Lee's Officers - Page 2

bill_torrens · #11 02-05-2005, 04:15 AM

PALMER, William Henry Born in Richmond, Va., on 9th October 1835. Son of William Palmer & Elizabeth Walker Enders. At the age of 15 he began work as bookkeeper to his father. He later sailed with the ships of the Old Dominion Steamship Company. Then worked as a merchant in Richmond. Married Sarah Peck [or Sarah Elizabeth] Amiss on 26th November 1856. Lieut., Co.D, 1st Va. Inf.: 21st April 1861. Acting A.Q.M.: May to June 1861. Regt’l Adjt.: 12th September 1861. Major: 27th April 1862. Wounded in right arm at Williamsburg. Major & V.A.D.C. to Kemper: August 1862. Major & A.A.A.G. to A.P. Hill: October 1862. Wounded at Chancellorsville: he was speeding to join Hill after Jackson’s wounding when his horse was killed and he was thrown to the ground so violently that his right arm was dislocated, and he was out of action for several months. Major & A.A.G. to Hill: 2nd May 1863. Lt-Colonel & A.A.G. to Hill: 19th February 1864. Described as “polished, highly organized, and indefatigable, Palmer became Hill’s most trusted aide.” He also became the Chief of Staff. He had to tell Hill’s widow of the general’s death. A.A.G. to Henry Heth and/or Longstreet during the retreat to Appomattox. Lt-Col. & A.A.G., 3rd Corps, at Appomattox. Married Elizabeth Amiss. Post-war commission merchant & banker in Richmond. “At 85 he worked as though he were half that age, and at 90, whenever he could muster the strength, nothing could deter him from going to his office. Sometimes he had to struggle with confusion of tongue, and as old age struck hard at him he had to recover his footing, so to say, before he could shape his thought. But always he persisted and always in the end memory, judgment and strong reason answered to the call of his will. There was something magnificent about that dogged defiance of his!” Died on 14th July 1926. Buried in Hollywood Cemetery. [Robertson, General A.P.Hill: The Story of a Confederate Warrior, ••••••, 189, 319; Ferguson, Hollywood Cemetery, Her Forgotten Soldiers: Confederate Field Officers At Rest, p.92; Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.236.] Another biographical sketch can be seen at http://www.aphillcsa.com/Palmer.html

If anyone is wondering about the row of red asterisks above, it appears that the software for deleting obscenities has taken exception to my reference to page one hundred and fifty five. Think about it.

(Message edited by Bill_torrens on February 05, 2005)

bill_torrens · #12 02-06-2005, 04:49 AM

CROCKETT, Robert Hamilton Born in Paris, Tennessee, on 15th February 1832. Son of John Crockett & Martha Hamilton. Grandson of Davy Crockett. Graduate of the Kentucky Military Institute. Married Sallie F. Lewis in Memphis in 1852. Married Mary B. Lewis in 1855. In 1856 the town of Hillsboro, Ark., was renamed Crockett’s Bluff in his honour. Captain, Co.H, 1st Arkansas Infantry: 1861. "The First Arkansas Infantry was sent to the defense of Richmond early in the war, and placed with Bate's First Tennessee...at the mouth of Aquia Creek, near the memorable city of Fredericksburg. Captain, afterwards Colonel, Robert W. [sic] Crockett, a grandson of the heroic Davy Crockett, commanded one of its companies. That fact was made known along the route, and crowds assembled to greet Captain Crockett...Captain Bob had an exhaustless fund of humor and anecdote, and enjoyed a joke. Seeing that the admirers of his grandfather were dubious of him in his trim uniform and modish appearance, he got somewhere an old coon-skin and shaped it into a rude cap, with the tail hanging down behind, and on suitable occasions produced it as his grandfather's, to the immense delight of the spectators, saying, "Those old fellows had larger heads than are fashionable at this time" as the cap came down over his ears and eyes, and flowing black locks. At Fredericksburg he soon became a social as well as military lion. Dr Blackman, a hospitable old citizen, took a great fancy to this grandson of the Tennessee Congressman...He went around with him, always introducing him as such, and invariably adding that "he knew his grandfather intimately". On one occasion Captain Bob introduced one of his men to Dr Blackman as "Mr Crusoe, grandson of Robinson Crusoe". The good old doctor greeted young Crusoe with his accustomed warmth, remarking that "although he did not know his grandfather personally, he had read about him and was proud to make the acquaintance of his patriotic descendant." Pvt., Co.E, 18th Ark. Inf.: 27th March 1862. Major: 2nd April 1862. Colonel: 5th October 1862. Appointed provost marshal at Washington, Ark., on 16th January 1865. Lawyer in Keaton, Ark., in 1880. State Senator: 1884-1888. Died in Stuttgart, Ark., in January 1891. [Confederate Veteran, 1894, p.89]

