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Here are sketches of a father and son from Maryland.
STEUART, Harry A.
Native of Maryland. Son of Dr. William Frederick Steuart [Surgeon of the 3rd N.C. Inf.] In the Confederate Veteran in 1899 R.D. Steuart of Baltimore wrote that H.A. Steuart was his uncle and that he had been a Captain in the Black Horse Cavalry. In fact he served as a Lieut. in the 3rd Md. Light Artillery: “On November 4 [1861] the company (so far as recruited) was ordered to Camp Dimmock for instruction. On the 15th Lieutenant H.A. Steuart started for Maryland to obtain medical supplies and raise recruits for the Third Maryland Artillery, but was captured by the enemy at Millstone Landing on the Patuxent River.” Another source states that “He had been captured on 15th December 1861 at the residence of Gov. Carroll in St Mary’s Co., Md., while returning from a visit to Baltimore to procure medical supplies.” He was killed while a P.O.W. in Old Capitol in May 1862: “On Sunday, May 11, 1862, he bribed a guard from the 86th New York Volunteers, who for $50 agreed to let him escape. At 4 a.m. the guard called to him in a low tone, ‘Come on, it will soon be too late.’ As Steuart was preparing to drop from his second floor window, the guard changed his mind and shot him. A tourniquet was applied by his roommate but they could not check the flow of blood. He received no surgical treatment before 9 a.m. the next morning, and after his leg was finally amputated in the afternoon he died soon thereafter from the loss of blood.” On 29th October 1861 he had written to Judah P. Benjamin:- “Anything that I can do for you here let me know immediately…General Dix has announced his intention of hanging me as a spy if he can find me. That for his intentions.” [Hartzler, A Band Of Brothers, pp.217-218; Goldsborough, The Maryland Line In The Confederate Army 1861-1865, p.296.]
STEUART, William Frederick
Born in 1815. Resident of Anne Arundel Co., Md. Graduated in medicine from U.Md. in 1839, and settled in Baltimore. Surgeon, 3rd N.C. Inf.: 13th August 1863. Transferred to Charlotte C.H. on 15th November 1863. The regimental Assistant-Surgeon recalled that “The rigors of the march had used up our Surgeon Dr. William F. Stewart, and he was obliged to ask for duty at a post. Dr. Stewart was first cousin of our General George W. Stewart. He was apparently 50 when he came to us. He had been sent out of the lines from Baltimore, his home because of his implication in aid to the South. He told me of some of the adventures of some of the Southern sympathizers in Baltimore. They had an organization which had to be maintained with great secrecy as their movements were very closely watched by the U.S. authorities. On one occasion he sent a raft of patent gate-posts across the Potomac River. The post were hollow, and filled with percussion gun caps. I believe this venture was successful. One of Dr. S's sons was arrested for his Southern sympathy and put in prison. He bribed the guard with a gold watch to let him escape, but when he attempted it he was shot dead. While lying dead in prison his father and mother were sent to come and see him. The shock was very great, but it only inflamed to a higher degree, the animosity of his parents. I don't remember what particular act was fastened upon Dr. Stewart, but he was sent out of the lines after a few days notice. Dr. and Mrs. S. made preparations by turning all their valuables into money. As they were allowed only a hundred pounds of luggage and a given sum of money they resorted to the subterfuge of preparing a turkey, and rolling up some bills of exchange in old silk sewing it up in the place of "stuffing." Mrs. S. had a traveling suit prepared with a great many rows of buttons which were $5.00 gold pieces, covered with cloth. So the Dr. reached the Confederacy with about $20,000 and put it all in Confederate Bonds, so sure was he of Southern success. He was very kind to me, and for a month would not allow me to get up to Surgeon's call as he wanted to relieve me of duty , which I had done without relief for so long, and he wanted to learn the condition of the men. He was very kind and was esteemed by officers and men. The hardships of camp were too great for him and he was forced to ask for assignment to post duty.” He returned to Baltimore after the war and practiced at the Physicians Quarantine or Marine Hospital from 1874-76. He died in 1885. [North Carolina Troops 1861-65, A Roster (c) Historical Data Systems, Inc. @ www.civilwardata.co; Wood, Some Recollections Of My Life For My Children, @ http://library.uncwil.edu/special/TFWdiary.html; Hartzler, A Band Of Brothers, p.218.]
