Individual Notes
Note for: Martha J. Hathaway, DEC 1860 - AFT 1930
Index
Individual Note: In the 1910 census for West Virginia, Calhoun County, Center Township, Martha was living with son Holly. She indicated she had had 6 children, only 2 living.
Individual Notes
Note for: Stephen Hinsdale Weed, 17 NOV 1831 - 2 JUL 1863
Index
Individual Note: Stephen Hinsdale Weed was a general in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Pre-War Profession Graduated West Point 1854, frontier duty, Seminole War, served in Kansas, Utah expedition.
War Service May 1861 Capt. in 5th Artillery, Peninsula campaign, Second Bull Run as chief of artillery, Antietam, commanded V Corps artillery at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, June 1863 appointed Brig. Gen. of Volunteers, commanded 3rd Bde/2nd Divn/V Corps at Gettysburg (mw).
Notes Died in the defense of Little Round Top.
Individual Notes
Note for: Elizabeth Scudder, 12 MAY 1622 - 1700
Index
Individual Note: Samuel and Elizabeth’s descendants include two presidents--Grant and FDR; Benedict Arnold and the wives of two other noted Revolutionary figures --"signer" Samuel Huntington and General Israel Putnam; various modern political figures --Thomas Edmund Dewey, the Dulleses, the last two Adlai Ewing Stevensons (via Bordens), and the wife of Charles Joseph Bonaparte, "Teddy" Roosevelt’s cabinet minister and Napoleon’s great-nephew; and various "tycoon" families -- the Scribners, publishers, of New York, the Marshall Fields and the chewing-gum Wrigleys of Chicago, the King-Klebergs of the King Ranch in Texas, Charles William Post of Post Toasties, and the wives of Levi Z. Leiter of Chicago and Leland Stanford of California. Boston "Brahmins" among Samuel’s and Elizabeth’s descendants include the two Oliver Wendell Holmeses and John Lothrop Motley, whose daughter married British Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir William G.V. Harcourt. Other British connections include the 1st Marquess Curzon of Kedleston, Foreign Secretary and Indian Viceroy, son-in-law of Leiter and father-in-law of Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley: European descendants include the wife of Czeckoslovakian President Thomas Jan (later Garrigue) Masaryk and mother of Jan Garrigue Masaryk, Czech Foreign Minister (Charlotte Garrigue, whose mother was a New England Whiting).
Hollywood figures among Lathrop/Scudder descendants include Dina Merrill, Anthony Perkins, Tuesday Weld and a wife of director Preston Sturges. Mormon descendants include Mary Anne Van Cott, one of the 16 wives of Brigham Young by whom he left children, 4th president Wilford Woodruff, and leaders Orson and Parley Parker Pratt, plus Parley’s great-grandson, political figure George Romney. Later intellectual figures of Lathrop/Scudder descent include college presidents Daniel Coit Gilman of Johns Hopkins, Frederick A.P. Barnard of Columbia and Charles Seymour of Yale, landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead of Central Park, poet Hart Crane, critic William Lyon Phelps, composer Charles Ives, novelist Louis Auchincloss, Soviet expert George Frost Kennan, and the wives of architect Richard Morris Hunt, composer Edward Alexander MacDowell, and novelist Robert Penn Warren, and the husband of anthropologist Ruth Benedict. Lastly among these Lathrop/Scudder descendants, I wish to mention Serena Alleyne Stanhope Armstrong-Jones, Viscountess Linley, Princess Margaret’s daughter-in-law and a "minor royal", whose matrilineal great-grandmother was a Sumner of Boston. Presidents, some Revolutionary and later political figures, tycoons (in New York City and the midwest especially), some Boston Brahmin intellectuals, several British or European figures (including some prime ministers, presidents, or "royals") and Hollywood and Mormon figures from the West are all expected descendants of Connecticut or Connecticut Valley pioneers.
Jane Fiske discovered from Strood, Kent parish registers, the will of Reverend Henry Scudder, a marriage record of John Scudder and Elizabeth Stoughton, and other sources, some already published in TAG or in publications of the Scudder Family Association, that Elizabeth Scudder, wife of Samuel Lathrop, was the daughter of the above John Scudder and Elizabeth Stoughton, a sister of Thomas and Israel Stoughton of Dorchester, Mass. John Scudder was a brother of Thomas Scudder of Salem and an uncle of Thomas Scudder of L.I.
Source: Genealogical Thoughts by Gary Boyd Roberts, NEHGS Senior Research Scholar, author and reference librarian
Descendants of Elizabeth Scudder include Ulysses S. Grant, Benedict Arnold, Marjorie Merriwether Post, her daughter Dina
Merrill (the actress), Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Thomas E. Dewey, John Foster Dulles and Frederick Law Olmsted, codesigner of New York's Central Park.
