Civil War History - General DiscussionFor Discussions on Civil War Era Personalities, Politics, Issues, Campaigns, Battles, and more. Serious Civil War Discussions Only Please! All other posts will be deleted.
Sgt., Co.G, 11th N.C. Inf.: 31st March 1862. 3rd Lieut.: 30th July 1863. Cashiered on 5th September 1864. “Watson had been suffering from deteriorating health for over a year after one of his lungs was ‘almost entirely destroyed’. Watson told his father that his health would force him to resign, but he wanted to stay with the regiment until the fall campaign ended. When the regiment marched to Reams Station, Watson decided to follow. The young officer struggled to keep up with his company during their attack, but the rigors of combat thoroughly exhausted him. Once they had penetrated the Union defense, Lieutenant Watson turned around and started for the rear. While searching for the regimental surgeon for a medical pass, he ran into the assistant surgeon, James McCombs. McCombs refused to examine Watson and accused the officer of running from the fight. Watson ignored him and continued walking back to the rear. After the battle, McCombs swore out a charge of cowardice against Watson. Perhaps a more sympathetic commander would have taken some pity on Watson, but Billy MacRae would never tolerate any shirking among his officers. After reading McCombs’s report the general immediately convened a court-martial against Watson. The court met on September 5th and convicted the feeble lieutenant of cowardice in the face of the enemy. MacRae cashiered Jones Watson and directed that notice of the verdict be distributed to newspapers throughout North Carolina. Watson’s horrified father published a rebuttal of the court’s proceedings, in an attempt to save some of his son’s ruined reputation. Sick, discharged, and humiliated, the younger Watson somehow held onto his loyalty and dignity. He enlisted in the 3rd N.C. Cavalry the next month and served as a private throughout the remainder of the war.” [Chapman, More Terrible Than Victory, pp.234-235.]
Poor Watson. How horrible that must have been. I have often thought how hard it must have been to perform even marginally during combat with the health issues those men faced.
Born in Montreal, Canada, on 17th April 1828. Moved to S.C. before the war. Major and later Lt-Colonel of the 7th S.C. Inf. Bn. E.P. Alexander made an extraordinary claim about him: “Col. Rion had been a protégé of John C. Calhoun’s, who had educated him. I never heard where Calhoun brought him from but he had no known relatives in Carolina. But on Col. Rion’s deathbed he informed his family that his father was the Dauphin of France, whose fate has always remained a mystery since the execution of his father Louis XVI. He stated that his father became a lieut. in the British army & was stationed in Canada, where he married Col. Rion’s mother. He stated that when Jno. C. Calhoun was secretary of war secret information of this marriage & of Col. Rion’s legitimate birth was lodged with the U.S. govt. & also with the Austrian govr., & that Calhoun’s care & education of him was due to his knowledge of his identity. He explained many little things in his life, which had seemed strange, as influenced by that; the only one which I now recall being that he had always declined any civil office (which had been often tendered him) because, although he might hold military office, civil office was incompatible with his rank…..the whole matter has been kept a close secret by his family & doubtless they would object to any publicity being given to the matter.” He died on 11th December 1885. [Gallagher, Fighting For The Confederacy, pp.33-33 & 560.]
