and was elevated to major general, effective from February 17, 1864. He took command of the District of Florida on Feb 23, 1864, early in the Atlanta campaign. He was recalled to the Army of Tennessee on July 28, 1864 and participated in the fights at Ezra Church and Jonesboro, sustaining a severe jaw wound there.

He rejoined the army in time to surrender at Greensboro, North Carolina on April 26, 1865. He was paroled at Greensboro on May 1, 1865 and pardoned on December 2, 1866.

Post war, General Anderson managed a farm paper in Memphis and collected taxes in Shelby County. He died at Memphis on September 20, 1872 and was buried in Elmwood Cemetery.

Selected Sources:
Eicher, John H. & David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959.

Benjamin Franklin Cheatham

During World War II, General Omar Bradley was called a "Soldier's Soldier." I think this same term would have been applicable to General Frank Cheatham. There was no officer in the Army of Tennessee held in greater esteem than he was. He always looked after the welfare of his men. He protected the safety of his men, but when duty called, her led them by his bravery and feel for the battle.

Cheatham was born on a plantation near Nashville on October 20, 1820. His maternal ancestors included James Robertson, the founder of that city. Cheatham served in the Mexican war as a captain in the 1st Tennessee Infantry and later as colonel of the 3rd Tennessee. He was caught up in the California Gold Rush of 1849, but returned to his farm in 1853. He also served in the militia and was active in Democratic politics.

When Tennessee seceded, Cheatham won an appointment as a brigadier general in July 1861. With devotion to their commander and their state, Cheatham's men acquired an enviable combat record in virtually every campaign. In the battle of Belmont, he led three regiments, and it was his attack of the rear Union lines that carried the day. For his action, he was promoted to major general and received the Thanks of the Confederate Congress. At Shiloh, he commanded the Second Division of Leonidas Polk's Corps.

General Braxton Bragg became the commander of the Army of Tennessee in June of 1862 and remained until December of 1863. Bragg had disdain for any general who wasn't a West Pointer. Thus, he regarded Cheatham as an incompetent political appointee and resented his close ties to Polk. Bragg sought to have Cheatham removed from his position. President Jefferson Davis wisely declined to act on Bragg's request. At Perryville, Cheatham's division opened the battle and steadily pressed forward.

At Stones River, Cheatham's was one of the four divisions that drove the Federals back three miles, causing their line to bend. Bragg accused Cheatham of being drunk on duty, and their relationship deteriorated further.

At Chickamauga, Cheatham's division was attached to the right wing under Leonidas Polk. When Polk finally initiated his attack, Cheatham's division fought well. Despite his success at Chickamauga, Bragg stripped most of Cheatham's Tennessee regiments, relegating Cheatham to a smaller division. Cheatham tried to resign, but Richmond authorities denied his request.

At the battle of Missionary Ridge, when the left center had been broken, Hardee threw a part of Cheatham's division directly across the path of advancing Federals, and he held the ground until fighting ended when darkness descended.

One of General Joseph Johnston's first acts after replacing Bragg was to restore Cheatham's Tennessee Division. This reconstituted division would go on to distinguish itself in the Atlanta Campaign, especially at Kennesaw Mountain. After John Bell Hood replaced Johnston, Cheatham led Hood's old corps at Peach Tree Creek and the Battle of Atlanta. Following William J Hardee's departure in 1864, Cheatham assumed command of Hardee's Corps and guided it throughout Hood's invasion of Tennessee.

The debacle at Spring Hill is still debated, but at the time Hood blamed Cheatham for letting the Union army slip past the Confederate line at Spring Hill. Consequently, Hood sent Cheatham's troops into the center of the Union line at Franklin, where they suffered massive casualties. The remnants of Cheatham's Corps fought two weeks later in Nashville. They then retreated south to eventually join forces with Johnston in North Carolina, where they would shortly surrender.

Cheatham was paroled in Greensboro, North Carolina on May 1, 1865. General Grant, who was a personal friend of his, offered him a civil service job, but Cheatham declined. He returned to farming in Coffee County. After losing a Congressional race in 1872, he served four years as Superintendent of the State Prison. In 1885, he became postmaster at Nashville until his death on September 4, 1886. The admiration of Tennesseans was evidenced by what was reported as the largest funeral in Nashville up until that time. He was laid to rest in Mt. Olivet Cemetery.

Content provided by: Brent Lokey

Sources:
Eicher, John H. and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Evans, Clement A. Confederate Military History, 17 vols. Wilmington, NC: Broadfoot Pub. Co., 1987-1989.
West, Carroll Van, Ed.-in-Chief. Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, c1998.

Sumner A. Cunningham

Sumner A. Cunningham was born on a farm near the Richmond Community in Bedford County, Tennessee, on July 21, 1843. His family was prosperous and sent young Sumner to private school. His father died when Sumner was 12 and as the oldest child he became the "man of the family". The early death of his father may have contributed to the anxiety and insecurity he suffered later in life.

As the clouds of secession spread over the South, Sumner had no problem with slavery as his family owned five, but he did have apprehension about Tennessee leaving the Union. The eighteen year old was greatly influenced by the secessionist, Meridith Gentry when he debated Edmund Cooper, a Shelbyville Unionist. Despite the objections of his mother, Sumner was only five feet, seven inches tall, he enlisted in the Confederate Army. Cunningham and other men of Richmond comprised Co. B, 41st Tennessee Infantry Regiment. He saw his first man killed at Fort Donelson when a shell from a Union gunboat hit Captain McNorton. Ineptness and lack of aggression at Fort Donelson would tarnish the image of the 41st for the duration of the war. After a day of fighting, the infamous trio of Floyd, Buckner, and Pillow surrendered the fort. Cunningham was one of the 14,000 men who became prisoners of war.