SOURCE: Scudder Association
Individual Notes
Note for: Samuel Lothrop, ABT 1623 - 1700
Index
Individual Note: "Samuel Lathrop was a builder of Boston, and a farmer of Barnstable, finally settling in now New London, Connecticut, where he became one of the judges of the local court organized in 1649. In 1668 he moved to Norwich, Connecticut, where he was chosen constable. He married (first), November 28, 1644, in Barnstable, Elizabeth Scudder. they were the parents of nine children, their eldest, a son John, baptized December 7, 1645, their youngest a daughter, Anne, born August 7, 1667. Samuel Lathrop married (second), in 1690, Abigail Doane, born January 29, 1632, daughter of Deacon John Doane, of the Plymouth Colony. She survived her husband thirty-four years, living to the great age of one hundred and two."
Excerpt from the biography of Ernest Avery Lathrop, "A Modern History of New London County, Connecticut," published 1922
Individual Notes
Note for: Hiram Ulysses Grant, 27 APR 1822 - 23 JUL 1885
Index
Individual Note:
"Grant was an outstanding military figure and the savior of the Union during the Civil War, as well as the 18th President of the United States from 1869-77. He was an author of unusual ability and his Memoirs are widely regarded as one of the great books written in the English language. He was also a complex individual with uncommon virtues." From: Ulysses S. Grant Homepage (internet site)
Individual Notes
Note for: John Lothrop, -
Index
Individual Note: Excerpt from the biography of Ernest Avery Lathrop, "A Modern History of New London County, Connecticut," published 1922
.
"Samuel Lathrop, who was brought from England by his father, Rev. John Lathrop, in 1734. Rev. John Lathrop came into open conflict with the Archbishop of London, where he was pastor of an Independent church, and with forty-three members of his church was arrested, April 29, 1632, and thrown into prison. While he was in prison, his wife died and finally he was released on the condition that he would leave England. Accordingly he sailed with his children, and in 1634 arrived in New England. He founded a church in Scituate, Massachusetts, and with many of his congregation moved to Barnstable."
Individual Notes
Note for: Sherman Barr, DEC 1866 - 19 DEC 1937
Index
Individual Note: Indexed incorrectly in the 1910 census as "Samuel S."
1910 West Virginia, Calhoun, Center
Barr, Samuel S., 43, WV WV WV, farmer general farm
Anna, 43, married 17 years
Earnest, 15 WV
Anny, 13 WV
Robert, 9 WV
William, 8 WV
Luticia, 5 WV
Eva G., 2 WV
Individual Notes
Note for: Robert Barr, 1900 -
Index
Individual Note: In 1930, Robert was living in Akron, Summit, Ohio. He and Vala had been married 4 years. No children listed. His occupation is given as machine oiler, rubber company.
Individual Notes
Note for: Roswell Sabine Ripley, 14 MAR 1823 - 29 MAR 1887
Index
Individual Note: Roswell Ripley was a general in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
Pre-War Profession West Point 1843, Mexican War, Seminole war, resigned US army 1853, Maj. in South Carolina militia.
War Service 1861 Lt. Col., commanded artillery in Charleston Harbor during Fort Sumter bombardment, August 1861 Brig. Gen., commanded the Dept. of South Carolina, Peninsula campaign, commanded Ripley’s Bde/D H Hill's Divn in Seven Days, Sharpsburg (w), recalled to South Carolina, commanded 1st Artillery Dist., joined Johnston in North Carolina, Bentonville.
Post War Career Businessman in US and abroad.
Gen. Roswell Riley's Report on the Ironclad Attack
Part of Civil War @@ Charleston Website
Brig. Gen. Roswel S. Ripley, Commander of the Charleston defenses, compiled and transmitted this report on the ironclad attack against Ft. Sumter, April 7, 1863 and its aftermath.
HEADQUARTERS FIRST MILITARY DISTRICT,
DEPT. OF SOUTH CAROLINA, GEORGIA, AND FLORIDA,
Charleston, April 13, 1863.
GENERAL: Upon the 1st instant the increase of the enemy's force in the Stono (River) and information from North Edisto (River) gave warning that the long threatened combined movement upon Charleston was about to take place. Brig. Gen. S. R. Gist, commanding first sub-division of this district, James Island, and Saint Andrew's, took prompt measures for the observation and repulse of any attack in that direction. Col. R. F. Graham, commanding third sub-division, occupied the shore of Morris Island, on Light. House Inlet, to control the passage from Folly Island, and a strict watch has been kept up to the present time on the land movements of the enemy.