Born in Mississippi on 2nd August 1844. Son of Judge Richard L. Dixon & Julia Ann Philips. Grew up on a plantation near Deer Creek, Greenville, Miss. Entered U.Va. in September 1860. By the spring of 1861 he was suffering from syphilis. Enlisted in the 11th Miss. Inf. in late 1861. “When an officer ordered Harry St. John Dixon to the guardhouse for drunkenness, he shot back, ‘I will not do it. I was a gentleman before I joined your ****ed company and by God you want to make a ****ed slave of me.’ ” He developed a similar train of thought in a diary entry: “At home I was, at least, once a gentleman, & I do not now altho’ a private choose to be made a dog of by any man or set of men. It is galling to a gentleman to be absolutely & entirely subject to the orders of men who in private life were so far his inferiors.; who when they met him felt rather like taking off their hat to him than giving him law & gospel.” Commissioned as an officer [rank unknown]. Resigned in the spring of 1862. Enlisted in Co.D, 28th Miss. Cavalry: 26th April 1862. Surrendered at Citronelle, Ala., on 4th May 1865. Paroled at Gainesville on 12th May. Post-war lawyer & rancher in California. Married Constance Maynard in 1874. The syphilis he had contracted as a student “ate steadily into his mind and body. As his daughter remembered, Harry became by the 1880s subject to ‘terrible nervous tensions’ and ‘uncontrollable irritability, which he never turned upon his family but always upon some wrong or injustice in the world at large.’ Ultimately, the disease became so advanced that Harry could no longer stay at home. Two brothers and a brother-in-law came to take him away: ‘There was no hope,’ his daughter remembered, ‘and everybody knew it then.’ Harry Dixon spent his last days in a hospital. His mind was still active but his body ravaged, and he occupied his time in disassembling and reassembling the watch his father had given him when he was seventeen, a token of his arrival at manhood.” He died on 27th August 1898, and is buried in Mountain View Cemetery, Fresno, California. Some years after his death, fellow members of his fraternity, Sigma Chi, decided to place a large monument over his grave. Unfortunately, in the process they managed to pour cement over, and obliterate, the graves of his parents. [Berry, All That Makes A Man: Love & Ambition In The Civil War South, pp.136-158, 231-233.] A post-war photo of Dixon, and a modern photo of the monument at his grave, can be seen at http://www.nasigs.org/Dixon.htm
Last edited by bill_torrens; 04-15-2005 at 06:45 AM.
Born in Philadelphia on 20th August 1842. Educated at V.M.I. & in Europe. Civilian aide to his uncle, General Magruder, at Big Bethel. Lieut., Page's (Virginia) Artillery Battery. When Gnl. Pendleton wrote to Lee on 2nd October 1862, recommending the disbandment of the battery, he added:- "Lieutenant Magruder also deserves well, and will, I hope, have a suitable position." On 4th October 1862 he was assigned to S.D. Lee's Artillery Bn. Lieut. & A.D.C. to Gnl. Magruder: 29th November 1862. Was sent to Paris, France, with dispatches in October 1863. Later served as Chief of Artillery to Magruder. He married in London in 1870. On 3rd February 1877 the London Times carried the following report of his defended divorce case: “The petitioner and the respondent, who was a captain in the Confederate Army, were married on the 4th of July, 1870, at St George’s, Hanover Square. They were both possessed of means, and after their marriage they went abroad. They were at Geneva in April, 1871, and it was then arranged between them that the petitioner should go to Aix-les-Bains for a short time, and that the respondent on his return from Paris, whither he expressed his intention of going, should join her at Vevey. He did not keep his engagement, and the petitioner had no knowledge of his whereabouts until she met him by accident in the month of September at Baden. He made some excuse for not resuming cohabitation with her, and on the day following their chance meeting he left Baden for Paris. Mrs Magruder returned shortly afterwards to England, and her suspicions having been aroused, she caused enquiries to be made into the life which her husband was leading, and those enquiries resulted in the discovery that he had formed a connexion with a woman in Paris. He pressed the petitioner subsequently to return to cohabitation with him, and on her declining to do so, in the belief that the offer on his part was not bona fide, he filed a petition for restitution of conjugal rights. The petitioner filed a counterpetition for dissolution of marriage by reason of his adultery and desertion.” The judge awarded the decree nisi against Magruder. He is believed to have contracted a subsequent marriage to a French Jewess named Leah. Living at 4, Rond Pointe de Longchamps, Paris in 1909. [Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.212.]
The thumbnail is of the London church where he married
WARWICK, Bradfute
Born in Richmond, Va., on 24th November 1839. Son of Corbin Warwick & Margaret Bradfute. Graduate of U.Va. & N.Y. Medical College. Then went to Europe to complete his medical training; there he joined Garibaldi as a volunteer, “gaining considerable credit and the rank of major”. Major, 4th Texas Inf.: 2nd October 1861. Lt-Colonel: 6th March 1862. Mortally wounded at Gaines Mill on 27th June 1862: “[Warwick] seized the battleflag of the demoralized troops and tried to encourage the men to move on, but to no avail. Warwick continued to carry the flag during the charge and was mortally wounded with it still in his hands.” John Haskell described how he found him:- “As I got back to the edge of the ravine from which we had started our charge I heard my name and saw Bradfute Warwick of Richmond, lying with his shirt bosom torn open and shot through the lungs. He was calling for help. I showed him that I could do nothing but a moment later I saw a member of his regiment, whom I told to go to his assistance. He was sent home that night to Richmond, but his wound was mortal." He died in Richmond on 6th July 1862. Buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond. “Mrs. Burton Harrison was believed to have portrayed his life with her character N.B. Miles Throckmorton in her 1890 book, Flower de Hundred.”