The prisoners were sent by rail to Camp Morton in Indianapolis, Indiana. The camp was located on the Indiana State Fair Grounds where cattle stalls were turned into barracks. Disease was rampant and several thousand of the prisoners died. The Unionists William Brownlow and Edmund Cooper, arrived at the camp and tried to get the Tennesseans to sign an oath of allegiance to the Union and be released. The two men were booted out of the camp. Cunningham was impressed with the good will of the camp's commandant, Colonel Richard Owen.

The prisoners were exchanged after six months and the 41st was reconstituted shortly thereafter at Vicksburg, Mississippi. The Army was put through conditioning marches and Cunningham often fell from exhaustion. His one-year enlistment expired, but he chose to stay on. There was a sharp skirmish at Raymond, MS and the 41st and Cunningham performed well. He was promoted to sergeant. Shortly thereafter, he contracted malaria and was in and out of the hospital for the next few months. The 41st was assigned to Bushrod Johnson's Division in the fall of 1863 just before Chickamauga. Here, Johnson and the 41st would enjoy their greatest glory in the breakthrough at the Brotherton Farm. The battle would come to halt that night at Snodgrass Hill. Sleeping among the dead and dying that night took a heavy psychological toll on him.

After Chickamauga, the 41st was assigned a position on Missionary Ridge. Again, he suffered from fever and missed the battle. While convalescing at Forsyth, Georgia, he met his future wife, Laura Davis, a distant relative of Jefferson Davis. A neighbor, Colonel James D. Tilman, was in command of the 41st when Cunningham returned. He promoted Cunningham to Sergeant Major, probably because of Cunningham's education and ability to perform administrative duties. Hood's stupidity at Cassville, Georgia left the Army of Tennessee completely demoralized and they were probably defeated before they reached Spring Hill, Tennessee.

However, the Battle of Franklin did provide Cunningham with his greatest moment of glory. As he stood on the corpses of his fallen comrades, General Otho Strahl stood in the trenches and loaded guns and passed them to Cunningham. When Strahl was killed, Cunningham got into the trenches and loaded guns. The end of his military career came a few days later when Cunningham and his compatriots ran off Shy's Hill during the Battle of Nashville. He eventually made his way back to Bedford County.

After several business ventures, Cunningham founded "The Confederate Veteran". The magazine became a clearinghouse for information related to events and rituals honoring Confederate traditions. Although bitterly opposed to the harsh policies of Reconstruction, he refused to become involved in the activities of the Ku Klux Klan. The magazine also reported on the activities of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the United Confederate Veterans. Cunningham never received the official sanction of the UCV and frequently argued with General John Gordon, its commander. The most popular feature was "last roll call" which had the obituaries of Confederate veterans.

Cunningham's crowning glories were the erection of monuments to Sam Davis, hanged as a spy in Pulaski, Tennessee, and Colonel Richard Owen, the humanitarian commander of Camp Morton. On December 20, 1913, Cunningham "crossed the river" to join his Confederate comrades. Confederate Veteran, which had peaked at 22,000 subscribers in 1902, was continued by Cunningham's secretary, Edith Pope, for another nine years. When the first buggy arrived at Willow Mount Cemetery, the last one was just pulling out from the Bedford County Courthouse, a distance of over one mile. Sumner Cunningham provided a valuable service to the people of the South by telling their story. They would later erect a monument to him at Willow Mount Cemetery in Shelbyville, Tennessee.

Content provided by: Brent Lokey

Sources:
Simpson, John A. S. A. Cunningham and the Confederate Heritage. Athens: University of Georgia Press, c1994.

Henry B. Davidson

Henry Brevard Davidson was born in Shelbyville, Tennessee January 28, 1831, a son of George Davidson and his first wife, Betsy Chilot. Henry spent his early childhood in a one-story farm dwelling on Martin Street. He had two brothers and a sister older than he and one sister younger. His mother died when he was two and a half years old.

Henry's father, George Davidson, was a leader in the affairs of the county. The family had long been distinguished for service to the community, from Henry's great-great-grandfather, Scotch-Irish John Davidson, one of the signers of the Mecklenburg Declaration, to his great-grandfather William and grandfather John, who both were soldiers in the revolutionary War.

When he was only fifteen years old, he enlisted in the 1st Tennessee Volunteers, a full company of volunteers furnished by Bedford County for service in the Mexican War. Davidson fought with notable courage in the Battle of Monterey, and he was promoted to sergeant. He was appointed a cadet at West Point early in 1848, graduating July 1, 1853. He ranked 33 out of a class of 52. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the First Dragoons. He served in such places as Pennsylvania, Missouri, Oregon, New Mexico, and California. He fought against the Apache Indians and took part in the Spokane Expedition. He was promoted to first lieutenant and later to captain. While on a leave of absence, June 1861, Tennessee ratified the Ordinance of Secession and Davidson resigned from the U.S. Army and offered his services to the Confederacy.

Davidson was appointed a major in the Adjutant and Inspector General's office. He was attached successively to the staffs of Generals Floyd, Buckner, A. S. Johnston, and Mackall. He was promoted to colonel and assigned to command the post at Staunton, Virginia. While serving with Mackall, he was captured at Island No. 10 by Federal General John Pope in April 1862. He was later released in an exchange of prisoners. On August 18, 1863, he was commissioned brigadier general. He commanded a brigade under General Forrest at Chickamauga on the Right Wing. After the battle, he was assigned to General Wheeler.

Davidson was soon transferred back to Virginia to command a brigade in Jubal Early's Valley Campaign of 1864. The end of the war found him in North Carolina where he surrendered with General Joe Johnston. He was paroled at Greensboro, North Carolina, May 1, 1865.

After a brief stay in New Orleans, He moved to California where he served as Deputy Secretary of State. For the last six years of his life, he was station agent of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Danville, California. He died at Livermore, California on March 4, 1899, and is buried at Mountain View Cemetery at Oakland in an unmarked grave.

