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Post by deadwoodgultch on Mar 31, 2016 15:37:27 GMT
Robert E. Lee's nephew, Fitz Lee, West Point 1856(45/49) Severely wounded fighting Indians prior to the ACW. Resigned USA 21 May 1861 as a 1st Lt rose to the rank of General by the end of the ACW. Later retired from the US Army as a BG in 1901. So he was a in BG in the CSA and the USA. He was also Maj. General USV. Interesting! He was also nearly thrown out of WP for his behavior, while his uncle was Superintendent. There is much more to this individual than many would think.
Regards, Tom
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Post by quincannon on Mar 31, 2016 16:36:24 GMT
A remarkable man, and the only negative comment I ever heard said about him was that he was late at Veidersville, and that can, in my view be laid at the doorstep of Stuart for not being specific in his orders issued to Lee. The words - I want you here NOW or it will be your ass - were not often used among the gentle folk.
Tom he was also the Governor of the Old Dominion, Ambassador to Havana up to the Maine episode, and one of only four ex-Confederate general officers commissioned in the USA for the Span Am at Flag Rank, the others being Butler, Wheeler, and Rosser, all of whom had made their mark in the post ACW period. Wheeler was a congressman. Can't recall what the other two were about at that time.
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Post by deadwoodgultch on Mar 31, 2016 19:25:19 GMT
The folks you mention were exceptional Americans, the ACW not withstanding.
Butler was a Senator, lawyer and got into mining in a big way, corporate mining, copper etc.
Rosser, as I am sure you know worked for the railroads, chief engineer. Farmed near Charlottesville, VA prior to his service in the Span. AM War
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Post by deadwoodgultch on Mar 31, 2016 19:55:23 GMT
Dave, Here is one for you. Alexander Peter Stewart, West Point 1842(12/56) taught mathematics at West Point, after garrison duty. Resigned in 1845 to teach the same subject at Cumberland Univ. and the University of Nashville. Commissioned in the CSA, became a Lt General. Nick named "Old Straight." I am sure you can tell us more about his war record and his post war educational position. Lay it on us dude. Regards, Tom
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dave
Brigadier General
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Post by dave on Mar 31, 2016 21:41:20 GMT
Tom Alexander P Stewart served with the Army of Mississippi, later to be The Army of Tennessee, from Shiloh to the surrender in North Carolina on April, 26 1865. General Stewart, who served as Corps commander in the Army of Tennessee upon the death of Leonidas Polk outside Atlanta in 1864, was well liked by his troops and was probably the best Corps commander under both Hood and Johnston.
After the War he assumed a position on the faculty of Cumberland University until 1870 when he moved to St.Louis for business affairs. In 1874 he was appointed as the fifth Chancellor of the University of Mississippi where had as faculty members former Confederate General Claudius Sears and LQC Lamar a former Ambassador to Russia for the CSA and later a Supreme Court Justice. I would loved to have had the opportunity to attend faculty meetings with these gentlemen. Stewart was instrumental in leading the effort to admit women to Ole Miss in 1882 and hired the first female faculty member in 1885. He resigned in 1886 displeased with the behavior of students, imagine that a former general dealing with frat boys!
In 1890 he was appointed as a commissioner of the National Park on the field of Chickamauga, which was the first of the initial four National Military Parks which were established as memorials to the valor of American's of both sides. He moved to Biloxi, MS after his departure for the University of Mississippi, where former President Jefferson Davis lived and had the Mississippi Confederate Old Soldiers Home. I can only imagine they would have met and conversed prior to Davis's death in 1889. Stewart passed away in Biloxi in 1908. Stewart was an unreconstructed Rebel to the end as noted by one of his few public statements regarding the War:
"...I hold that the actions of the Southern people was legally, constitutionally and morally right. The Southern people were devoted to the Constitution and the laws of this country, and never violated either..." Regards Dave
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Post by deadwoodgultch on Mar 31, 2016 22:19:42 GMT
Dave, He was a class act, quality officer, and a progressive with regard to women, in those days. His views of constitutionality was not incorrect. The reason for his actions and that of many others is, or was what was in question. I have as little knowledge of the western theater as you do of the eastern, but have known of this gentleman for years.
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Post by quincannon on Mar 31, 2016 22:26:36 GMT
It is well to observe and remember that none of these guys would have served the Confederacy if they did not think their cause was right. That is why, I at least, can admire them, while despising the cause they served, and I consider myself a Virginian, despite my current residence.
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dave
Brigadier General
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Post by dave on Apr 1, 2016 0:35:08 GMT
Gentlemen During the late unpleasantness many men, obedient to their nature and sense of honor, faced the most difficult decision of their lives. The majority, if not all, struggled with the decision of going with their state and people against the nation they had sworn to defend. During the 1860's most soldiers were Christians and held high moral standards of behavior and expected others to adhere to those standards.