On the 5th t he iron-clad fleet of the Abolitionists, consisting of seven monitors and one double.-turreted vessel, hove in sight from Fort Sumter and came to anchor outside, in the vicinity of the Ironsides frigate, then a part of the blockading squadron. The 6th was apparently spent by the enemy in preparation and by our artillerists in verifying the condition of their material.
On the morning of the 7th the enemy was inside the bar with all his ironclad, including the frigate, but from his proximity to the shoals and the haze of the atmosphere his position could not be determined.
The various works of preparation were progressed with both on the exterior and interior lines of defense until about 2 o'clock p.m., when the enemy steamed directly up the channel, the Weehawken, with a false prow for removing torpedoes attached, leading, followed by three monitors, the Ironsides (flag-ship), three other monitors; the Keokuk, double-turret, bringing up the rear.
At each fort and battery officers and men made preparation for immediate action, while the enemy came slowly and steadily on. At 3 o'clock Fort Moultrie opened fire. At five minutes past 3 the leading vessel, having arrived at 1,400 yards of Fort Sumter, opened upon it with two guns. The eastern battery of Fort Sumter replied. Batteries Bee, Beauregard, Wagner, and Cummings Point opened about this time and the action became general, the four leading monitors closing up on the Weehawken, and taking position at an average distance from the forts and batteries of about 1,500 yards.
In accordance with instructions, the fire from the different points was concentrated upon the leading vessels, and the effect was soon apparent from the withdrawal of the leading monitor from action, her false prow having been detached and she otherwise apparently injured. The remaining monitors in advance of the flag-ship held their position, directing their fire principally at Fort Sumter, but giving occasional shots at Fort Mountrie (of which the flag-staff was shot away), Batteries Beauregard and Bee.
The Ironsides meantime opened fire, and drew the attention of Forts Moultrie and Sumter and the Cummings Point Battery. A few heavy and concentrated discharges caused her to withdraw out of range, where she was soon followed by two other monitors.
At five minutes past 4 the Keokuk left here consorts and came to the front, approaching to within 900 yards of Fort Sumter, 1,200 from Battery Bee, and 1,000 of Fort Mountrie. Her advance was characterized by more boldness than had hitherto been shown by any of the enemy's fleet, but receiving full attention from the powerful batteries opposed to her the effect was soon apparent. The 10-inch shot and 7-inch rifle bolts crashed through her armor; her hull and turrets were riddled and stove in, her boats were shot away, and in less than forty minutes she retired with such speed as her disabled condition would permit.
The remaining monitors kept their positions for a time, but soon one by one dropped down the channel and came to anchor out of range, after an action of two hours and twenty-five minutes, at ranges varying from 900 to 1,500 yards.
The full effect of our batteries upon the enemy could not be precisely ascertained, and as our strength had not been entirely put forth it was believed that the action would soon be renewed. The monitor which had led into the action, however, proceeded south inside of the bar on the same evening.
Before the commencement of the affair I was proceeding in a boat to Battery Bee, and watched the progress of the cannonade from that point. The guns were worked with as much precision as the range would admit. There were no damages or casualties. Visiting Fort Moultrie, the damaged flag-staff was being replaced and everything prepared for the renewal of the fire should the enemy approach again. One man had been mortally wounded by the falling of the staff. Crossing the channel to Fort Sumter, the effect of impact of the heavy shot sent by the enemy against the fort which they are so anxious to repossess, greater in caliber and supposed distinctive force than any hitherto used in war, was found to have been much less than had been anticipated. Five men had been injured by splinters from the traverse, one 8-inch columbiad had exploded, one 10-inch carriage had its rear transom shot away, and one rifled 42-pounder had been temporarily disabled from the effect of recoil on defective carriages.
The garrison was immediately set to work to repair damages, and the strength of the enemy's projectiles having been ascertained, to guard such points as might be exposed to their effect should the attack be renewed.
Cummings Point Battery and Battery Wagner were uninjured, except from the accidental explosion of an ammunition chest in Battery Wagner.
During the night of the 7th stores were replenished, threatened points upon land re-enforced, working parties from the Forty-sixth Georgia Regiment brought to Fort Sumter, and the renewal of the struggle in the morning awaited with confidence.