Last edited by bill_torrens; 06-03-2005 at 12:13 PM.
Born in Baltimore, Md., on 17th May 1834. Son of Noah Walker, a prominent clothier in Md. & Va. At the beginning of the war his father offered him $250,000 to sail to England, where he could do as he pleased with the money. (Walker himself had just returned from a grand tour of Europe.) He refused the offer, and wrote to his father to explain his point of view: “At the beginning of the present revolution…I perceived that it was a struggle between Liberty, on the one side, and Tyranny on the other. I believed that Abraham Lincoln had been placed in power by an insane political faction, upon the ruin of our once sacred Constitution, and that he and his party, to possess and hold the political power of the country, would perpetrate any act, however outrageous, to continue their unconstitutional authority.” 2nd Lieut., Co.E, 44th Va. Inf.: 10th June 1861. 1st Lieut.: 1st May 1862. Commended for performance at Port Republic on 9th June 1862:- “There may have been others equally worthy of commendation, but I could not fail to notice him. When the brigade halted in the field and sat down he alone stood erect, went in front, and attempted to get the brigade to advance still nearer the enemy.” Killed at Chancellorsville on 3rd May 1863, “as he caught the colors from the hand of the falling and dying bearer.” Buried in Richmond: “It was upon one of these occasions that I witnessed a memorable funeral of a soldier, Lieutenant Noah Walker, whose home was in Baltimore who had been recently killed in an engagement, his head having been, it was stated, completely destroyed[.] The Maryland friends in Richmond had been requested to assemble early one morning at a warehouse opposite the Examiner office at his funeral service. There were not many who came, probably twenty. It was pathetic to observe the concern and silent regard that each one manifested as strangers in a strange city away from their home and friends doing homage to the memory of one who possessed an amiable, gentle nature that attached all who knew him. The occasion particularly appealed to me when told who he was, as this gentleman when we first arrived in Richmond and when our straightened circumstances required us to live all in one room had been a guest at one of our breakfasts, which consisted of rolls and breakfast bacon broiled by my father on the open fire of the room and which we all deliciously enjoyed.” [Hughes, A Boy’s Experience In The Civil War, p.9; Ruffner, 44th Virginia Infantry, p.110; Ruffner, Maryland’s Blue & Gray, pp.48-49; his papers are held by the Maryland Historical Society.]
Born in Cumberland Co., Va., on 31st July 1829. Son of John Kirkpatrick, a Presbyterian minister, & Jane Jellis. Attended Washington College. Married Fortunata Sydnor in 1852. Lawyer and “an ardent States’ righter”. Captain, Amherst Artillery: July 1861. On 8th October 1862 Pvt. H.R. Berkeley was one of a group of men from the recently disbanded Hanover Artillery who found themselves transferred to Kirkpatrick’s Battery: “Capt. Kirkpatrick was introduced to us this morning by Major Nelson. The Captain said that he felt deeply sorry for us that it should have been found necessary to break up our company and to place us in a company in whose organization we had had no part or lot; but that he would try, with God’s help, to make our lot a pleasant and agreeable one; and that he knew that his lieutenants would aid him in this endeavor. He wanted us to mix with his men; he did not want two or three parties in his company and he wished every one of us to feel and to know that in him we had a friend who stood ready to do all in his power for us. He said a good deal more along this line. I have given enough to show the drift of his remarks.” On 13th July 1863 C.M. Blackford wrote that “Kirkpatrick called to see me this evening. His wagon, trunk and servant have all been captured and he is in a very uncomfortable condition.” On 15th October 1863 Kirkpatrick “and Lieut. Craighill, our ordnance officer, had a personal fisticuff this morning. Capt. Kirkpatrick receiving a black face and a red eye. They very soon kissed and made up. Lieut. Craighill was taking Bill Cunningham’s part and the Captain was certainly in the wrong, which he candidly acknowledged and asked pardon.” Major of Artillery: February 1865; assigned to Nelson’s Bn. Described as “a sincerely religious man, he was not the dashing type. Brave and courageous, Kirkpatrick was one of the many workhorses without whom the war could never have been fought.” Paroled at Lynchburg on 22nd May 1865. Post-war lawyer & state legislator. Died in Lynchburg on 17th October 1897. [Runge, Four Years In The Confederate Artillery, pp. xviii, 32, 59-60.]