bill_torrens · #13 02-07-2005, 04:37 AM

OTEY, James C. Born in 1826. Resident of Lynchburg, Va. Sgt., Davidson Battery (Co.C, 13th Bn., Va. Artillery): 14th April 1862. On sick leave in Lynchburg: 28th February 1863. 3rd Lieut.: 1st May 1863. On 21st July 1864 he formally waived all claim to promotion to command of that battery, thus enabling Ham Chamberlayne to acquire the captaincy. E.P. Alexander, writing about the Battle of The Crater, recalled that "Gibbes' two guns were a part of our main front line and in quite a prominent location - Gen. Humphreys speaks of them as in a ravine, but the position was really on a knoll and their only protection was their own parapets and traverses. For perhaps an hour after the explosion, under the heavy fire of the enemy's guns, this battery was silent, the officer in charge of it becoming demoralized. After the battle charges were preferred against the lieutenant (Otey) who had acted badly. He was convicted of cowardice and sentenced to death, and had all arrangements made to shoot him when he was pardoned by President Davis, of which I have since been very glad. For the strain of that position, that morning, was very severe upon men of little experience in action" William N. Pendleton wrote that Gibbes’s “left gun…was culpably left for a time unserved, through the misbehavior of Lieut. James C. Otey, who, owing to a combination of circumstances, was the only officer at the time present with the company.” Jennings C. Wise wrote: “This unfortunate young officer, the first and last in the whole career of Lee’s Artillery Corps to abandon his guns in cowardice, seems to have been entirely unmanned by the awfulness of the cataclysm, in which he and his men had all but been engulfed. Let us not be too harsh in our judgment of him. Let us imagine ourselves in his position and ask if the mere thought of such an experience as that through which he had passed does not shake our resolution. If poor Otey were at fault, then he has long since atoned for his misdoing. To the writer he is more to be pitied, and demands more of charity than any other soldier in that grand artillery corps of Lee’s Army. Would that his name might not be mentioned, but there it is in black and white in the record for all time. The hand of mortal cannot obliterate it, the stain is indelible. The incident is not recounted here to hold Otey up to scorn, but to show that misconduct before the enemy was so rare, so unheard of in Lee’s Artillery, that even on the part of a miserable, insignificant youth, it attracted the attention of an army.” Was dismissed from the service on 10th September 1864. Someone of the same name subsequently served as a private in the Alleghany Light Artillery. He was captured at Five Forks on 1st April 1865. P.O.W. in Point Lookout. Took the oath there on 15th June. Entered the Confederate Soldiers’ Home in Richmond on 9th February 1890. Died there on 22nd June 1890. (Wise’s reference to Otey as a “youth” casts some doubt upon the year of birth being 1826.) [Gallagher, Fighting For The Confederacy, pp.466 & 604; Wise, The Long Arm Of Lee, p.866; Official Records, I, 40, 1, p.760; The Virginia Regimental Histories Series (c) Historical Data Systems, Inc. @ www.civilwardata.com]