Content provided by: Brent Lokey

Sources:
Biographical sketch, Shelbyville Times-Gazette, Sesquicentennial Historical Edition.

John D. Imboden

Brigadier General John D. Imboden was born in Staunton, Virginia. He attended Washington College for two terms, but didn't graduate. He taught school for a while at the Virginia Institute for the Education of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind in Staunton. Although a competent teacher, he chose to study law and opened a practice in Staunton.

He had a run at state politics, with lackluster results. Although he did serve in the state legislature, he was unsuccessful in his bid to be a representative at the Virginia Secession Convention.

Imboden entered service at the start of the war, serving first as commander of the Staunton Artillery at Harper's Ferry, after its initial capture.

He fought at 1st Manassas, where he was wounded by a shell fragment. He then organized the Virginia Partisan Rangers. The unit was redesignated the 62nd Virginia Mounted Infantry, which Imboden led at Cross Keys and Port Republic.

He commanded a brigade of cavalry under Jeb Stuart at Gettysburg. During the Confederate withdrawal after the battle, Lee charged Imboden with escorting the train of thousands of wounded back to Virginia.

Arriving at Williamsport, Imboden found the pontoon bridge destroyed, and Federal cavalry attacked the wagon train of wounded. Imboden, with the river at his back, put on a stubborn defense until General Fitz Lee's cavalry arrived and the Federals were driven off.

He commanded a brigade of Ransom's Division of 2nd Corps in 1864.

After a bout with typhoid in the fall of 1864, Imboden finished his wartime service performing prison duty in Aiken, South Carolina.

After the war, Imboden practiced law in Richmond, Virginia, then spent his last years in the mining industry in Washington County.

He died in Damascus, Georgia in August of 1895, and is buried at Richmond, Virginia.

Content provided by: Jay Schroeder

Selected sources:
Davis, Burke. Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War (reprint). New York: Harry Holt and Co., 1998.
Davis, Burke. They Called Him Stonewall (reprint). New York: Harry Holt and Co., 1999.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1986.
Hansen, Harry. The Civil War - A History. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1961.
War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 vols.). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901.

Hugh Judson Kilpatrick

Hugh Judson Kilpatrick was born in New Jersey and received a limited education in the local schools. He graduated from West Point in May of 1861, just in time for the War.

He was in command of a company of the 5th New York Infantry at the Battle of Big Bethel, and was the first Regular Army officer wounded in the War.

Kilpatrick was then assigned to the 2nd New York Cavalry. He saw action at Falmouth, Thoroughfare Gap and 2nd Manassas.

He commanded a brigade in Stoneman's raid toward Richmond, and at Beverly Ford. After his promotion to brigadier general in June of 1863, he was given command of a division.

Kilpatrick commanded a cavalry division under General Pleasonton at Gettysburg. He ordered the disastrous cavalry charge of Brigadier General Elon Farnsworth's brigade on the third day of the battle. The brigade was severely outgunned and the result was heavy casualties and the death of Farnsworth. Kilpatrick was criticized for poor judgment.

In late February of 1864, Kilpatrick, assisted by Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, attempted a daring cavalry raid on Richmond. The raid was a failure and Dahlgren was killed.

The stated objectives were to disrupt Confederate lines of communication, cause panic at the seat of government and liberate Union prisoners held at Libby Prison and on Belle Isle. However, documents found in Dahlgren's possession indicated that the real agenda was to burn Richmond and to kill President Davis and his Cabinet. These papers were published and a scandal ensued.

Kilpatrick commanded a cavalry division in Sherman's campaign against Atlanta. He was wounded at Dalton, but recovered quickly. He was able to serve in Sherman's March to the Sea.

Postwar, Kilpatrick was appointed by the President to be Minister to the Republic of Chile. While serving in that capacity, he made an unsuccessful run for Congress in 1880.

He died in Santiago, Chile in December of 1881. He is buried at West Point.

Content provided by: Jay Schroeder

Selected sources:
Davis, Burke. Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War (reprint). New York: Harry Holt and Co., 1998.
Dodge, Theodore Ayrault. The Campaign of Chancellorsville (reprint). New York: Da Capo Press, 1999.
Hansen, Harry. The Civil War - A History. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1961.
Hurst, Jack. Nathan Bedford Forrest - A Biography. New York: Vintage Books, 1993.
Sears, Stephen W. Controversies and Commanders. New York: Houghton-Mifflin Company, 1999.

John Newton

John Newton was born in Norfolk, Virginia on August 22, 1822, the son of a U.S. Congressman. He was a West Point graduate, Class of 1842.

Prewar, he served as an Army engineer and West Point instructor in various subjects. He also had a major part in the construction of at least half a dozen forts.

At the outbreak of hostilities, he was working on fortifications in Delaware. Newton was assigned as Chief Engineer of two different departments, then worked on Washington defenses.

He commanded brigades of the Army of the Potomac at West Point, Virginia; Gaines' Mill; Glendale; South Mountain and Sharpsburg. At South Mountain, he led a bayonet charge which resulted in taking the enemy position.

Newton and Brigadier General John Cochrane went to Washington on December 30, 1862, met with President Lincoln, and told the President that General Burnside planned to again cross the Rappahannock. They believed Burnside did not have the confidence of his subordinate generals, and would again be defeated. They denied that they were seeking the removal of Burnside. This meeting started a chain of events that resulted in the removal of Burnside late in January of 1863.

Newton commanded the Union 3rd Division, VI Corps under General John Sedgwick at Chancellorsville. His division quickly carried Marye's Heights with a bayonet charge.

He assumed temporary command of I Corps at Gettysburg on 1 July 1863 when General John F. Reynolds was killed.

He later commanded 2nd Division, IV Corps. This was General Sherman's old command.