When day dawned on the morning of the 8th the enemy's fleet was discovered in the same position as noticed on the previous evening. About 9 o'clock the Keokuk, which had been evidently the most damaged in the action, went down about 3½ miles from Fort Sumter and three-fourths of a mile from Morris Island. The remainder of the fleet were repairing damages. Preparations for repulsing a renewed attack were progressed with in accordance with the instructions of the commanding general (Bueregard), who visited Fort Sumter on that day. A detachment of seamen under Flag-Officer W. F. Lynch arrived from Wilmington, and on the 9th temporarily relieved the artillerists in charge of the Cummings Point Battery. The operations of the enemy's fleet consisted only in supply and repair.
Toward evening of the 9th a raft, apparently for removing torpedoes or obstructions, was towed inside of the bar. Nothing occurred of importance during the 10th.
During the night of the 10th Lieutenant-Colonel Dargan, of Colonel Graham's command, crossed Light-House Inlet (going on to the North end of Folly Island, the old Coast Guard Loran Station), drove back the enemy's pickets with loss, and returned with 1 prisoner.
On the 11th there were indications that the attacking fleet was about to withdraw; and on the 12th, at high water, the Ironsides crossed the bar and took up her position with the blockading fleet, and the monitors steamed and were towed to the southward, leaving only the sunken Keokuk as a monument of their attack and discomfiture.
In this the first trial of the Abolition iron fleet against brick fortifications and their first attempt to enter the harbor of Charleston, in which they were beaten before their adversaries thought the action had well commenced, they were opposed by seventy-six pieces in all, including mortars. Thirty-seven of these, exclusive of mortars, were above the caliber of 32-pounders. The expenditure of shot against the fleet was 2,229 projectiles, of which over 1,600 were over the caliber of 32-pounders.
The guns which the enemy brought to bear were, if their own account is to be believed, 30 in number, including 8-inch rifled and 11 and 15 inch guns, which would make their weight of metal at one discharge nearly, if not quite, equal to that thrown by the batteries.
During the action Brigadier General Trapier, commanding second sub-division of this district, was present at Fort Moultrie; Brigadier-General Gist, commanding first sub-division, at Fort Johnson; Col. R. F. Graham, commanding third sub-division, on Morris Island, and Col. L. M. Keitt, commanding Sullivan's Island, at Battery Bee, attending to these duties and awaiting the development of the attack. The action, however, was purely of artillery; forts and batteries against the iron-clad vessels of the enemy; other means of defense, obstructions and torpedoes, not having come into play.
Fort Sumter was the principal object of the enemy's attack, and to that garrison, under its gallant commander, Col. Alfred Rhett, ably seconded by Lieut. Col. J. A. Yates and Maj. Ormsby Blanding, and all the officers and men, special credit is due for sustaining the shock and with their powerful armament contributing principally to the repulse.
The garrison of Fort Moultrie, under Col. William Butler, seconded by Major Baker and the other officers and soldiers, upheld the historic reputation of that fort and contributed their full share to the result. The powerful batteries of Battery Bee were commanded by Lieut. Col. J.C. Simkins, and were served with great effect.
Battery Wagner, under Maj. C.K. Huger; Cummings Point Battery, under Lieutenant Lesesne, and Battery Beauregard, under Captain Sitgreaves, all did their part according to their armament. Indeed, from the reports of the commanders, it is hard to make any distinction where all did their duty with devotion and zeal. Those cases which have been ascertained will be found in the reports of the subordinate commanders. The steady preparation for receiving a re newed attack by the officers and the good conduct and discipline of the troops, especially in the garrison of Fort Sumter, where the labor was necessarily great, have been quite as creditable as their conduct under fire.
While service in immediate action is that which is most conspicuous, after such a result as has been accomplished, the greatest credit is due to that long, patient, and laborious preparation by which our works and material, never originally intended to withstand such an attack as has been encountered, have been so resecured as to enable our gallant and well-instructed officers and men to obtain their end with comparatively small loss. In that preparation the late Lieut. Col. Thomas M. Wagner contributed much on both sides of the channel, and Colonel Rhett, Lieutenant-Colonel Yates, Major Blanding, and other officers of Fort Sumter have been more or less engaged since the fort fell into our hands two years since.
Colonel Butler, Lieutenant-Colonel Simkins, and other officers of the First South Carolina infantry have been for more than a year engaged at the works on Sullivan's Island. Besides these, various officers of engineers and other branches of the department staff, known to the commanding general, have been at different times principal contributors in the work, and, although in the limits of this report it is impossible to mention all to whom credit is due, it is well that works like these, without which in such emergencies as the present personal gallantry avails naught, should be appreciated.