Born at “Oak Bowery”, Gold Hill, Chambers Co., Ala., on 27th October 1836. Son of Joseph & Jane Greer. Educated at New Harmony Academy & Oglethorpe University (graduated 1860). Unmarried schoolteacher living with his parents in Chambers Co. in 1860. Pvt., Co.D, 4th Ga. Inf.: 26th April 1861. Cpl.: 21st July 1861. In hospital in April 1862, suffering from gonorrheoa. Sgt.: 28th April 1862. Wounded at Malvern Hill. 3rd Lieut.: 1863. Slightly wounded at Chancellorsville on 2nd May 1863. 2nd Lieut.: 21st May 1863. Severely wounded in arm and side, and captured, at Spotsylvania on 10th May 1864. One of "The Immortal 600". Exchanged at Charleston Harbour on 15th December 1864. Moved to Texas in 1866 and "prospered in business". Served in the Texas General Assembly. "During his term of office he introduced a bill to pension Confederate Veterans, he being the first and prime mover for the relief of the Southern soldiers." Founder and first mayor of Anna, Texas. Married Laura Kelley on 22nd December 1869, and had two children; married Lou M. Perrin in 1888, but had no children. Died on 27th October 1922. Buried in Van Alstyne, Grayson Co., Texas. In a 1912 questionnaire he wrote that “our humiliation….has caused more mental pain, and is harder to bear, than was all the exposure, hunger and wounds during the war. It rankles in my heart still, and I am not reconstructed yet.” [Joslyn, The Biographical Roster Of The Immortal 600, p.122; there is a slightly retouched wartime photo in Thomas, History Of The Doles-Cook Brigade, facing p.310.]
Bill. I've been writing a book on the blackpowder sharpshooter and am almost finish. I'm quite impressed by your project and wish you much luck with it.
Do you have anything on the Harvard Grads who were among Lee's ANV?
Give me a day or so and I'll get back to you about Harvard graduates.
Best of luck with your own project...I hope it reaches fruition.
FALLIGANT, Robert
Born in Savannah, Ga., on 12th January 1839. Educated at Cherokee Baptist College & U.Va. [still at latter in 1861]. Enlisted in Albermarle Artillery in July 1861. In April 1862 he was transferred to the Sumter Artillery and promoted Sgt-Major. Promoted 2nd Lieut. after Sharpsburg and assigned to Milledge's Ga. Battery. After Gettysburg he was assigned to Frazer's Battery, Cabell's Bn. On the subject of Cold Harbor, on 1st June 1864, fellow-artillerist Robert Stiles described how Falligant's single gun played a vital role in protecting the right flank of Kershaw's Brigade; he wrote:- "It may just as well be added now that this lone gun held the right of Kershaw's Brigade line that evening and night - it was getting dark when the extreme advanced position was reached - and all the next day, and was moved back by hand the night of the 2nd of June. I have no hesitation in saying that in all my experience as a soldier I never witnessed more gallant action than this of Lieutenant Falligant and his dauntless cannoneers, nor do I believe that any officer of his rank made a more important contribution than he to the success of the Confederate arms in the great historic battle...Up to the night of the 2nd of June, when it was moved back, every time Falligant's gun fired while I was at headquarters, General Kershaw would repeat his admiration of his courage, and ask me to explain to him again and again the isolated and exposed position of the piece, and then he would express his determination that Falligant's gallantry and services should receive their merited award..." Appointed Adjt. of the Bn. shortly before Appomattox. He escaped from the latter place with elements of the cavalry, and was paroled at Augusta. Studied law after the surrender and was admitted to the bar. Later served as state legislator & judge. Alive in Savannnah in 1900. [Derry, Confederate Military History of Georgia, pp.645-646; Stiles, Four Years Under Marse Robert, pp.275-276 & 277-278.]