He served under Sherman, who regarded him highly. In the Atlanta campaign, his unit carried Rocky-face Ridge, and fought at Dalton, Adairsville, Dallas, Kennesaw Mountain, Peach Tree Creek, Jonesborough and Lovejoy's Station.

At Peach Tree Creek, he prevented a dangerous Confederate movement against Sherman. His rapidly constructed works allowed him to turn back the Confederate thrust.

He then commanded the District of Key West & Tortugas.

Postwar, Newton accepted a regular commission as lieutenant colonel of engineers. He was successful in a number of difficult engineering projects, mostly in the New York area. His specialty was removing obstacles from the harbor.

He served until 1886, when he retired as a brigadier general. He then served as Commissioner of Public Works for the City of New York. Still later, he became President, Panama Railroad Company. He served as such until his death.

Newton died in New York City on May 1, 1895. He is buried at West Point, New York.

Content provided by: Jay Schroeder

Selected sources:
Dodge, Theodore Ayrault. The Campaign of Chancellorsville (reprint). New York: Da Capo Press, 1999.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1986.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Red River to Appomattox. New York: Random House, 1986.
Hansen, Harry. The Civil War - A History. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1961.
Sears, Stephen W. Controversies and Commanders. New York: Houghton-Mifflin Company, 1999.

Edward O. C. Ord

Union Major General Edward O.C. Ord was a West Point graduate and a 1839 classmate of General Henry Halleck. Ord served as a 2nd lieutenant against the Seminoles, then in California during the Mexican War. This was followed by Indian duty in the Pacific Northwest.

In 1859, Ord was reassigned to duty at Fort Monroe, and took part in the expedition against John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry.

September 1861 found Ord back in California. He received a brigadier's commission and ordered east, where he commanded a brigade defending Washington. His first combat of the war was against General Jeb Stuart at Dranesville.

In May of 1862, he was promoted to major general and sent west.

He was present at Iuka in September 1862, with little significant result. His command was west of the town, and saw little fighting. Due to an error by General William Rosecrans, the Confederate forces under General Sterling Price escaped. Ord was severely wounded a few days later, while damaging Confederate forces retreating from an unsuccessful attack on Corinth.

Ord commanded the VII Corps under General Grant at the siege of Vicksburg in 1863.

Ord commanded the XVIII Corps at the siege of Richmond. He sustained serious wounds at the attack on Fort Harrison in September of 1864. The severity of his wounds took him out of action for the remainder of the year.

In January of 1865, he assumed command of the Army of the James, as well as the Department of North Carolina.

After the War, Ord had several more assignments, and retired as a major general in 1881.

While travelling by ship in Central America, he contracted yellow fever. He died in Havana on July 22, 1883. He is buried at Arlington, Virginia.

Content provided by: Jay Schroeder

Selected sources:
Davis, Burke. Gray Fox: Robert E. Lee and the Civil War (reprint). New York: Harry Holt and Co., 1998.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Fort Sumter to Perryville. New York: Random House, 1986.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1986.
Hansen, Harry. The Civil War - A History. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1961.
Sears, Stephen W. Controversies and Commanders. New York: Houghton-Mifflin Company, New York.
Wood, W. J. Civil War Generalship – The Art of Command (reprint). Da Capo Press, 2000.

William Dorsey Pender

William Dorsey Pender was born in Edgecomb County, North Carolina. He entered West Point at the age of sixteen and graduated in the Class of 1854.

Pender was assigned to the West Coast, and participated in a number of skirmishes with the Indians. He was a first lieutenant when he resigned from the U.S. Army in March of 1861.

Pender entered Confederate service as colonel of the 3rd (later 13th) North Carolina Infantry. After his performance at Seven Pines, he was promoted to brigadier general and given a brigade in A.P. Hill's division. He led his brigade through the Seven Days and at Chancellorsville. During this time, he was wounded three times.

Pender was promoted to major general and commanded a division of the 3rd Corps under A.P. Hill at Gettysburg.

On the first day, Pender's division, along with Heth's, forced Doubleday's corps off of McPherson's Ridge, west of the town of Gettysburg. On the afternoon of the second day, A.P. Hill sent Pender into a follow-up attack on Seminary Hill. His division swept the defenders from the hill in a matter of minutes. Later in the afternoon, Pender received a shrapnel wound in the leg. It was not considered to be life-threatening.

The leg became infected as he was being transported to Staunton, Virginia. The leg was amputated there, but he died subsequent to the operation, on July 18, 1863.

At the time of his death, he was widely considered one of the outstanding younger generals in the Confederate Army.

General Pender is buried in the yard of the Calvary Church at Tarboro, North Carolina.

Content provided by: Jay Schroeder

Selected sources:
Eicher, John H. & David J. Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1986.
Tucker, Glenn. High Tide at Gettysburg. Old Saybrook: Konecky & Konecky, 2002.
Warner, Ezra. Generals in Gray - Lives of the Confederate Commanders.em> Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2000.

James J. Pettigrew

James Johnston Pettigrew was born at "Bonarva", the family home in North Carolina. At the age of fifteen, he entered the University of North Carolina, where he had a brilliant scholastic experience. Upon his graduation in 1847, his academic excellence was rewarded by President Polk in the form of an assistant professorship at the Naval Observatory in Washington.

Pettigrew traveled abroad, then returned to study law. He practiced in Charleston. In 1856, he was elected to the South Carolina legislature.

He served in the South Carolina militia at the outbreak of the War, present at Charleston Harbor in April of 1861. He then commanded the 12th South Carolina Infantry.

After securing a brigadier's commission dated February, 1862, Pettigrew served under Joseph Johnston in the Peninsula Campaign. He was severely wounded and captured at the Battle of Seven Pines.

After only two months of captivity, Pettigrew was exchanged. He was given an assignment in the defense of Petersburg, then duty in North Carolina.