During the seven days while the presence of the fleet threatened action Capt. William F. Nance, principal assistant adjutant-general on the district staff, performed his difficult duties in the administration of a command of 20,000 men in a prompt, judicious, and efficient manner. He was assisted by Lieuts. H. H. Rogers and W. H. Wagner, aides-de-camp.
Capt. F. B. DuBarry, district ordnance officer, was especially active and energetic in the supply of ammunition and material for the batteries. He was assisted by Lieut. C. C. Pinckney. Capt. B. H. Read, assistant adjutant-general; Col. Edward Manigault, and Lieut. Col. St. Clair Dearing, volunteers upon the staff, were present during the action at Fort Sumter.
Capt. E. M. Seabrook,volunteer aide-de-camp, and Lieutenant Sehnierle, enrolling officer and acting aide-de-camp, were generally with me during the active period, and all were energetic and prompt in the discharge of the duties required of them.
Capt. John S. Ryan acted on my immediate staff.
To Maj. Motte A. Pringle and Norman W. Smith, post and district quartermasters, and Captain McClenahan, acting commissary of subsistence many thanks should be rendered. The duties of the quartermaster's department were excessively laborious on account of the limited means of transportation, and it is a matter of congratulation that with such means they were so welI performed.
The reports of engineer officers will inform the commanding general of the condition of the various works, as well as of the acts of officers in that branch of the service.
I have the honor to transmit herewith a sketch of the position of the enemy's fleet at 4.15 p.m. on the 7th; a return of the guns engaged ; a return of ammunition expended; a numerical return of casualties, and the reports of different commanders. To the last I beg respectfully to refer for such information as is not included in this report. (*)
I have also to transmit herewith two Abolition ensigns obtained from the Keokuk, as she lies off Morris Island Beach, by Lieutenant Glassell, C. S. Navy, one of which is evidently the ensign under which she fought and was worsted.
None of the iron-clads flew large flags, the object having doubtless been to avoid presenting a mark to our artillery.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
R. S. RIPLEY,
Brigadier-General, Commanding.
Individual Notes
Note for: Ivers S. Calkins, 25 MAY 1836 -
Index
Individual Note: Ivers Calkins was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor during the Civil War.
Rank and organization: First Sergeant, Company M., 2d New York Cavalry. Place and date: At Sailors Creek, Va., 6 April 1865. Entered service at: Willsborough, N.Y. Birth: Essex County, N.Y. Date of issue: 3 May 1865. Citation: Capture of flag of 18th Virginia Infantry (C.S.A.).
Individual Notes
Note for: John Sedgwick, 13 SEP 1813 - 9 MAY 1864
Index
Individual Note: Major General John Sedgwick was a prominant commander in the Union Army during the Civil War.
Pre-War Profession Teacher, graduated West Point 1837, Mexican war, cavalry duty, frontier duty.
War Service 1861 Col. of 1st US Cavalry, August 1861 appointed Brig. Gen. of Volunteers, defences of Washington, commanded 2nd Divn/II Corps in Peninsula campaign, Glendale (w), July 1862 promoted Maj. Gen. of Volunteers, Antietam (w), commanded II Corps, commanded IX Corps, commanded VI Corps at Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Rappahannock Bridge, Mine Run, Wilderness, Spotsylvania (k).
Notes A fine general, much loved by his men. His last words are widely misreported.
Further reading
Winslow, Richard Elliott General John Sedgwick, the story of a Union corps commander Novato CA, Presidio Press, 1982
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Affectionately called "Uncle John" Sedgwick by his troops, he became the third and final Corps commander in the Army of the Potomac to be killed in action. The Connecticut-born West Pointer (1837) had an unusual active prewar career. Originally posted to the artillery, he fought in the Semiole War, was involved in the Trail of Tears episode, and earned two brevets in the Mexican War. Upon the expansion of the regular establishment in 1855 he transfered to the mounted arm. In this branch he served in "Bleeding Kansas," on the Mormon Expedition and in further Indian fighting. During the secession crisis he was twice in a matter of weeks promoted to replace Robert E Lee, once when that officer was himself promoted and once when Lee resigned.
Sedwick's Civil War assignments included: Major, First Cavalry (since March 3, 1855); Lieutenant Colnel, 2nd Cavalry (March 126, 1861); Colonel, 1st Cavalry (Spril 25, 1861); Colonel, 4th Cavalry (change of designation August 3, 1861); Brigadier General, USV (August 31, 1861); Commanding 2nd Brigade, Heintzelman's Division, Army of the Potomac (October 3, 1861-February 9, 1862); Commanding Stone's Division, Army of the Poptmac (February 9-March 13, 1862); Commanding 2nd Division, 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac (March 13-September 17, 1862); Major General, USV (July 4, 1862); Commanding 2nd Corps, Army of the Potomac (January 16-February 5, 1863); and Commanding 6th Corps, Army of the Potomac (December 26, 1862-January 26, 1863); Commanding 9th Corps, Army of the Potomac (January 16-February 5, 1862); amd Commanding 6th Corps, Army of the Potomac (February 4, 1863-April 6, 1864 and April 13-May 9, 1865).