Born in New Hanover Co., N.C., in c.1839. Farmer. Pvt., Co.G, 3rd N.C. Inf.: 1 February 1862. Sgt.: 10 February 1862. Elected 2nd Lieut. t.r.f. 1 July 1862. Captain: 17 September 1862. "An amiable gentleman, fine scholar and one of the bravest of men." Assistant-Surgeon Wood recalled: “He was a young man about 21, a graduate, or a student of the University of N.C. He was beardless, fat, of a florid complexion, fresh and plump as a girl, and having as much gentleness of a girl. He was a man of the most rigid adherence to his duty. While amiable and affectionate and careful of the feeling of others, he never hesitated to do his duty however disagreeable. He was very brave, but strange to say he was not a secessionist, did not believe that we could succeed against the North, and didn't consider it desirable if we could because of the dissensions which would spring up in the new Confederacy, but always deported himself in the battle with the coolest courage. Of course he kept his opinions for his intimate friends. He was remarkable fortunate in battle having gone through every battle of his Regt. to the 10th of May 1864 at Spotsylvania without a scratch.” While at Hagerstown on the retreat from Gettysburg, “an accident happened to Capt. Ned Armstrong. He was examining a little Smith and Wesson pistol and it went off shooting him through the palm of his hand. This excellent officer had been the most fortunate one of our Regiment - had not a scratch in all the hard battles, and had never missed a battle. One of his friends joked him about it, and it mortified him greatly. Some of the trifling men had a trick of deliberately shooting off a finger or a thumb, so as to avoid the battles, and a joking insinuation of this sort was hard to bear. Armstrong bore his suffering patiently, but after a few hours the pain was so great and such rapid inflammation ensued, that I had to take him in charge. He made a good recovery and was soon back at his post.” “Armstrong came frequently to my quarters, and his visits were always pleasant. His disposition was so happy, he seemed to live to do his duty because of the pleasure it gave him. He was firmly settled in his belief that the war was to end disastrously to us, but he was always the same, apparently very little distressed when he went into battle. [Cicero] Craig[e] and Armstrong were the opposites to each other, and had many a stiff argument over the conduct of the war.” Mortally wounded at the Bloody Angle at Spotsylvania – died on 7 June: “Among the wounded were Captain Ned Armstrong, who had his arm shattered, and who by desperate effort escaped to the rear. Poor fellow, his arm was resected and he died of his wound - the first one he had ever received.” [North Carolina Troops 1861-65, A Roster (c) Historical Data Systems, Inc. @ www.civilwardata.com; Wood, Some Recollections Of My Life For My Children, @ http://library.uncwil.edu/special/TFWdiary.html]
I so much enjoy reading this thread as you give background on what was before just names and dates. I know I have said this before, but what a wonderful job you have done here. I hope that you will publish a work as it would be a great reference work for any serious Civil War scholar.
Sincerely,
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Born at Falmouth, Va., on 24th December 1843. Attended V.M.I. Enlisted on 20th April 1861. On 9th May he was assigned as drillmaster to the 13th Va. Inf. Cadet & acting A.D.C. to Elzey: May 1862. 1st Lieut. & A.D.C. to A.P.Hill.: 14th June 1862. [Some sources state that he was promoted Captain, although the Appomattox Paroles still list him as 1st Lieut.] His horse was killed by the volley which wounded Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville. Wounded in 1864. At Appomattox. Farmer in King George Co., Va. Then moved to Alabama to raise cotton. Then became a rancher in California, having moved to Bakersfield in 1877. Married Butler Brayne Thornton. Living in San Simeon, Ca., in 1904. Returned to Va. in c.1907, and died at Fredericksburg on 20th November 1909. Buried in Union Cemetery, Bakersfield. “The war had impoverished the captain….in 1892 [in California] he was employed by recently widowed Phoebe Apperson Hearst as overseer to her 48,000 acre Rancho Piedra Blanca in San Luis Obispo County. Under the Virginian’s management this former Mexican land grant became the nucleus of the fabulous San Simeon Ranch. Taylor was handsomely rewarded for his services to the Hearst family and when he retired in 1908, Phoebe Apperson presented him with the deed to “Fall Hill”, the Taylor ancestral estate in Spotsylvania County.” [Buckley, A Frenchman, A Chaplain, A Rebel, pp.139-140; Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.282.]
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