He commanded a brigade in Heth's division in A.P. Hill's corps at Gettysburg. After Heth was wounded, Pettigrew assumed command of the division, and fought well in the center on the third day.

General Pettigrew was mortally wounded at battle of Falling Waters, during Lee's withdrawal from Pennsylvania after Gettysburg. He is buried at "Bonarva" in Tyrrell County, North Carolina.

Content provided by: Jay Schroeder

Selected sources:
Eicher, John H. & David J. Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
Tucker, Glenn. High Tide at Gettysburg. Old Saybrook: Konecky & Konecky, 2002.
Warner, Ezra. Generals in Gray - Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2000.

William C. Quantrill

William Charles Quantrill was born in Ohio in 1837. He relocated to Kansas at the age of 20. Quantrill led a force of about 450 raiders into Lawrence, Kansas on August 21, 1863, where they killed about 200 male residents and burned most of the town.

He was given a captaincy by the Confederates, but referred to himself as Colonel Quantrill. Several Confederate generals tried to find productive uses for Quantrill's partisan raiders, while trying to distance themselves from his unethical tactics.

Quantrill began to lose control over his men in late 1864, and was killed by Federal troops in a surprise raid in Kentucky in 1865.

Content provided by: Jay Schroeder

Selected sources:
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Fort Sumter to Perryville. New York: Random House, 1986.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1986.
Hansen, Harry. The Civil War - A History. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1961.
Schultz, Duane. Quantrill's War - The Life and Times of William Clarke Quantrill. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1997.

Alexander P. Stewart

Alexander Peter Stewart was born on October 2, 1821 in Rogersville, Tennessee. He entered the USMA in July, 1838 and graduated in July of 1842. He was commissioned a 2d lt. of artillery and assigned to the 3rd U. S. Artillery.

Resigning his commission in May of 1845, Stewart became a professor of mathematics and experimental philosophy at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, serving from 1845-1849, 1850-1854, and 1867-1869. Additionally, he held the same position at the University of Nashville from 1849-1850 and 1854-1855. He also was employed as a surveyor for a time.

Politically, Stewart was an anti-secessionist Whig. In May of 1861, Stewart nonetheless took a commission as a major of artillery in the Tennessee Militia, accepting the same commission in the Confederate States Army in August of that same year. By November 8, he was made a brigadier general. A week later, he was given command of a brigade in the 2nd Division of the Columbus District - Department No. Two, a position he held for just over a year.

Stewart held five brigade commands for a short time each, and finally assumed command of the 3rd Division, I Corps of the Army of Tennessee in April of 1863. Promoted to major general in June, he promptly assumed command of the 1st Division, II Corps, Army of Tennessee.

Stewart was wounded at Chickamauga on September 19, 1863. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general in June of 1864 and commanded III Corps, Army of Tennessee almost continually until April 26, 1865. He was again wounded on July 28, 1864 at Ezra Church. His military career ended with his parole at Greensboro, NC on May 1, 1865.

General Stewart's post-war career was also quite distinguished. He moved to Missouri in 1869, then to Mississippi in 1874, where he was an insurance executive for a brief time, until becoming Chancellor of the University of Mississippi. He left that post in 1886. He was commissioner of the Chickamauga & Chattanooga National Military Park from 1890 until 1908. Interestingly, he was again injured in 1893, when hit by a train.

Stewart returned to Missouri in 1906 and died there on August 30, 1908. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis, Missouri.

Selected sources:
Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959.
Eicher, John H. & David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.

Daniel Ullmann

Daniel Ullmann was born in Wilmington, Delaware in 1810. A graduate of Yale (1829) and Madison (1861) universities and member of the New York bar, Ullmann ran unsuccessfully for Governor in 1854 on the American or Know-Nothing ticket. As colonel of the 78th New York Volunteers, he was captured at Cedar Mountain in August of 1862 and sent to Libby prison. He was paroled in October of the same year.

Ullmann met with Lincoln late in 1862, and tried to convince the President to enlist black troops. Initially, Lincoln had misgivings, but called Ullmann back to further discuss the idea.

In January of 1863, Ullmann was promoted to brigadier general and sent to Louisiana under General Banks. As ordered, he raised five regiments of black troops there. The units were later designated as the Corps D'Afrique.

He commanded Ullmann's brigade at Port Hudson, then commanded the post at Port Hudson. After a number of reorganizations and redesignations, Ullmann found himself in Morganza, Louisiana, in command of a brigade of black troops. At times, disease was a greater danger to his command than Confederate forces in the area.

The evolution of black units was not without its problems. Ullmann complained that commanders in the field often chose to use black troops as "diggers and drudges", doing work that white troops disliked. Complaints of this sort led to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton acting to equalize fatigue duty between white and black troops. Ullmann also made the point that often the white officers appointed to black units were less than competent.

Regiments raised by Ullmann to form the Corps D'Afrique were later redesignated as United States Colored Troops, and performed well in the siege of Mobile in the spring of 1865.

On 26 Feb 1865, Ullmann was removed from command and ordered to report to New Orleans. Reports indicate that he had a severe alcohol problem at the time.

On 13 Mar 1865, he was brevetted to major general. He was mustered out on 24 Aug 1865 and made major general in November 1865.

After the war, Ullmann involved himself with literary and scientific studies. In a speech before the Soldier's and Sailor's Union of New York, he advocated equality of education and universal suffrage as tools for the "regeneration of the South."

He died on 20 Sep 1892 in Nyack, New York, and is buried there.

Content provided by: Jay Schroeder

Selected sources:
O'Brien, Sean Michael. Mobile 1865 - Last Stand of the Confederacy. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2001.
War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (128 vols). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1901.