[Govan & Livingood, The Haskell Memoirs, pp.34-35; Ferguson, Hollywood Cemetery, her Forgotten Soldiers: Confederate Field Officers At Rest, p.114; Simpson, Hood’s Texas Brigade: Lee’s Grenadier Guard, p.118 (n).]
Born in Norfolk, Va., on 13th December 1840. Son of Col. T.H. Williamson, member of the faculty of V.M.I. Nephew of the two Confederate Generals named Garnett. Graduated from Washington College in 1859. Spent 18 months as an engineer working for Robert E. Rodes building railroads in Alabama. Entered V.M.I. in June 1861. Pvt., 1st Rockbridge Art.: 5th July 1861. Wounded in arm at Winchester on 25th May 1862. Commissioned 2nd Lieut. of Engineers on 24th June 1862, and assigned to Stonewall Jackson’s staff (joining him on 21st August 1862). Lieut. & E.O. to W.E. Jones: 7th April 1863. Lieut. & V.A.D.C. to Jubal Early at Gettysburg, but remained a permanent member of Jones’s staff until May 1864. Robert Stiles described him as “a gentleman of character, a competent engineer and thorough soldier, though, unfortunately, somewhat deaf.” William Poague supports the contention of deafness, writing on the subject of 2nd Manassas:- “In this affair an amusing thing occurred. Billy Williamson, a former member of the battery but then a lieutenant of engineers, happened to fall in with us on this trip and with my permission was in his old place at one of the guns doing his best, as he always did. He was quite deaf and so was our chief of artillery, Major Shoemaker. Williamson failed to hear an order of Shoemaker and did not obey him, whereupon Shoemaker shouted out his order with an oath and Williamson cussed back at him and told him he was a commissioned officer and he must mind how he talked to him. ‘Well, then, if you are an officer serving with this battery, then I place you under arrest,’ said Shoemaker. ‘Very well,’ replied Williamson. ‘I’ll see you after we get through this affair,’ and so both went about their duties. After the fight was over, Shoemaker came to me and asked who that fellow was that refused to obey his orders and was so insolent in his reply to him. I explained the situation telling him he was very deaf and did not hear his order probably. ‘You say he’s deaf? Well, then, that makes it all right. Send for him and I’ll release him from arrest and apologize,’ and so he did. Those who were nearby and heard them said it was ridiculously funny, two deaf men swearing at each other and not knowing exactly what the other was saying.” Appears to have graduated from V.M.I. in 1864. 1st Lieut., Co.A, 1st Engineers: 4th May 1864. Captain, Co.F, Engineer Regt., at Appomattox. Post-war civil engineer in Mexico and at Montgomery, Ala. Died at Pensacola, Fla., on 2nd August 1898, while engaged in building forts to defend the harbour during the Spanish-American War. Buried in Stonewall Jackson Cemetery, Lexington, Va.
[Stiles, Four Years Under Marse Robert, pp.183-184; Poague, Gunner With Stonewall, pp.35-36; Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.305.]
