Friday, December 29, 2017

Confederate Image Identified

 

        A descendant, Dan McCollum, saw a copy of this photo of Private John M. Sellers of Company G, 16th Louisiana Infantry in the June issue of Calcasieu Greys, which was then unidentified,  and contacted Archie M. Toombs, commander of Capt. J. W. Bryan Camp, and identified it as being his relative. Another descendant, Robert Albanese, a great-great-grandson, provided the excellent quality copy seen at left.
            According to Mr. McCollum, Sellers is listed in the Soldiers and Sailors of the Confederacy of the National Park Service system, as a member of the 16th. Mr. McCollum said Sellers was living in north Alabama, where his family comes from, when the war started. He left Alabama and went back to Louisiana where he had been living and enlisted. After the war he returned to Alabama and died there June 8, 1895 in Blount, Alabama.
          According to Sellers military  service record, he was present for  the Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862, and was wounded in action at the Battle of Murfreesboro, Tennessee on December 31, 1862.
           Sellers was absent in the  hospital recovering from his wound and he returned to duty in July, 1863. He was then present for the Battle of Chickamauga, September 19-20, 1863 where nearly one-third of the regiment was captured. Sellers then fought at the Battle of Missionary Ridge on November 25, 1863. He was then absent in the hospital from January 6, 1864 until May 1, 1864 when he  returned to duty.
          Sellers was then present  for the Atlanta Campaign and fought at Mill Creek Gap, May 7; Resaca, May 14-15; and New Hope Church, May 25-28.  He was also present when his regiment participated in the  battles of Atlanta, July 22, Ezra Church, July 28; and  Jonesboro, August 31. The 16th helped capture Florence, Alabama on October 30, 1864 and  Sellers was in the Battle of Nashville, December 15-16, 1864.
          The regiment was then stationed as part of the garrison of Mobile, Alabama in February, 1865. Sellers was present for duty on the last roll of the war from April 20-30, 1865. John M. Sellers  was truly a faithful soldier and a Southern hero.

Sunday, December 17, 2017

Beauregard battle flag

Beauregard's personal Confederate battle flag in the Louisiana State Museum
(Photo by Mike Jones)

[From the Lake Charles American Press, Dec. 27, 1992, page 5.]
Museum's Civil War battle flag was prototype
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Civil War expert! believe a Confederate battle flag stored for years at the Louisiana State Museum in the French Quarter is one of the first three or four such flags made for the man who designed the banner.
Ken Legendre, a Gretna letter carrier and Civil War buff made the discovery earlier this month when he visited the museum's flag collection at the historic Jackson Square building known as the Presbytere.
Museum personnel didn't know the significance of the flag but Legendre recognized it as one of the first flags made for Gen. P.G.T Beauregard. The museum piece isn't for sale but Legendre believes it could be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The battle flag is perhaps the symbol most identified with the confederacy.
It was designed after Confederate officers found that it was difficult to tell the South's flag — three broad bands of red and white with a circle of white stars on a blue field — was difficult to tell from the Union's stars and stripes.
In 1861, Beauregard was in command o the Army of the Potomac. He decided or what became know as the "Southern Cross" a blue diagonal cross on a red field with stars on the blue bars representing the Southern states.
Some accounts say the very first battle flag was made under Beauregard's director by two Richmond women and later was possessed by the 5th Company of the Washington Artillery, an elite New Orleans unit.
But the prototypes that became most famous, and that were soon honored throughout the Confederacy as the first three battle flags, were made by Constance Cary Harrison of Richmond, Va., and her cousins Hetty and Jennie Cary.
Each made a silk flag for a top general: Beauregard, Joseph E. Johnston and Earl Van Dorn.
Beauregard sent his flag to his wife in New Orleans. When Union forces occupied the city in 1862, she sent it by foreign ship to Havana. Beauregard reclaimed it after the war and in 1883 donated it to the Washington Artillery.
It reportedly stood above the general's coffin when he died in 1893, and four year earlier it may have covered Confederate President Jefferson Davis' coffin at his funeral in New Orleans.
The flag's fate thereafter is unclear. But in " 1941, according to museum records, the Washington Artillery gave it to the museum. Whether museum personnel ever realized its significance isn't known. If so, the flag's history was forgotten over time.
"I had heard of this flag for many years, but as far as I knew it was missing. To all of a sudden gaze upon it was quite a treat,'"
Legendre said. Legendre's identification of the flag has since been seconded by Keith and Glen Cangelosi, experts with Confederate Memorial Hall in New Orleans.
State Museum Director James Sefcik said the museum will seek money to conserve the fragile flag. The cost is expected to be several thousand dollars. The other two Cary flags can be seen at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Va.


Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Robert E. Lee's Letter Dec. 25, 1862

Camp Fredg 25 Decr ’62 

     I will Commence this Holy day dearest Mary by writing to you. My heart is filled with gratitude to Almighty God for his unspeakable mercies with which he has blessed us in this day, for those he has granted us from the beginning of life, & particularly for those for those he has vouchsafed us during the past year. What should have become of us without his crowning help & protection? I have seen his hand in all the events of the war. Oh if our people would only recognize it & cease from their vain self boasting & adulation, how strong would be my belief in final success & happiness to our Country. For in him alone I know is our trust & safety. Cut off from all Communications with you & my children, my greatest pleasure is to write to you & them. Yet I have no time to indulge in it. You must tell them so, & say that I Constantly think of them & love them fervently with all my heart. They must write
Gen. Robert E. Lee
to me without waiting for replies. I shall endeavour to write to Mildred from whom I have not heard for a long time. Tell dear Charlotte I have recd her letter & feel greatly for her. I saw her Fitzhugh this morg, with his young aid, riding at the head of his brigade on his way up the Rappk. I regret so he could not get to see her. He only got her letter I enclosed him last evg. She ought not to have married a young soldier, but an old “exempt” like her Papa who would have loved her as much as he does. F[itzhugh] & R[obert] were very well. But what a cruel thing is war. To separate & separate & destroy families & friends & mar the purest joys & happiness God has granted us in this world. To fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our nieghbours & to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world. I pray that on this day when “peace & good will” are preached to all mankind, that better thoughts will fill the hearts of our enemies & turn them to peace. The Confusion that now exists in their Counsels will thus result in good. Our Army was never in such good health & Condition since I have been attached to it & I believe they share with me my disappt, that the enemy did not renew the combat of the 13th. I was holding back all that day, & husbanding our strength & ammunition for the great struggle for which I thought he was preparing. Had I devined that was to have been his only effort, he would have had more of it. But I am content. We might have gained more but we would have lost more, & perhaps our relative condition would not have been improved. My heart bleeds at the death of every one of our gallant men. Give much love to every one. Kiss Chass & Agnes for me, & believe me with true affection. 


Yours, 
R E Lee

Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Spaight's Battalion, Confederate Defenders of Texas and Louisiana

     One of the military units directly defending Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana in the War Between the States is highlighted in a new book, Swamp Angels: A History of the 11th Battalion (Spaight's) Texas Volunteers by Michael Dan Jones.
     The book covers the wide sweep the battalion's history, which spent all of its time in Southeast Texas and South Louisiana, guarding the coast and fighting in several battles, including both battles at Sabine Pass (Company B only) and the Battle of Calcasieu Pass.
     The volunteers were raised in both East Texas and Southwest Louisiana, including a number of prominent men from both regions.
     The commander was Colonel Ashley Wood Spaight of Liberty Texas and second in command was Major Josephus S. Irvine, who was a veteran of the Texas Revolution and the Battle of San Jacinto.
     Most of the enlisted men were farmers from throughout the region. Company E, commanded Captain George W. O'Bryan, was the specific unit that helped build the fortification at Niblett's Bluff, and lost a number of men there in a measles epidemic.
     Company B was stationed at Sabine Pass throughout the war, manning heavy artillery pieces. Also guarded by the battalion were Houston, Galveston, Beaumont, and Orange in Texas; and Burr's Ferry, Niblett's Bluff, Calcasieu Pass, and Lake Charles in Louisiana.
     The battalion was a mixed arms battalion, meaning it had three infantry companies, two cavalry companies and a heavy artillery company.
     Elements of the battalion took part in the First and Second battles of Sabine Pass, a sea battle off Sabine Pass in the Gulf of Mexico, the Battle of Fordoche Bayou, the Battle of Bayou Bourbeau, the Battle of Calcasieu Pass and a number of skirmishes with the federal blockade ships and landing parties along the coasts of Southeast Texas and Southwest Louisiana.
     The history was complied from letters and diaries of the soldiers, official records of the Union and Confederate armies and contemporary newspaper stories. There are also a number of photographs of soldiers who served in the unit. It also has an annotated roster of over 1,000 men who served in the battalion.
    The book is published by CreateSpace.com of Charleston, S.C. and has 352 pages, photographs, maps, bibliography, and index ($18.00, trade paperback). It is also available at Amazon.com, Books A Million, Boarders and other online booksellers.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