Families were torn asunder and many never reconciled after the War. Fredrick Benteen and George Thomas are just two examples of the hundreds of families which faced these trying times. God alone knows if what they did is right or wrong but they chose their course of actions and bore the repercussions with unbowed heads.
Colonel John S Mosby commander of Mosby's Rangers in a letter to a fellow Virginian expressed the personal torment he felt regarding the cause he had fought for: "Now while I think as badly of slavery as Horace Greeley did I am not ashamed that my family were slaveholders. It was our inheritance – Neither am I ashamed that my ancestors were pirates & cattle thieves. People must be judged by the standard of their own age. If it was right to own slaves as property it was right to fight for it. The South went to war on account of Slavery. South Carolina went to war – as she said in her Secession proclamation – because slavery wd. not be secure under Lincoln. South Carolina ought to know what was the cause for her seceding. . . . I am not ashamed of having fought on the side of slavery – a soldier fights for his country – right or wrong – he is not responsible for the political merits of the cause he fights in. The South was my country."
Regards Dave
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Post by deadwoodgultch on Apr 1, 2016 1:09:48 GMT
For what it is worth, Mosby supported Grant for President, they became friends. Grant once remarked that Mosby was an honest and honorable man, I don't have the exact quote. He was very successful post war.
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Post by quincannon on Apr 1, 2016 1:48:56 GMT
So did Longstreet. They were lifetime friends.
When I lived in Chantilly, it was the heart of Mosby's Confederacy. U S Route 50 in Virginia is the Lee-Jackson memorial highway, but the portion from Annandale to Middleburg is also known as the John Singleton Mosby Highway, due in large part to the efforts of Virgil Carrington "Pat" Jones, Mosby's biographer, whom I knew slightly in his last years and spent several hours with in his twin cabins (now gone) in Centreville. We talked long about Mosby, and he said and I quote, "No one ever said a bad word about the man that I could find, friend or enemy, except Custer, who was an idiot. Even those riled and embarrassed by Mosby exploits respected the man and his abilities"
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Post by BrevetorCoffin on Apr 1, 2016 4:26:47 GMT
It is well to observe and remember that none of these guys would have served the Confederacy if they did not think their cause was right. That is why, I at least, can admire them, while despising the cause they served, and I consider myself a Virginian, despite my current residence. Now I have to ask where in Virginia? I lived in Annandale 1963-66 when Dad was in ONR then 1966-68 at the US Navy Surface Weapons Laboratory in Dahlgren. Pop was in charge of developing a mile-long Conical Shock Tube ostensibly to absorb much of the power of a nuclear blast. Having moved to VA from San Diego I nevertheless enjoyed my 5 year stay.
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Post by quincannon on Apr 1, 2016 14:19:14 GMT
Chantilly-Fairfax-Vienna/Oakton
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Post by BrevetorCoffin on Apr 2, 2016 1:04:42 GMT
Chantilly-Fairfax-Vienna/Oakton Small world, beautiful state.
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Post by quincannon on Apr 2, 2016 1:15:37 GMT
The Vienna Inn is the home of the best Chili Dog in the civilized world.
I was lucky enough to live in Chantilly when you could still (with some difficulty) follow the Battle of Chantilly, 1 September 62, the only ACW battle fought within Fairfax County. If you know where Fair Oaks Shopping Center is, US Route 50 and West Ox Road, you know what the place is like now. Fair Oaks was a golf course when I moved there. The unfinished railroad that plays such a prominent part in 2nd Manassas extended through that area, and you could still see the cuts and fills. All gone now, save a small park, maybe the size of a football field, nicely done. At least what happened there will not completely disappear from memory. Living there and walking the place taking notes led me to later use the material gathered in my paper which was a requirement at Command and General Staff College.
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Post by BrevetorCoffin on Apr 2, 2016 1:20:13 GMT
The Vienna Inn is the home of the best Chili Dog in the civilized world. I was lucky enough to live in Chantilly when you could still (with some difficulty) follow the Battle of Chantilly, 1 September 62, the only ACW battle fought within Fairfax County. If you know where Fair Oaks Shopping Center is, US Route 50 and West Ox Road, you know what the place is like now. Fair Oaks was a golf course when I moved there. The unfinished railroad that plays such a prominent part in 2nd Manassas extended through that area, and you could still see the cuts and fills. All gone now, save a small park, maybe the size of a football field, nicely done. At least what happened there will not completely disappear from memory. Living there and walking the place taking notes led me to later use the material gathered in my paper which was a requirement at Command and General Staff College. I was very young, 7-10 years old but I recall Dad made a point if taking us to historical sites on the weekends. Do not recall Chantilly but Manassas, Fredericksburg, Appomattox, etc. were memorable. We livrd across Annandale Road from Walnut Hill mansion which is now townhomes.
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