Born on 18th January 1831. Captain, Co.A, 1st (Irish) Va Inf. Bn. At Kernstown Leigh "acted with the most conspicuous gallantry during the whole of the action. He took a most exposed position by the side of the colors, and never left it except to bring up his men to the crest of the ridge and point out to them where to aim their fire. He was perfectly cool and collected, and encouraged his men to fight bravely and effectively by example and direction." Commanded the Battalion in the Seven Days. On 30th November 1862 he was assigned to the 42nd Va Inf. as acting Colonel. He actually joined the regiment on 2nd December 1862 and remained with it until at least 5th March 1863. Although frequently recommended for promotion to Colonel, this does not appear to have ever happened. At Chancellorsville he was slightly wounded while helping two of Jackson's staff officers to carry the wounded General to the rear: he was V.A.D.C. to A.P. Hill at the time. Major & A.A.G. to Edward Johnson: 3rd June 1863. At Culp's Hill, Gettysburg, he was killed: "He was leading some troops in an attempt to capture the breastworks on the crest and, being also mounted, had forced his way to within a few yards of the trenches when a volley at close range laid him low. He was shot through the heart, and his horse was instantly killed." Randolph McKim gave another account of Leigh’s death: “many years afterward I had letter from a Federal officer in Massachusetts telling how it occurred. It seems that Major Leigh, seeing a group of Confederates in a very exposed position raise a white flag in order to surrender to the enemy, gallantly rode into their midst to prevent the execution of their purpose. While so engaged he met his death, and my correspondent said that the day after the battle he was found lying on the field still in the saddle, his horse dead with him as if a part of him – horse and rider having been killed at the same moment. It was, my correspondent said, a strange spectacle.” Buried in Shockoe Cemetery, Richmond. [McKim, A Soldier’s Recollections, p.189; Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.200.]
Born in Grahamville, S.C., on 14th May 1833. Educated at Charleston College. On Pettigrew’s staff at Fort Sumter in April 1861. On engineering duty around Charleston. Lieut. & A.D.C. to Pettigrew: 22nd March 1862. Wounded at Seven Pines. Lieut. & V.A.D.C. to Pender: June to August 1862. Wounded at Gaines Mill while acting as V.A.D.C. to R.S. Ewell. Had two horses shot under him at Frayser’s Farm, and took the colors of a regiment. Escorted Pettigrew’s body home from Gettysburg, where he himself had been wounded three times. Captain & A.A.I.G. to Kirkland: 13th January 1864. Wounded twice at The Wilderness. Later served on the staff of MacRae. On 6th January 1865 he wrote to his mother: “These are times that try men’s souls, and I am sorry so many prove fearful & faithless…but I am glad of the test, and would be willing to see all the weak in spirit go to the enemy. Our country can spare them, and they serve it better by deserting to the enemy, than by remaining in our midst.” Seriously wounded at Hatcher’s Run on 5th February 1865, and was in a Lynchburg hospital when the end came. Married Mary Stuart Waller in 1867. Cotton exporter in Savannah. Died there on 31st May 1922. Buried in St Michael’s Episcopal Church, Charleston. [Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.311; Power, Lee’s Miserables, p.233.]
Born in S.C. on 15th December 1827. Millwright in Dale Co., Ala., married to Elizabeth Dozier and with three children. Did not own any slaves. Pvt., Co.C, 31st Ga. Inf.: 5th October 1861. Elected Captain on 13th May 1862. “The elevation in rank and popularity Sanders enjoyed among his men failed to receive recognition from the commander of the 31st Georgia, Col. Clement A. Evans. For reasons unknown, Evans’ dislike for the chosen leader of the ‘Mitchell Guards’ contributed to strained relations. A post-war account indicated Evans, at some point, had Sanders demoted to the rank of private, although no documentation had been found to substantiate the fact.” Wounded in thigh at Sharpsburg on 17th September 1862. At some point after the Gettysburg campaign he contracted an illness which forced him to go home to recuperate. A petition, dated 30th December 1863, was sent to Jefferson Davis by a number of citizens of Dale Co., stressing their need for the presence of a miller: “The mills in the county are very much out of repair in consequence of all the millwrights being in the Confederate services, so that if Capt. Sanders is not permitted to remain at home the people must suffer for want of bread. Capt. Sanders is a truly patriotic and loyal man and we believe that nothing but his ill health and shattered constitution kept him away from his command.” Col. Evans wrote: “The acceptance of this resignation is earnestly recommended. Knowing Capt. Sanders thoroughly I can with safety assert that the service will be greatly benefited by his being removed from his present position.” His resignation was accepted on 29th January 1864. W.C. Oates described him as follows: “The notorious Captain Sanders, of Dale County, Alabama….resigned a captaincy