CLASSIC BOOK REVIEW: STILL MORE CONFEDERATE FACES

This ambrotype of two Confederate soldiers is
representative of the types of pictures volunteer
soldiers had made. The volunteer at left is wearing
an unusual Phrygian style cap over his tricornered hat.
(Photo courtesy Grensboro Hisotical Museum)

[Originally run in Lake Charles American Press, May 11, 1992]

Volume features photographs of individual Southern soldiers

By MIKE JONES
"Still More Confederate Faces" by D. A. Serrano; Metropolitan Co., 16-66 Bell Blvd.; Bayside, N.Y. 11360; 223 pages; 465 photographs.
Photography was still new when the War Between the States started in 1861 and volunteer soldiers from across the nation proudly posed for portraits to leave as keepsakes for families. Today, while thousands of these early photographs still exist, Confederate images arc much rarer than Union ones, both because there were fewer photographers in the South and also because there were twice as many Yankee soldiers.
Following in the tradition of three previous "Confederate Faces," albums by different authors, D.A. Serrano has compiled 465 portrait photographs of individual Southern soldiers.
These previous volumes arc all are out of print and have become much sought after collector's items.
In the introduction of the book is a brief history of photography in that period. The three main types of photographs made then were ambrotypes, which are images fixed directly on a glass plate; tintypes, images or japanned iron plates and paper prints in small "cartes de visite" (calling card) size or larger albumen size, both of which were made from a glass plate negative.                                                                                                                                                     The ambrotypes offered the finest detail and clarity, which often exceeds anything modern photography can offer. Some were elaborately hand colored. The author said the goal of the volume to simply to preserve for the historical record the images of individual Southern soldiers. However, the pictures are also excellent first-hand sources for a view of the wide variety of uniforms and weapons used by Confederate soldiers, although some of the guns and knives may be photographer's props. Soldiers from all of the Confederatc states, including Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas and Mississippi are included in the album.
The pictures come from historical repositories from around the nation and from many private collections, some published for the first time. Most are also identified by name and regiment.
Anyone interested in the War for Southern Independence should find this pictorial-history a delight.

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

The Religious Life of Robert E. Lee -- A Book Review

Book analyses Robert E. Lee's walk with God
by Mike Jones
      Although I've read many biographies on the life of the great General Robert E. Lee, they understandably dealt mostly with Lee's military career. When I first saw the "The Religious Life of  Robert E. Lee" by R. David Cox (Eerdsman's Publishing Co. 2017) was coming out, I immediately wanted  to get it.
     Now that I have read it, I must say I was not disappointed. The author was very complete in his analysis of Lee's religious beliefs, but also the major theological and familial influences on his spiritual formation. It also goes into how his faith became stronger and stronger throughout his life. While I don't necessarily agree with all of Cox's opinions and interpretations, I  think he was very fair and balanced in his evaluation.
    Starting out with Lee's family ancestry and the religious world into which he was born, the author goes into quite a  bit of detail about Anglicism and how it evolved in to a more evangelical form in Virginia. Cox notes the great influence Lee's mother (Ann Hill Carter Lee) had on his spiritual formation. She was a devout Protestant Evangelical Episcopalian. Lee formed a life long practice of church attendance, daily prayer and Bible reading no matter where he was.
     This obviously was a powerful influence in shaping his character and the way he conducted himself in all aspects of life. He married into a likewise Protestant   Evangelical Episcopalian family when he married Mary Custis, the step-great-granddaughter of George Washington. While his wife was at first worried that Lee was not religious enough, he steadily increased in the power of his faith until he matched or exceeded her own evangelical fervor.
      Robert and Mary were blessed with seven healthy children, three boys and four girls, that formed into a truly ideal Christian family unit. The Lee family was very strong in its daily prayer life. Lee was also active in the various churches he attended and was a member of during his long and varied  military career.
     During the War for Southern Independence, Lee was supportive of military chaplains of all faiths and encouraged and supported their spiritual guidance of the Confederate soldiers under his command. Lee was also a paragon of virtue and courage in the personal example he always presented to those who served under him, as well as to his whole family.
     After the war, as president of Washington College in Lexington, Va., Lee considered the Christian formation of each student to be the most important part of their education. Besides having the historic chapel at Washington & Lee University built, he encouraged daily student chapel attendance for an ecumenical service, for which he himself set the example. Lee also encouraged the students to attend the church of their choice in the community.
     In spite of all the trials and tribulations that he underwent in his eventful life, he never wavered in his unshakable Christian faith and came down with his last fatal disease shortly after attending a vestry meeting at the Grace Episcopal Church in Lexington.
     The book, published by Eerdman's Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Mich. (www.eerdmans.com), has 336 pages, photographs, endnotes, bibliography, index, photographs. $26.00, trade paperback.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