Initally in charge of a brigade in the fall of 1861 Sedgwick took over a division when General Charles P. Stone was placed under arrest. This he led to the Peninsula whre he fought at Yorktown and Seven Pines and during the Seven Days he was wounded at Fraysers Farm. On the nation's birthday he recieved the second star of a Major General and continued in division command until Antietam where his division marched into a trap, being struck on three sides. Sedwick himself suffered three wounds and was out of action until after Fredericksburg when he returned to lead the Second Corps, then the Nineth Corps, and finally the Sixth. In the Chancellorsville Campaign he commanded Hooker's force at Fredericksburg. He broke though Mayre's Heights in an effort to relieve the pressure on his chief but was stopped at Salem Church and was forced to withdraw north of the river. At Gettysburg his corps was in reserve, but he scored a signal succes at Rappahannock Bridge that fall.
One of the top corps commanders with the army, he retained command when the five corps were reduced to three. He led his men into the tangled fighting of the Wilderness and then onto Spotsylvania. While placing his corps artillery, he was shot by a Confederate sharpshooter in the head. Ironically he had just declard that they couldn't fire accurately at that distance. He died almost immediately. (Winslow Richard Elliott, General John Sedgwick:The Story of a Union Corps Commander)
UNION SIXTH CORPS 46 guns/13,539 men
MAJOR GENERAL JOHN SEDGWICK
After the death of Maj. Gen. John Reynolds on Gettysburg's first day, Meade had two highly esteemed corps commanders in the Army of the Potomac. One was the Second Corps's Maj. Gen. Winfield Hancock. The other was Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick of the Sixth Corps, a grandson of a Revolutionary War officer who served under Washington at Brandywine and Valley Forge. Born on a farm in the Connecticut Berkshires, he had been robust, strong-willed, and a natural leader from boyhood.
Sedgwick had a manner which belied his prestige; he dressed plainly and his mien was placid and unpretentious. He had a pointed Yankee wit that distinguished him from the other rather humorless senior officers. "He was an old bachelor with oddities," one of his men wrote, "addicted to practical jokes and endless games of solitaire." A weathered-looking man fifty years of age, he was sketched by Frank Haskell at the meeting of generals at Gettysburg: "short, thick-set, and muscular, with florid complexion, dark, calm, straight looking eyes, with full, heavyish features, which with his eyes, have plenty of animation when he is aroused, -- he had a magnificent profile, -- well cut, with the nose and forehead forming almost a straight line, curly short chestnut hair and full beard, cut short, with a little gray in it. He dresses carelessly, but can look magnificently when he is well dressed. Like Meade, he looks, and is, honest." In the field, Sedgwick was frequently found close to the firing line in a distinctly unmilitary-looking get-up: a red shirt underneath a blue coat with the epaulets stripped off--sometimes he even wore a private's blouse--with an old black slouch hat on his head and muddy boots on his feet.
He may not have been a picture-book general, but Sedgwick was a soldier to the core. He had probably seen more action in his lifetime than any man in either army. Since his graduation from West Point in 1837, the army hadn't fought many battles that he hadn't been in. He had seen action at Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, and Chapultepec during the Mexican War; his bravery winning him three promotions there. He had fought the Seminoles, fought the Cheyennes, fought the Kiowas, fought the Comanches, assisted in moving the Cherokees west of the Mississippi on the Trail of Tears, joined the Mormon expedition, and served in "Bleeding Kansas." Through them all, he liked to be in front showing his men how to be contemptuous of bullets.
Like others in the Army of the Potomac, Sedgwick did not owe his high position to great accomplishments on the battlefield. When the Civil War broke out he served with the cavalry for the first few months, then was given a general's star in August 1861 and put at the head of a volunteer infantry brigade in the Army of the Potomac when it was organized into divisions that fall. Early in 1862 he took over command of the Second Division, Second Corps (under Gibbon by the time of Gettysburg) after its first commander, Brig. Gen. Charles Stone, was arrested as a scapegoat for the Union debacle at the battle of Ball's Bluff. In the army's first full campaign, on the Peninsula in the summer of 1862, he led the division in nearly bloodless engagements at Yorktown and Seven Pines. Ill with camp fever, he was unable to sit in his saddle at the beginning of the Seven Days' Battles on June 27. On June 29, still sick, he mounted and rode with his men. On June 30, at the battle of Glendale, he was slightly wounded twice--the first bullet struck his arm, then his leg was grazed. While he recovered, he was promoted to major general on July 4, 1862.