in the Thirty-first Georgia Regiment and was exempted from military service as a mill-wright. Afterwards his exemption was set aside and mill-wrights were no longer exempt and he was delivered subject to conscription, to resist which he took to the woods and became a raider and murderer.” The historian of the 31st Georgia describes what happened in more detail: “Aware of Dale County’s active conscript bureau, Sanders would have been confronted with the consequences of desertion had he chosen to remain with his family. The Dale County citizens instrumental in Sanders receiving his discharge…would soon find the former Confederate officer becoming one of their bitterest enemies. The dense swampland in the Choctawhatchee River area of southeastern Alabama and northwestern Florida provided ideal hideouts for bandits and deserters from both sides during the war. In such an environment Joseph Sanders’ new life immediately took form. Using his leadership and military instruction, Sanders organized a gang of brigands who would journey out of the swamps to raid various targets, ‘committing depredations upon the property of both loyal and disloyal men…,’ according to Union authorities….Apparently having few reservations as to who was accepted into their ranks, the Federals actively recruited in the vicinity where the Sanders gang was operating. It is unclear when and where Sanders himself had initial contact with the Federals. At the recommendation of Brig. Gen. Alexander Asboth, commanding the District of West Florida at Fort Barrancas, Sanders was appointed 2nd Lieutenant and received a provisional commission July 5, 1864.” 2nd Lieut., 1st Fla. Cavalry [U.S.A.]: 25th August 1864. “Sustained by the Federal supply base on the Florida gulf, the new cavalry command would be the vehicle used by Sanders’ gang, under the guise of the blue uniform, to continue its indiscriminate acts of violence and plundering throughout a territory unable to defend itself. The renegade elements of the 1st Florida Cavalry operated their enterprises liberally over a large area, spreading a reign of terror lasting beyond the war’s formal completion.” On 25th February 1865 he set out on a mission to confiscate horses and cattle in three Florida counties. Although under strict instructions to be gone for no more than 14 days, he and his command had still not reappeared by the time the last Confederate armies had surrendered. And so General Asboth issued this order: “All deserters of our army within your reach you will endeavor to arrest, including Lieut. J.G. Sanders, First Florida Cavalry, who has been without leave for more than three months, and has become, with his armed gang of deserters, a terror to the people of West Florida…” Sanders and eight members of his command finally reappeared on 14th June, reporting to Asboth’s headquarters at Barrancas. His excuses for his absence apparently persuaded Asboth not to pursue the charge of desertion, and instead to allow him to resign: “Lt. Sanders prolonged absence involves no criminality but shows gross neglect and incompetency to fill a position as a Commissioned Officer.” Resigned on 20th July 1865. Was formally discharged on 13th September. “Trouble continued to find Sanders even after his second return to civilian life…[he] soon became a suspect of complicity in horse theft, involving members of his old gang. A posse led by George Echols, son of former Dale County probate judge Abel Echols, visited the Sanders home concerning the matter. Sanders reportedly informed the riders that he would shoot the forst man to step in his yard. Ignoring the warning, Echols dismounted from his horse and was shot dead.” Sanders fled to Decatur Co., Ga., and began building a mill there. A former member of the 31st Ga., who was a neighbour in Decatur Co, recalled that “the few people that lived in that sparsely settled country knew little or nothing of his reputation and he went about his daily labor unmolested by anybody…nobody there knew that he had an enemy in the world but he had very many of them where he came from and by some means they had found out where he was and how situated.” On the evening of 19th February 1867, “while at the home of a Judge Hodges, Sanders and his wife were sitting at the table eating their supper. Unknown persons on the outside of the dwelling poked the muzzles of two guns through some cracks in the walls of the log home. The contents of the weapons were discharged and passed through the head of the unsuspecting Sanders, killing him instantly. Authorities investigating the incident were informed by a local ferryman that several men on horseback, unknown to him, ‘all well mounted and carrying double barrel shotguns,’ were transported across the Chattahoochee River late on the day Sanders was killed. The mysterious riders were ferried back to the Alabama side of the river early the following morning.” [Roster of Confederate Soldiers of Georgia 1861-1865 (c) Historical Data Systems, Inc. @ www.civilwardata.com; White, A History Of The 31st Georgia Volunteer Infantry, pp. 193-201 & 283.]
Last edited by bill_torrens; 04-22-2005 at 06:36 AM.
CivilWarTalk.com -
A free and friendly Civil War community. 
Linear Mode