IN HONOR OF ST. PATRICK'S DAY

A SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF GEN. PATRICK CLEBURNE
[Excerpted from The Irish in America by John Francis Maguire, 1868]


But there is a grave amidst the countless graves that
mark the scene of one of the deadliest conflicts of the war,
on which I would drop a kindly tribute — that is the grave
of Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, one of the noblest of the
soldiers of the Confederacy.

Patrick Ronayne Cleburne was born within a few miles
of the city of Cork. His father — the son of a country
gentleman in Tipperary — was for many years physician of

the dispensary districts of Ovens and Ballincollig; his
mother. Miss Ronayne, was a lady from Queenstown.
Patrick, the youngest of three sons, was partly educated
for the medical profession; but his tastes, from his earliest
youth, tending to a military career, and, owing to his
father's second marriage, which resulted in a second and
numerous family, not being able to purchase a commission
as an officer in the British Army, he in his eighteenth
year enlisted in the 41st regiment as a private soldier.
He remained in the service until he was twenty-one^ when
he was purchased out by his friends. But these three
years of military training in one of the most thoroughly
disciplined armies of Europe was of incalculable advantage
to him in after life. He emigrated to America when the
war broke out; and it found the young Cork man prac-
tising with success as a lawyer in Helena, Arkansas.

I have been favoured with an admirable biographical
sketch of General Cleburne by this attached friend and
distinguished commander. General W. T. Hardee, one of
the most thoroughly accomplished soldiers of either army;
and referring the reader to that sketch, which will be
found in the Appendix, I shall here simply indicate what
manner of man was this Patrick Ronayne Cleburne, who
learned his knowledge of military drill and discipline in
the ranks of the 41st British regiment of infantry. To
begin, then; this heroic Irishman, who was as strong as a
wall of granite to the foe, was as simple as a child, and
as modest as a girl; and that voice that rang like a
trumpet when cannon roared, and balls whistled about his
head, was low and gentle and hesitating when he was
exposed to the most formidable of all batteries to him, a
pair of eyes in the head of any woman of moderate youth
or ordinary attractions. His personnel is thus sketched by
a worthy countryman of his, whom he visited in Mobile, on
the occasion of the marriage of his friend General Hardee,
whose  ‘best man’ he was on that interesting occasion :  In
person he was about five feet nine or ten inches high,
slender in form, with a wiry active look. His forehead
was high and broad, with high cheek bones, cheeks rather
hollow, and face diminishing in width towards the chin,
the upper features being more massive than the lower.
The general expression of his countenance in repose was
serious and thoughtful ; but in conversation he was ani-
mated and impressive, while his whole air and manner
were remarkably unpretending.'

General Cleburne dining one day with the good Irish-
man whose words 1 have quoted, informed him that he
had made up his mind during the war to be a total
abstainer, because he found that in his pistol practice and
in playing chess, of which game he was remarkably fond,
even one glass of wine affected his aim, or interfered with
his calculation. He determined, therefore, while the war
lasted, and he was responsible for the lives of others, and
the results consequent on the manner in which he should
discharge his duties, that he would abstain altogether
from the use of all kinds of liquor.

Cleburne was in favour of arming the negroes as sol-
diers, conferring upon them and their families freedom as
a bounty. He, with several distinguished generals, signed
a petition to President Davis to that effect, and he per-
sonally offered to take command of a division of such
troops, when raised. But the movement failed on account
of the opposition which it met with. In private conversa-
tion he said that the general sentiment of the world was
against the Confederacy on the question of slavery, and
that Southerners could look nowhere for active sympathy
unless they made some such arrangement as he mentioned :
and he unhesitatingly expressed his belief, that the success
of the cause depended upon its adoption. He did not
pronounce a decided opinion against slavery in the abstract,
but he regarded the system in the South as having
glaring defects and evils, especially the utter disregard
of the married rights of the slaves, which, he said, was
enough to deprive the States in witch this evil existed
of the aid of Providence in the war. The opinions held
by General Cleburne were those emphatically expressed
in writing and from the pulpit by the Catholic Bishops of
Richmond and Savannah.