Civilian

Clement L. Vallandigham

Clement Laird Vallandigham was born in New Lisbon, Ohio on July 29th, 1820. Prior to the outbreak of the Civil War, he was a lawyer, editor of the Dayton Empire, Ohio state legislator, and U.S. Congressman from Ohio. He was a member of the Democrat party, and the wartime leader of the Copperheads, a faction strongly opposed to the war.

Vallandigham was not a secessionist, but had great differences with Abraham Lincoln. He strongly believed that the sole purpose of the war should be the preservation of the Union, not the abolition of slavery. He took every advantage to lash out at Lincoln and the Republicans on their handling of the war.

His aggressive wartime criticism of Lincoln caused him great peril. In May of 1863, Major General Ambrose Burnside sent a large party of troops to place Vallandigham under arrest for sedition. Specifically, he was charged with violating General Order No. 38, which threatened punishment to those declaring sympathy for the enemy. He was tried by a military commission, convicted, and sentenced to a prison term. Lincoln, in his political wisdom, had the punishment commuted to banishment to the area behind Confederate lines.

Vallandigham left the United States. He initially went to Bermuda, then to Canada. While in Canada, his supporters back in Ohio nominated him for governor. He ran unsuccessfully on the Democratic ticket. He returned to the United States, was not rearrested, and contributed to the adoption of a peace plank in the 1864 Democratic Party platform.

Postwar, Vallandigham returned to his native Ohio, where he resumed his criticism of the Radical Republicans. He ran unsuccessfully for Congress.

Vallandigham died in Lebanon, Ohio on June 17, 1871, the victim of a firearm. He accidentally shot himself with an item of evidence while preparing to argue a murder case.

Content provided by: Jay Schroeder

Selected sources:
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1986.
Hansen, Harry. The Civil War - A History. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc., 1961.
Klement, Frank L. The Limits of Dissent: Clement L. Vallandigham and the Civil War. New York: Fordham University Press, 1998.

Henry Watterson

Henry Watterson was born in Washington, D. C., the son of Harvey Magee Watterson [q.v.], a member of Congress from Tennessee, and of Talitha Black, also of Tennessee. At that time the "Tennessee dynasty" was in the ascendant. The child, small and sickly, each year made the journey from the capital to the two family homesteads: that of the Wattersons, Beech Grove, in Bedford County, and of the Blacks, Spring Hill, in Maury County, Tenn. A juvenile onlooker in the House, playing at page with the consent of his indulgent father, Watterson was on the floor when John Quincy Adams, then a member, was stricken and carried from his seat to die. He had visited the Hermitage with his father about 1844 and sat on Jackson's knee, and he later met all the other presidents between Jackson and Harding. He died in Harding's time, but he already numbered among his acquaintances Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. His schooling, save for a few terms at the Protestant Episcopal Academy at Philadelphia, was informal; he was the sort of person who readily absorbed education and culture through books and people. The youthful Watterson was for a time looked upon as the possessor of rare talent as a pianist. But a weak left hand and the early failure of sight in his right eye (which later became totally blind) ended his musical studies, although the influence of rhythm upon his journalistic and literary style remained a marked characteristic. As a youth of twelve he played an accompaniment for Adelina Patti, herself aged nine.

By 1856, the family was back in residence in Tennessee, the elder Watterson a strong Union Democrat. The son remained until 1858, when he went east again to engage in newspaper work. After a brief experience working on reportorial assignments for the New York Times, Watterson became a reporter for the Daily States of Washington--oddly enough holding at the same time "a clerkship, a real 'sinecure' in the Interior Department" ("Marse Henry," I, 59)--and it fell to his lot to report the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln. A Unionist through conviction, although he became a secessionist and Confederate soldier because of sectional sympathies, he was drawn strongly to Lincoln, and some of his best-known writings were devoted to appreciations of the Civil War president. In 1861, for reasons which Watterson thought unsavory (Ibid., p. 81), Secretary of War Simon Cameron [q.v.] offered him, through the clerk of the House, J. W. Forney [q.v.], a commission as lieutenant-colonel and private secretary. Watterson went home to Tennessee instead, determined to spend his time peacefully in writing until the war cloud was dispelled. He did not think the South could hold out long. But at home he found himself alone. "The boys were all gone to the front, and the girls were . . . all crazy" (Ibid., p. 82). So he joined the Confederate army and, by some loose arrangement not defined, was in and out of it for four years. He was on the staff of Gen. Leonidas Polk [q.v.] until he fell ill; then, in his grey jacket, he worked on a Southern propaganda newspaper in Nashville.

After the fall of Nashville, he engaged in more desultory soldiering, but he soon found himself appointed editor of the state newspaper at Chattanooga, which he named the Rebel, and turned it into the organ of the army. This remarkable journal, copies of which are preserved in Southern archives, was the first medium through which Watterson displayed that color and force of style which were later to make him outstanding among American editors throughout a half-century of active editorship. While editing the Rebel, he met his future business partner, Walter N. Haldeman, proprietor of the Louisville Courier, who, being a strong Southern sympathizer, had suspended his newspaper and retired behind the Southern lines. Editing the Rebel, however, became too precarious as the Union army moved on Atlanta, and, after serving Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and John Bell Hood [qq.v.] in various staff capacities, Watterson was offered by the Confederate government an opportunity, if he could reach Liverpool, of selling some cotton to British buyers. The young soldier, after various fantastic adventures with friendly Union officers, found the exits of the country closed, and settled down once more as an editor in Montgomery, Ala.