Sedgwick returned to the army in time for the Battle of Antietam in September, where he and his division were led into a trap by corps commander "Bull" Sumner. The division was struck on three sides and virtually destroyed in less than half an hour, the greatest disaster to befall any division in the army's history. In those few minutes, a bullet went through Sedgwick's leg, then another fractured his wrist. He refused to go to the rear, and remained on his horse even though he couldn't control it due to his broken wrist. Then a third bullet hit him in the shoulder, and he was carried away unconscious. Again he convalesced, returning to the army three months later, before his wounds had fully healed. He was forced to spend two more weeks in Washington, and said, "If I am ever hit again, I hope it will settle me at once. I want no more wounds." He was restored to his division after the Battle of Fredericksburg. Then suddenly, in February 1863, he was placed in command of the biggest corps in the Union, the 23,000-man Sixth Corps, when its previous commander, Maj. Gen. Franklin, was removed after a feud with army commander Burnside.
There were some who doubted his ability to lead a corps. Marsena Patrick, the army's top provost officer, wrote, "Sedgwick, I fear, is not good enough a general for [corps command]. He is a good honest fellow and that is all." Maj. Gen. Joe Hooker's doubts were more specific, claiming Sedgwick suffered from an "utter deficiency in the topographical faculty, and consequently [has] great distrust in exercising on the field important commands." In his first action with the Sixth Corps, at Chancellorsville in May 1863, Sedgwick was given the responsibility of relieving the pressure on the main body of the army by breaking through the Rebel lines at Marye's Heights--the same spot where the Union army had come to grief at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Sedgwick, after waffling for precious days, finally accomplished the capture of the Heights, but was then stopped at Salem Church by a lone Confederate division and eventually forced to withdraw across the Rappahannock. His failure highlighted his inability to perform under discretionary orders, and the memory was still bitter as he approached Gettysburg less than two months later.
The dry recitation of Sedgwick's wartime exploits tells only part of the truth about the man, however. Such a resume does not include a hint of what made Sedgwick what he was: the most deeply loved of all the high officers in the Army of the Potomac. The men had nicknamed him "Uncle John," a sure sign of affection. "A pure and great-hearted man," one staff officer called him, "a brave and skillful soldier. From the commander to the lowest private he had no enemy in this army." Descriptions like Morris Schaff's were common: "His whole manner breathed of gentleness and sweetness, and in his broad breast was a boy's heart." Sedgwick the bachelor had no family except his enlisted men. He had an abiding attachment to them, and made it a point to take good care of them. One day one of his brigades--Wheaton's--marched into camp thoroughly soaked from a cold, miserable rain, and discovered that all the good campsites had already been taken. The only space left was a muddy field, with no trees to shelter the men from the elements and no wood for campfires anywhere for miles. There was a grove nearby which provided an ideal campsite, but it had already been claimed by a brigadier whose regiments had arrived earlier. While Wheaton's dripping men stood contemplating their grim prospects, a thickset, muddy horseman in a cavalry coat rode up and splashed to a stop--it was Sedgwick. He saw his men's plight at a glance, rode over to the grove, sought out the brigadier and ordered him to move his men out, and ordered Wheaton to move his brigade into the vacated site under the sheltering trees. "Uncle John's" solid presence gave the men a feeling of reassurance. He was a wellspring of confidence and strength. His professionalism never let his paternal feelings for his men erode into slackness or emotionalism, however. His affection for them was masked by a stern aloofness. "I have heard that a smile occasionally invaded his scrubby beard," one major testified, "but I never saw one there."
Sedgwick never campaigned for promotion like many glory-hungry generals in the Army of the Potomac. He preferred to stand on his record as a soldier, contemptuous of officers who spent much of their time lining up patrons at the White House and the Capitol Building. Many in the army thought that he could have succeeded Burnside as commander of the army if he had made any effort to cultivate friends in Washington. Secretary of State Chase was backing Hooker, and Chase's opponents considered Sedgwick as an alternative candidate. But Sedgwick was a McClellan admirer who thought the army should be returned to that man, and refused to campaign for the job. After Hooker collapsed at Chancellorsville, Sedgwick was approached again about leading the army, but replied "Why, Meade is the proper one to command this army." Meade was chosen.