The opinions of a man of Cleburne's stamp, as to the
character of the Irish as soldiers, I give in the words of
the friend who heard them expressed by that great General :
 ‘In reference to the relative merits, as soldiers, of the
‘different kind of men in the service, he said he preferred
‘the Irish, not on the ground of their courage, for of that
‘there was no lack in the Confederate service, but for
other qualities, highly useful in war. After a long day's
‘march they generally had their tents up first; they were
‘more cleanly in their persons ; under the fatigue of hard
‘work, or a heavy march, they showed more endurance,
‘and recovered sooner; they were more cheerful under
' privation; and above all, they were more amenable to
‘discipline. These, he said, were highly useful qualities in
‘war ; and from actual observation he was persuaded the
' Irish soldiers possessed them in a higher degree than any
‘other people that came under his eye.’

Cleburne was one of those Irishmen who never could
understand how it was that his countrymen of the North
could join with the 'Yankee' to oppress and crush the
South; but had he been a lawyer in a Northern or North-
western State, he might have been equally surprised if
anyone had accused him of turning his military knowledge
to the same purpose. His countrymen throughout the
Northern States were proud of his splendid reputation;
while in the South it was not considered second to that of
the very greatest of its commanders. And when he died
— struck by a storm of bullets, as the fore feet of his horse
were planted on the Federal ramparts — a wail of sorrow
and a shudder of despair passed through the land. A
tower of strength had fallen. The dauntless soldier sleeps
in peace in the cemetery whose solemn beauty elicited
the strange remark, as he gazed on it a few days before he
gloriously fell, "It is almost worth dying to rest in so sweet
a spot."

I heard the heroic Irishman thus spoken of by two brave
men — General Buckner and General Hood — who had been
with him in many a memorable fight, and many a bril-
liant victory. Referring to his name, the first-named
general said : —

And particularly did I recall the virtues of the Irish character,
when a few short months ago, I stood, in the twilight hour, over
the grave of one of the noblest sons of Ireland. As I looked upon
the plain board inscribed with his name in pencil lines, and upon the
withered flowers which the fair hands of some of our countrywomen
had strewn upon his grave, I wept silent tears to the glorious memory
of General Patrick Cleburne. He commanded a brigade in my division,
and afterwards succeeded me in the command of troops whom I cannot
more highly praise than to say he was one uf the few who was worthy
to command such men. And conspicuous amongst such gallant men,
and worthy soldiers of such a glorious leader, were Irishmen, who illus-
trated their high military virtues on so many fields, and displayed
on so many occasions their fidelity to the cause they had espoused.

And thus spoke General Hood, who bears in many a
scar and wound eloquent testimonies to his desperate but
unavailing gallantry: —

During the late war it was my fortune to have in my command
organisations composed of your countrymen, and it gives me pleasure
to assert that they were always at their post. And among these brave
men was to be found the gallant Cleburne. His name carries me to
the heights near Franklin. And his last remarks, just before moving
forward, I shall ever remember. He said : 'General, I have my division
in two lines, and at ready. General, I am more hopeful of the success
of our cause than I have ever been since the war commenced.' Within
twenty-five minutes this brave soldier was no more. Within an hour
an army was in mourning over the great loss. Thus ended the career
of this distinguished man — hopeful even at the last hour, but doomed
to disappointment as all other men.


Monday, January 16, 2017

HISTORY AS IT HAPPENED -- List of Confederate Generals as of January 1862

[The Richmond Daily Dispatch, Jan. 16, 1862]


This certificate shows some of the Confederate
Generals listed in the 16 Jan. 1862 article below.
Of course many more were made throughout the war.
(Library of Congress)