In 1865 the future "Marse Henry" of editorials and cartoons, the war just over, got an editorial job in Cincinnati on the Evening Times, owned by Calvin W. Starbuck. Upon the editor's sudden death Starbuck gave Watterson the place at $75 a week. The Cincinnati Commercial, under the inspiration of Murat Halstead [q.v.], greeted the young editor's first issue with some telling references to his fresh connection with the Confederate cause. Watterson went to Halstead and asked for quarter, saying that he meant to leave Cincinnati as soon as he could get a grubstake. That visit was the beginning of a friendship and political association which flowered notably through the famous "Quadrilateral" at the Greeley convention in 1872. A brief and successful newspaper venture at Nashville lasted almost through 1866. Watterson married Rebecca Ewing of Nashville on Dec. 20, 1865, and in 1867 took his bride to London. He returned to Nashville to join the staff of the Republican Banner. Simultaneously came two offers from Louisville--one from the senescent George Dennison Prentice [q.v.] to help edit the Louisville Daily Journal, another from Haldeman to become editor of the Courier, its publication resumed after the return of its publisher from behind the Southern lines. Watterson proposed consolidation to Haldeman, who declined. He joined the Journal, and, after half a year's lively but kindly battle with the Courier, the merger was made, and on Nov. 8, 1868, the Courier-Journal began its existence.

The Courier-Journal was one day old when its young editor began the struggle for the restoration of Southern home rule ("Carpet-Baggery and Peace," Courier-Journal, Nov. 9, 1868). Always a foe of slavery, Watterson agitated for the complete bestowal of civil and legal rights upon the Negroes in exchange for the return of the South to its homefolk. Carl Schurz and Horace Greeley [qq.v.] ranged themselves with the Louisville editor, and, although their cause had a setback in the Greeley-Liberal campaign of 1872, it was won four years later. The Greeley campaign was always held by Watterson to have "shortened the distance across the bloody chasm" ("Marse Henry," I, 266), and it was at the Liberal Republican nominating convention at Cincinnati that he, Schurz, Samuel Bowles, Murat Halstead, and (later) Whitelaw Reid and Horace White [qq.v.] formed the Quadrilateral (though they were six, not four), and first met Joseph Pulitzer [q.v.], a delegate from Missouri. About 1874, Watterson fixed upon Gov. Samuel Jones Tilden [q.v.] as the hope of the party and a reunited country. Carefully and intelligently he began to build up the governor of New York for the presidency, this culminating in the nomination of 1876. To Watterson, Tilden was the "ideal statesman." Except for Lincoln he was the editor's only public hero. During the 1876 campaign Watterson, at Tilden's request, took advantage of a Congressional vacancy through death in the Louisville district and sat, during the summer of 1876 and part of the winter of 1877, in the House as Tilden's floor leader, vociferously watching the contest that ended with the certification of Hayes. It was in this period that the passionate correspondence to the Courier-Journal from its Representative-editor in Washington appeared, including the suggestion--so alarming to the Northern press--that "a hundred thousand petitioners . . . ten thousand unarmed Kentuckians" come to the capital to see that justice was done (Courier-Journal, Jan. 5, 1877).

After the inauguration of Hayes, the editor returned to his tripod, never again to hold public office, although once he considered being a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor of Kentucky if that was overwhelmingly desired--which it was not. Never again did he express more than temporary fealty to any Democratic presidential nominee or White House incumbent. He was highly critical of Cleveland and bitterly opposed his third nomination in 1892. The pair never got on, and many were the stories of private reasons for their long estrangement. (See "Marse Henry," II, 116-17, 133-39.) In 1896 the Courier-Journal announced it would oppose William Jennings Bryan on the free silver issue. Watterson, on holiday abroad, had no part in the decision. But, learning of it, he cabled back to his partner, Haldeman, the message: "No compromise with dishonor" (Courier-Journal, July 13, 1896), and--save for one long editorial, sent from Switzerland--left the conduct of the fight for John B. Palmer and Simon B. Buckner (which meant McKinley) in Kentucky largely to his associate editor, Harrison Robertson. The stand almost destroyed the Courier-Journal, so resentful were the Democrats of the state against it, for--chiefly because of its activity--that was the time when, in Robert Ingersoll's phrase, "hell froze over," and Kentucky went Republican. Watterson and Haldeman, working to regain their lost ground, supported William Goebel [q.v.] for governor against the Republican nominee in 1898, and by 1900 had managed to figure out a way to support the second nomination of Bryan. In 1908 Watterson allowed Josephus Daniels to use his name as "honorary publicity chairman" in the third Bryan campaign. But he deplored Bryan's appointment as Secretary of State by Woodrow Wilson in 1913 (Courier-Journal, Dec. 21, 1912) and assailed him as an impractical dreamer when the Secretary left the cabinet on the war issue.

During the first decade of the twentieth century Watterson's chief national contribution was a series of philippics against "The Man on Horseback," as he called Theodore Roosevelt. Since his editorials were generally carried by telegraph to all newspapers in the country as a matter of news, this crusade became very famous. In the course of it Watterson announced that Roosevelt was unquestionably a paranoiac, determined to assume dictatorship of the country, and urged his family to sequestrate the Colonel. In 1909 he offered to bet the New York World a dinner that Roosevelt would quarrel with his chosen successor, Taft, and won the bet easily.

George Harvey [q.v.] in 1910 deeply interested Watterson in Woodrow Wilson, behind whom the editor marshaled his forces through the primary contest with Senator James Smith, calling the Governor "the hope of Democracy." But Wilson's blunt admission to Harvey, in answer to a question from the latter, that Harvey's editorial support in Harper's Weekly was damaging him with liberals and progressives, offended and alienated the sentimental Watterson, and he attempted to prevent the nomination of Wilson in 1912 (Courier-Journal, Feb. 21, 1912). Failing, he became a lukewarm observer and critic, varying from mild to severe, until the issues raised by Charles Evans Hughes and Theodore Roosevelt in 1916 ranged him on Wilson's side. He supported the President enthusiastically that year, and through the war, but he could not accept the idea of the League of Nations, and once more parted company with the President. Charged with being unable to stand by Democratic presidents, he reminded his critics through the Courier-Journal that "things have come to a hell of a pass when a man can't wallop his own jackass," an affectedly crude type of retort that, appealing strongly to the humorous sense of the American people, was part of his hold upon his readers.