bill_torrens · #14 02-08-2005, 05:19 AM

BAKER, John Algernon Born in New Hanover Co., N.C., in c.1833. Educated at Yale & Columbia (S.C.) College. In 1860 he was a lawyer in Wilmington, married to Minerva and with one child. Lieut., Wilmington Light Artillery: 16th May 1861. Resigned, to serve as A.D.C. on the staff of S.G. French. Colonel, 3rd N.C. Cav.: 3rd September 1862. Captured near Petersburg on 21st June 1864. One of “The Immortal 600”. McHenry Howard was a fellow-prisoner in Fort Delaware and recorded that Baker “made visits, I think several, to General Schoepf’s headquarters which we distrusted….believing that Colonel Baker would be speedily exchanged, and apprehending that he might play the part of a Benedict Arnold, for we understood that he commanded an important part of the cavalry line when captured, General Vance and some of us consulted how we could get a warning to Richmond…I have been told that he went to the West Indies and never returned home…” Took the oath on 6th March 1865. The following passage from Whitelaw Reid’s account of his travels through the South in 1865-66 appears to relate to this individual: “Another gentleman in the company, introduced as ‘Mr.’ Baker – a tall, slender man, of graceful manners, and evident culture and experience – had been through nearly the whole war as Colonel of a North Carolina Rebel regiment. Strangely enough, Colonel Baker claimed to have been a Union man all the time, from which some idea may be had of the different phases Unionism in the South has assumed. His father had been a Unionist of unquestioned firmness; but the son, returning from Europe in the midst of the secession enthusiasm, found the social pressure of his circle too much to withstand. ‘I was forced,’ he naively said, ‘to raise a regiment in order to retain my influence in the community!’ And, with equal naivete, he added, that if he had not thus retained his influence, he could now have been of no use in aiding to compose these difficulties! He pointed out a fine rice plantation on the bank of the river, which he had owned, but about his title to which, now, he seemed to have some doubts.” Married six times in all. Died in St Mary’s Infirmary, Galveston, on 15 March 1903. Buried in the Calvary Catholic Cemetery in an unmarked grave. “He was the finest-looking man I ever saw: a perfect Antinous, very tall and muscular, and looked as if he were about to step into the Olympic Arena…” [Joslyn, Biographical Roster of the Immortal 600, p.33; Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.65; Howard, Recollections of a Maryland Confederate Officer, pp.324-326; Reid, After The War: A Tour of the Southern States 1865-1866, pp.42-43.]

bill_torrens · #15 02-09-2005, 05:23 AM

GOODMAN, Robert Hope Born near Athens, Ga., on 21 February 1819. Son of John Goodman. Merchant in Athens. Democrat & Mason. Married Caroline Mason in 1849. 2nd Lieut., Co.D, Cobb's Legion Inf. Bn. His health broke down at some point during the war, and he returned to Ga., joining the state troops. “In July 1865, when Atlanta was a pile of smoking ruins and scarcely a building stood to mark the city’s site, Captain Goodman set forth from Athens in a wagon to drive to Atlanta through the open country. On his way he stopped at Decatur, bought a little store house, took it to pieces largely with his own hands, mounted it on the wagon and came on until he reached the corner of what is now Peachtree street and Auburn avenue. There he put the timbers of his little store together again and started a general merchandise business. It marked the beginning of the present-day Atlanta. He continued in that vicinity until 1878. Then his wife’s health grew feebler – she suffered from asthma – and he sold out and went to Oregon, remaining in that state five years. On his return in 1883 he bought a farm in DeKalb county on what is now called the Fair street road. He lived there until his wife’s death in 1894, when he made his home with his son, •••. Goodman, on Peeples Street. For several years past Captain Goodman’s declining years have kept him from active business. He was hale and vigorous, however, and like a young man in his outlook upon life until about six weeks ago when he suffered a stroke of paralysis. That was the immediate cause of his death.” [Atlanta Journal, 28th August 1909]

The red dots obliterate the son's initials, which are C and M. This software obviously has a few glitches.