List of the General officers in the armies of the Confederate States.
The following interesting statistics of the Confederate Army organization are due to one of the Richmond correspondents of the Courier. In the list of Brigadier- Generals in the Provisional Army, the regular order of appointment is perhaps not always observed, but we believe the list is otherwise correct. The dates of graduation from West Point are taken from Gardner's Dictionary of the United States Army:
General in the regular Army.
  1. 1. Samuel Cooper, Virginia, Adjutant-General.
  2. 2. Albert S. Johnston, Texas, commanding in Kentucky.
  3. 3. Joseph E, Johnston, Virginia, commanding Northern Virginia.
  4. 4. Robert E. Lee, Virginia, commanding South Atlantic coast.
  5. 5. P. G. T. Beauregard, Louisiana, commanding Army of Potomac.
Major-Generals in the Provisional-Army.
  1. 1.*David E. Twiggs, Georgia, resigned.
  2. 2.Leonidas Polk, Louisiana, Commanding at Memphis.
  3. 3.Braxton Bragg, Louisiana, Commanding at Pensacola.
  4. 4.Earl Van Dorn, Mississippi, Army of Potomac.
  5. 5.Gustavus W. Smith, Kentucky, Army of Potomac.
  6. 6.Theopholis H. Holmes, North Carolina, Army of Potomac.
  7. 7.William J. Hardee, Georgia, Missouri.
  8. 8.Benjamin Huger, South Carolina, Commanding at Norfolk.
  9. 9.James Longstreet, Alabama, Army of Potomac.
  10. 10.John B. Magruder, Virginia, Commanding at Yorktown.
  11. 11.Thomas J. Jackson, Virginia, Commanding Northwestern Virginia.
  12. 12.Mansfield Lovell, Virginia, Commanding Coast of Louisiana.
  13. 13.Edmund Kirby Smith, Florida Army of Potomac.
  14. 14.George B. Crittenden, Kentucky, Commanding East Tennessee.
Brigadier-Generals in the Provisional Army.
  1. 1.Milledge L. Bonham, South Carolina, Army of Potomac.
  2. 2.John B. Floyd, Virginia, Commanding Army Kanawha.
  3. 3.Henry A. Wise, Virginia, waiting orders.
  4. 4.Ben McCulloch, Texas, Missouri.
  5. 5.*Henry R Jackson, Georgia, resigned.
  6. 6.*Robert S. Garnett, Virginia, Killed in action.
  7. 7.*William H. T. Walker, Georgia, resigned.
  8. 8.*Barnard E. Bee, South Carolina, Killed in action.
  9. 9.Alexander R. Lywton, Georgia, Commanding Coast of Georgia.
  10. 10.*Gideon J. Pillow, Tennessee, Kentucky.
  11. 11.Samuel R. Anderson, Tennessee, Kentucky.
  12. 12.Daniel S. Donelson, Tennessee, Coast of South Carolina.
  13. 13.David R. JonesSouth Carolina, Army of Potomac.
  14. 14.Jones M. WithersAlabama, Commanding Coast of Alabama.
  15. 15.John C. Pemberton, Virginia, Coast of South Carolina.
  16. 16.Richard S. Ewell, Virginia, Army of Potomac.
  17. 17.John H Winder, Maryland, Richmond.
  18. 18.Jubsl A. Early, Virginia, Army of Potomac.
  19. 19.Thomas B. Flournoy, Arkansas, died in Arkansas.
  20. 20.Samuel Jones, Virginia, Army of Potomac.
  21. 21.Arnold Elzey, Maryland, Army of Potomac.
  22. 22.Daniel H. Hill, North Carolina, Army of Potomac.
  23. 23.Henry H. Sibley, Louisiana, Texas Frontier.
  24. 24.William H. C. Whiting, Georgia, Army of Potomac.
  25. 25.William W. Loring, North Carolina, Western Virginia.
  26. 26.Richard H. Anderson, South Carolina, Pensacola.
  27. 27.Albert Pike, Arkansas, Indian Commissioner.
  28. 28.*Thomas T. Fauntleroy, Virginia, resigned.
  29. 29.Robert Toombs, Georgia, Army of Potomac.
  30. 30.Daniel Ruggles, Virginia, Louisiana.
  31. 31.Charles Clark, Mississippi, Army of Potomac.
  32. 32.Roswell S. Ripley, South Carolina, Coast of South Carolina.
  33. 33.Isaac R. Trimble, Maryland, Army of Potomac.
  34. 34.*John B. Grayson, Kentucky, died in Florida.
  35. 35.Paul O. Hebert, Louisiana, Coast of Texas.
  36. 36.Richard C. Gatlin, North Carolina, Commanding Coast of North Carolina.
  37. 37.Felix K. Zollicoffer, Tennessee, Eastern Kentucky.
  38. 38.Benjamin F. Cheatham, Tennessee, Kentucky.
  39. 39.Joseph R. Anderson, Virginia, Coast North Carolina.
  40. 40.Simon B. Buckner, Kentucky, Kentucky.
  41. 41.Leroy Pope Walker, Alabama, Alabama.
  42. 42.Albert G. Blanchard, Louisiana, Norfolk.
  43. 43.Gabriel J. Rains, North Carolina, Yorktown.
  44. 44.J. E. B. Stuart, Virginia, Army of Potomac.
  45. 45.Lafayette McLaws, Georgia, Yorktown.
  46. 46.Thos. F. Drayton, South Carolina, Coast of South Carolina.
  47. 47.Thomas C. Hindman, Arkansas, Kentucky.
  48. 48.Adley H. Gladden, Louisiana, Pensacola.
  49. 49.John Porter McCown, Tennessee, Kentucky.
  50. 50.Lioyd Tilghman, Kentucky, Kentucky.
  51. 51.Nathan G. Evans, South Carolina, Coast of South Carolina.
  52. 52.Cadmus M. Wilcox, Tennessee, Army of Potomac.