Many trips abroad and Florida holidays punctuated editorial duties from 1880 on, but invariably Watterson wrote voluminously and frequently from wherever he was. The summer before the World War he was abroad, but he returned after Sarajevo to throw himself strongly into an editorial assault against the Central Powers, which he attacked as foes of Christianity. "To hell with the Hohenzollerns and the Hapsburgs," he exclaimed in the Courier-Journal on Sept. 3, 1914, and from then until the armistice, he repeated this stirring objurgation. In 1917 he was awarded the Pulitzer prize for his editorials hailing the declaration of war against the Central Powers by the United States. In August 1918, with two of the three children of his late partner, Haldeman, after litigation with the third growing out of the suppression of a Watterson editorial, the editor sold control of the Courier-Journal to Robert W. Bingham, and, after a brief connection as editor emeritus, Watterson, nearly eighty, retired finally to private life, which he spent on his estate, Mansfield, near Louisville, or in Florida and New York City. He showed a mild interest in James M. Cox in the 1920 campaign, but he viewed the triumph of Harding and the anti-Leaguers with serenity. In these years he wrote little, save an occasional letter, with the exception of Marse Henry: An Autobiography (2 vols., 1919), more important for its observations of life and anecdotes of the great than for a real revelation of an astonishing public career. He died at Jacksonville in December 1921, at the age of eighty-one, and was buried in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville. During his lifetime he was temporary chairman of several national conventions and author of the resolutions passed by four of these. In these resolutions he put into circulation many resounding phrases which rang from the hustings and were elaborated in his own writings. He was famous and in demand as a public speaker and lecturer. He once in youth wrote a novel, but it is not preserved; for potboilers, he collected his lectures as The Compromises of Life (1903), and edited a book of genre stories by Southern authors, called Oddities in Southern Life and Character (1883), a best-seller of its epoch.

His amazing zest for life, his gift for conversation and conviviality, his unusual personal appearance (the fierce blue eye under penthouses of bushy white eyebrows, the flaring mustache and slight goatee, the high, staccato voice combining to make a striking physical type), and his genius for "setting other editors to chattering" about what he wrote--these served to distinguish Watterson among his contemporaries at a time when journalism was personal and editorial writing often had immediate and dynamic effect. Despite the legends, the tipple he liked best was champagne, and, after that, wine and beer; although known as "the Colonel," a term he himself abjured, he did not relish whiskey, and the mint-julep yarns and cartoons were imaginative. He was a prodigious worker, a hard and frequent bon-vivant, a gifted idler when occasion permitted, and--in his home circle--a patriarch. Never were his famous personality and conversational gifts more glamorous than when he sat on the broad verandahs or in his large library at Mansfield, surrounded by his wife, his children, their children, and an assortment of guests and household pets. It was then that he was wont to say, looking back on a life both full and crowded: "I'm a free nigger at last and will never be anything else, hallelujah!" He died convinced that civilization was facing a crisis that might obliterate it "in seventy years," ascribing this largely to godlessness, for he himself was of undoubting Christian faith, though indifferent to the tenets of the sects. But his pessimism about the future was due partly to the triumph of national prohibition and equal suffrage, championed by those whom for many years he had attacked as "red-nosed angels," "Sillysallies," and "Crazyjanes."

Content provided by: Brent Lokey

SOURCE:
"Henry Watterson." Dictionary of American Biography, Base Set. American Council of Learned Societies, 1928-1936. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/BioRC.

William L. Yancey

William L. Yancey was born in Warren County, Georgia on August 10, 1814. He attended Williams College in Massachusetts and studied law in Sparta, Georgia. He moved to Alabama at the age of twenty-two and was admitted to the bar there. He became a cotton planter, then a newspaper editor. He resumed the practice of law in 1839, served in both branches of the Alabama Legislature, and was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1845.

Yancey was a delegate to three Democratic National Conventions - those of 1848, 1856 and 1860.

Yancey, like Jefferson Davis, was a proponent of the extension of slavery to the new territories acquired by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (which ended the Mexican War in 1848 and set borders between the two nations). He was also a strong opponent of the compromise measures of 1850, a result of which was California as a free state. Other territories were to decide the slavery issue at the time of achieving statehood.

Yancey wrote a letter in June 1858, which was finally published in 1860. It recommended the organization of "committees of safety" in all the cotton states to "fire the southern heart," and ultimately to precipitate those states into revolution against the Union.

In 1859, Yancey urged the calling of a convention by the state of Alabama, in the event of the election of the Republican candidate for president in 1860. At the Democratic convention of 1860, he and other southern extremists withdrew. He was a member of the State constitutional convention, which convened in Montgomery, Alabama on January 7, 1861. On 14 January, that convention passed the Alabama ordinance of secession, of which Yancey was the primary author. Yancey was appointed chairman of the commission sent to Europe in 1861 to present the Confederate cause to the Governments of England and France, a critical mission which was to be unsuccessful. The failure of Yancey's commission to secure European recognition of and assistance to the Confederate States made the long-term survival of the young nation almost impossible. He was elected to the first Confederate States Senate on February 21, 1862. As a Senator, he successfully blocked the creation of a Confederate Supreme Court on states' rights grounds.

He was a member of the Confederate Senate at Richmond until the time of his death. He died of kidney disease at his plantation home, near Montgomery, Alabama on July 26, 1863, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery.

Content provided by: Jay Schroeder

Selected sources:
Davis, William C. Look Away! - A History of the Confederate States of America. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2002.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Fort Sumter to Perryville. New York: Random House, 1986.
Foote, Shelby. The Civil War - A Narrative - Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1986.
Oates, Stephen B. The Approaching Fury. New York: Harper Collins, 1998.
Walther, Eric H. H. The Fire Eaters.em> Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994.