bill_torrens · #16 02-10-2005, 05:21 AM

JACKSON, Alfred Henry Born in McConnelsville, Ohio, on 1st January 1836. Graduated from Washington College in 1857. Married Mary Blair Paxton in 1858. Lawyer & deputy U.S. Marshal in Lewis Co., Va. Captain, Co.I, 31st Va. Inf.: 21st July 1861. Resigned on 10th December 1861. Major & A.A.G. to Stonewall Jackson: November 1861 to May 1862. The following entry from the diary of Jed Hotchkiss, dated 10th May 1862, may relate to this individual: “the General called me aside…and directed me to ride back, with all possible dispatch, and blockade the roads leading through North River and Dry River gaps…taking as many of the cavalry encamped near there, under Maj. Jackson, as I wanted. I told him I wished to have nothing to do with that officer, as he was a drunkard.” He was a cousin of Stonewall, but left the staff “at the suggestion of General Jackson, because of his fondness for late sleeping, a habit which was anathema to General Jackson” Lt-Colonel, 31st Va. Inf.: 1st May 1862. Wounded at Cedar Mountain. Died from the effects of this wound in Lexington on 1st August 1863. Buried there in the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery. [Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, pp.169-170; McDonald, Make Me A Map Of The Valley, p.43; Bean, Stonewall’s Man: Sandie Pendleton, p.50, n.21.]

bill_torrens · #17 02-11-2005, 03:54 AM

BROWN, Daniel Edward Born in 1842. Son of Samuel Brown & Helena Vandiver. Enlisted in the 2nd S.C. Rifles in 1861. On 16th April of that year his mother wrote to his older brother: “Sunday morning I sent out for help and had Edward two flannel shirts made and cooked for him three days’ provisions. Those were his orders and at twelve o’clock he and your father left. Oh, Newton, what a trial to part with him! He is so young and never was from home a week at a time in his life. He is just like you, always at home attending to his business. A better boy never lived. What a comfort he is to me. He is so steady that I am not afraid of his being drawn off.…When his Father told him he was ready to start, he commenced telling them good-bye. He burst into tears. I told him to be a good soldier, he was in a glorious cause, he was going to fight for his country and to cheer up…but Newton, we miss him everywhere.” His father died in 1862, and afterwards “Edward received a furlough to visit his mother. When leaving, he assured her that as soon as the war was ended, if living, he would return home to stay with her – that he would not marry while she lived so that he could devote his life entirely to caring for her.” Adjt., 14th S.C. Inf.: February 1864. Mortally wounded at Spotsylvania on 12th May 1864 "by three balls in charging the works". Died in a Washington D.C. hospital on 24th May. Buried in Section 16 of Arlington National Cemetery. Another source states that he is in Hollywood Cemetery: possibly he was reinterred. [Brown, A Colonel At Gettysburg & Spotsylvania, pp.36-38, 74 & 102.]