  53. 53.*Philip St. Geo. Cocke, Virginia, died in Virginia.
  54. 54.R. E. Rodes, Alabama, Army of Potomac.
  55. 55.Richard Taylor, Louisiana, Army of Potomac.
  56. 56.Louis T. Wigfall, Texas, Army of Potomac.
  57. 57.James H. Trapier, South Carolina, Coast of Florida.
  58. 58.Samuel G. French, Mississippi, Army of Potomac.
  59. 59.William H. Carroll, Tennessee, East Tennessee.
  60. 60.Hugh W. Mercer, Georgia,--.
  61. 61.Humphrey Marshall, Kentucky, Kentucky.
  62. 62.John C. Breckinridge, Kentucky, Kentucky.
  63. 63.Richard Griffith, Mississippi, Army of Potomac.
  64. 64.Alexander P. Stewart, Kentucky, Kentucky.
  65. 65.William Montgomery Gardner, Georgia, on furlough.
  66. 66.Richard B. Garnett, Virginia, Army of Potomac.
  67. 67.William Mahone, Virginia, Norfolk.
  68. 68.L. O'Brian Branch, North Carolina, Coast of North Carolina.
  69. 69.Maxey Gregg, South Carolina, Coast of South Carolina.
Those having a *affixed are dead, or have resigned since the commencement of the war.
The West Point Generals.
The following Confederate Generals are graduates of West Point — the date of their graduation being prefixed:
  • Class of 1815--Samuel Cooper.
  • Class of 1820--John H. Winder.
  • Class of 1821--Isaac R. Tremble.
  • Class of 1825--Daniel S, Donelson, Benjamin Huger.
  • Class of 1826--Albert S. Johnston, John B. Grayson.
  • Class of 1827--Leonidas Polk, Gabriel J, Rains.
  • Class of 1828--Thomas F, Drayton, Hugh W. Mercer.
  • Class of 1829--Joseph E. Johnston, Robt. E, Lee, Theopholia H. Holmes, Albert G. Blanchard.
  • Class of 1830--John B. Magruder.
  • Class of 1832--George B. Crittenden, P. St. GeorgeCocke, Humphrey Marshall, Richard C Gatlin.
  • Class of 1833--Daniel Ruggles.
  • Class of 1835--Jones M. Withers.
  • Class of 1836--Joseph R. Anderson, Lloyd Tilghman.
  • Class of 1837--Braxton Bragg, Wm. H. T. Walker, John C. Pemberton, Arnold Elzey, Henry H. Sibley, Jubel A. Early.
  • Class of 1838--Wm. J. Hardee, James H, Trapier.
  • Class of 1839--Alex. R. Lawton, John P. McCown.
  • Class of 1840--Richard S. Ewell, Paul O. Habert, Richard B, Garnett.
  • Class of 1841--Robert S. Garnett, Samuel Jones.
  • Class of 1842--Earl Van Dorn, Gustavus W, Smith, Mansfield Lovell, James Long street, Daniel H, Hill, Richard H. Anderson, Lafayette McLaws, Alex. P. Stewart,
  • Class of 1843--Roswell S. Ripley, Samuel G. French.
  • Class of 1844--Simon B, Buckner.
  • Class of 1845--E Kirby Smith, Bernard E. Bee, Wm. B. C. Whiting.
  • Class of 1846--Thomas J. Jackson, Cadmus M. Wilcox, David R. Jones, Wm. M. Gardner.
  • Class of 1848--Nathan G. Evans.
  • Class of 1854--J. E. B. Stuart.
Generals who were not graduates at West Point.
     The following Generals were appointed to the old United States Army, without passing through the West Point Academy; David E, Twiggs, appointed in 1812; Wm. W. Loring, in 1836; Thos, T. Fauntleroy, in 1836.
     The following Generals first saw, service in the Mexican war; M. L. Bonham, Henry R. Jackson, Gideon J, Pillow, Samuel R. Anderson, Chas. Clark, Thos. C. Hindman, John C. Breckinridge, Benj. F. Cheatham, Richard Griffith, Albert Pike, Adley H. Gladden, Maxcy Gregg.
     The following Generals participated in the Texan wars and the wars with Mexico; Ben McCulloch, Louis, T. Wigfall.
     The following Generals saw no military service previous to the present war; John B. Floyd, Henry A. Wise, Robert Toombs, Richard Taylor, Thos. B. Flournoy, L. Pope Walker, F. K. Zollicoffer, William Mahone, L. O'B Branch, William H. Carroll, R. E. Rodes. Some, however, received military educations at State institutions.
      Virginia has 16 Generals in the Confederate armies, South Carolina 9, Louisiana 8, Georgia 7, Tennessee 8, North Carolina 6, Kentucky 7, Maryland 4, Alabama 4, Mississippi 4, Texas 3, Arkansas 2, Florida 1, Missouri none.
     The following were born at the North, though previous to the present war they were citizens of Southern States: General Cooper, born in New York; Ripley, in Ohio, Pemberton, in Pennsylvania; Whiting, in Massachusetts; Pike, in Massachusetts; Ruggles, in Massachusetts; Blanchard, in Massachusetts; French, in New Jersey.
     The following Confederate Generals are South Carolinians, viz: Huger, Bonham, Bee, (dead,) D. R. Jones, Ripley, R. H. Anderson, Drayton, Evans, Trapier, and Gregg, and the following are natives of South Carolina, though citizens of other States, viz: Longstreet, of Alabama; Lawton, of Georgia; Donelson, of Tennessee; Withers, of Alabama; Hill, of North Carolina; Gladden, of Louisiana; and Wigfall, of Texas.