At heart John Sedgwick was a peaceful man, who dreamed in letters home about retiring to the quiet Connecticut River valley. He was not the general to ask for daring decisions. He was a McClellan disciple, constitutionally careful, cautious and conservative. He was effective only when carrying out direct orders. But he was a hard fighter of imperturbable strength whose men would do anything him.
Sedgwick's horse was named "Cornwall," for his home.
At Gettsyburg:
In the three days before the Battle of Gettysburg, out of a desire to prevent Lee from slipping around his army and threatening Washington, Meade advanced the Army of the Potomac cautiously on a wide front. It wasn't until Lee struck on July 1 that Meade realized that Gettysburg was where the army needed to concentrate, and at that point Sedgwick and his big Sixth Corps were at least a day's--maybe two days'--march away to the southeast in Manchester, Maryland.
Meade sent a dispatch to Sedgwick to hurry his men to Gettysburg on the afternoon of July 1, while the First and Eleventh Corps were already fighting Lee's army for control of the high ground around that town. Sedgwick got his corps moving at 7:30 P.M. that evening. The Sixth Corps trudged on all night through the darkness and all the next day under the merciless July sun. They marched--sometimes with bands playing to breathe life into the weary columns, sometimes with the men singing in a 10,000-strong chorus, sometimes in silence--thirty-four miles in all. It was one of the epic marches of the war, and one of the most crucial--the lead elements of the Sixth Corps marched onto the battlefield by way of the Baltimore Pike at 5:00 on the afternoon of July 2, and freed the Fifth Corps just in time to help blunt Longstreet's assault on the Union left. Sedgwick heard the boom of cannon from miles away as he approached, and when he reached the field with his lead division he headed it toward the sound of the heaviest fighting without a rest. One brigade, Nevin's, arrived on the front line near Little Round Top in time to take part in turning back the Confederates' last lunge of the day.
On July 3, Meade treated the Sixth Corps as the reserve manpower pool for the army, plugging in Sedgwick's units wherever help was needed along the entire line. Six Sixth Corps brigades were concentrated north of Little Round Top, but Sedgwick exercised no control over them. He felt useless, having nobody under his command except for a few orderlies. As his brigades were parceled out and put under other officers, Sedgwick observed "he might as well go home." It was a huge disappointment for a man who at Chancellorsville had commanded two more corps and a division beside his own. It was also a serious waste of ability--Sedgwick was one of the very few Union generals with experience at commanding multiple corps.
Only 242 men from the entire Sixth Corps fell as casualties at Gettysburg, less than many regiments. Never directly engaged, the corps's casualties were practically all from picket activity and long-range shelling.
Sedgwick retained command when the five Union corps were reduced to three in March 1864. On May 9, 1864, while placing his artillery at Spotsylvania, he was hit by a sharpshooter's bullet just under the left eye and killed instantly, just after telling his gunners "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
For further reading:
Round, Harold. "'Uncle John' Sedgwick." Civil War Times Illustrated 5, Dec 1966
Sedgwick, John. Correspondence of Major-General John Sedgwick. 2 vols. New York, 1902-3
Winslow, Richard E., III. General John Sedgwick: The Story of a Union Corps Commander. Novato, 1982
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Excerpted from "The Generals of Gettysburg: The Leaders of America's Greatest Battle" by Larry Tagg
UNION SIXTH CORPS 46 guns/13,539 men
MAJOR GENERAL JOHN SEDGWICK
Individual Notes
Note for: Selden J. Wayne, 3 OCT 1875 -
Index
Individual Note: His WWI draft registration card describes him as tall, medium build, with black hair and blue eyes.
Individual Notes
Note for: Shirley Wayne, 18 APR 1898 - OCT 1971
Index
Individual Note: Social Security Death Index
Name: Shirley Wayne
SSN: 234-14-5504
Last Residence: 44312 Akron, Summit, Ohio, United States of America
Born: 18 Apr 1898
Died: Oct 1971
State (Year) SSN issued: West Virginia (Before 1951 )
The 1930 census (West Virginia, Calhoun, Washington) gives his occupation as teacher in a public school.
Individual Notes
Note for: Orlando Wayne, 24 NOV 1899 - APR 1967
Index
Individual Note: The 1900 census has his name as "Arlando," but other documents say Orlando. His WWI draft registration card describes him as medium height and build, with brown eyes and black hair.
Social Security Death Index
Name: Orlando Wayne
SSN: 232-28-7299
Last Residence: 25281 Tariff, Roane, West Virginia, United States of America
Born: 24 Nov 1899
Died: Apr 1967
State (Year) SSN issued: North Carolina or West Virginia (Before 1951 )