Tuesday, January 3, 2017

HISTORY AS IT HAPPENED -- Confederate piety

Stonewall Jackson at Camp Prayer Meeting
(Library of Congress)

[The Richmond Daily Dispatch Jan. 3, 1863]
The piety of the Confederates.
A Baltimore correspondent, writing to the London Index, says:
But before I close I must tell you of the beautiful humility and heroic piety which seemed to pervade the hearts of all the Confederates I saw. I have never seen a strong religious sentiment so generally prevalent as I find it among them. Of twenty men with whom I conversed one afternoon, seventeen were professors of religion, and the eighteenth said he was a man of prayer, and looked to God as his protector. A plain, unlettered Georgia boy said: "In all my intercourse with these Yankees, I have never heard them allude once to what God can do. They talk about what twenty millions of men can do, and what hundreds of millions of money can do, and what their powerful navy can do; but they leave God out of the calculation altogether; but, sir, the Lord is our trust, and He will be our defence." The Rev.--was with me during a part of my tour. He was asked on one occasion to lead in prayer, in a barn filled with wounded, near Sharpsburg. After a season of most solemn and affecting devotion, a young man called the reverend gentleman to his side, and said: "I am dying, sir; but I am not afraid to die, for I hope to go to heaven. Nor am I sorry that I have been slain in battle, for I would willingly sacrifice a dozen lives if I had them for such a cause as we are fighting for."


Time and again I heard the 124th Psalm quoted: "If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us; then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us. Blessed be the Lord, who bath not given us as a prey to their teeth. Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth."

They are not given to vaunting themselves; there is nothing as all of the spirit of bravado about them; and so far from manifesting a ferocious disposition, they very frankly confess they are tired of the war; but at the same time they are animated by a determined resolution that, God helping them, they will never be subjugated. When one of them was asked if he did not fear that the prodigious armies now organizing against them would utterly overwhelm them, he replied that, "with God above, and General Lee at their head, they feared nothing that man could do." History, sir, furnishes no legends more touching and glorious than are exhibited in the sacrifices and endurance of the Southern people. Such a people merit the admiration of the world, and deserve to achieve their independence.

Pardon me for saying so much, but incident after incident arose in my mind, and so clamored for relation that I could not sooner stop.