bill_torrens · #18 02-13-2005, 06:23 AM

PATTERSON, George Born in 1828. Son of Petro Papathakes & Louisa Miles. "The quality noted about him was his deep learning, which he seems to have acquired more in remote and primitive Wisconsin than scholarly Cambridge, for he trained for the ministry at Nashotah House in the northwestern state then, for reasons that are not apparent but possibly because of his deep regard for the welfare of the slaves, he applied to the Episcopal Bishop of North Carolina in 1850 for an assignment. He became a candidate for orders in the North State, was ordained deacon in 1852 and priest in 1856, and took over the pastorate of Somerset Place on Lake Scuppernong, near the eastern shore." Chaplain, 3rd N.C. Inf.: 30th December 1862. Randolph McKim described him: “I found the men all much attached to him – malgre his eccentricities and his very rigid churchmanship. He was a true and a brave man and did his duty faithfully as he understood it. Before the war he had been a chaplain on a plantation of North Carolina, where there were 500 negroes, of whom 180 were communicants of the Episcopal Church. The master paid him a salary of $3,000 a year for his services…Such was Patterson’s influence over them that the previous winter he had ‘brought away 175 of them out of the Federal lines, under shell fire and without any guard, and entirely of their own accord.’ He told them Lincoln had made them all free, but had no right to do it, and they would be sinful to leave their masters, but could do as they chose. And I was told that not one of the 500 ran away.” The Boston Herald of 14th June 1863 reported the death of Col. William O. Stevens as a prisoner of war, and stated that Patterson, “finding him in a room with fourteen other wounded men, was attracted to his side, procured for him a bed and a private room, for thirty-six hours, watched over him as if it were his own father; washed his body and bathed his temples, gave him medicine and nourishments, spoke with him of his wife, his boys, his parents and his friends, and commended him in prayer….the Chaplain said [to] our informant, ‘I was born in Boston; my father was a Greek; my mother, if alive, resides in Rayham, Massachusetts. Go and see her; tell her of her son, for she does not know that I am alive.’ The father of this Rev. George Patterson kept a fruit store in this city, at No. 14 School street.” Also served as chaplain at Chimborazo Hospital. Campbell Brown described him as “so eccentric as to be fairly thought half-crazy.” Lived in Wilmington & Memphis, Tenn., after the war. Died "recently" before 1901. McHenry Howard understood that Patterson "had made a vow of poverty, even giving up his watch, and had gone to Texas and died there. With some eccentricities - perhaps it would be better to say with great simplicity of character - he was a good man and a most attentive and faithful chaplain, and I think the officers and men were much attached to him." [Howard, Recollections Of A Confederate Maryland Soldier, p.226; McKim, A Soldier’s Recollections, pp.139-140; Jones, Campbell Brown’s Civil War, p.53.]

bill_torrens · #19 02-13-2005, 11:53 AM

THOMPSON, Charles Gratiot Born in Baltimore, Md., on 28th June 1833. Baptised at Christ Church, Baltimore, on 4th August 1833. Son of Henry A. Thompson & Julie Zelina de Macklot. Sgt., 1st Maryland Artillery: 6th July 1861. In late March 1863 he was assigned as acting Lieut. & O.O. to McGowan’s Brigade. On 27th October 1863 Alex. Haskell received two jugs of Sorghum whiskey and shared them with some friends. He recalled “our Ordnance Officer, Lieut. Thompson of Baltimore, walking up to the great log fire, grave as a judge and as drunk. ‘How sweet to rest there,’ said he, and quietly proceeded to lay himself across the fire.” Lieut. & O.O. to McGowan by May 1864. On the morning of 6th April 1865 McHenry Howard met up with Thompson, an old friend:- “He asked me how I was getting along, and on my replying, badly enough, and giving some details, he said, after a little hesitation, ‘Well old fellow, I have fared better, having spent last night with my wagons. And I have some apple brandy in my canteen which I will divide with you.’ I had no canteen, for I never liked wearing anything around my shoulder. I tried to borrow one, but being unsuccessful, said to him, “Grash, I will ride along with you and take my half as we go.’” At Appomattox. Krick states that he initially went to Canada, and then moved to Massachusetts. He married Sophia Underwood in Boston on 27th December 1866, and had one daughter. In the 1880 census he was living in Ward Two, Newton, Ma., and his occupation was given as “retired”. Died in Winchester, Ma., on 16th May 1889. [Howard, Recollections of a Maryland Confederate Soldier, p.378; Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.286; Daly, Alexander Cheves Haskell: The Portrait Of A Man, p.114.]

bill_torrens · #20 02-14-2005, 09:13 AM

OFFUTT, Nathaniel G. Born in Louisiana in c.1831. Only son of a wealthy planter. Graduated from Georgetown University in 1860. Planter in St Landry Parish. Captain, Co.C, 6th La. Inf.: 4 June 1861. Major: 25 May 1862. Lt-Colonel: 27 June 1862: “a move which was not applauded by many in the regiment. There was talk in the ranks that the major had been less than brave in recent battles, hanging back out of danger when the brigade attacked at Port Republic and again at Gaines Mill….[at Malvern Hill] the common talk in the ranks had it that the lieutenant colonel had lurked behind a large tree, feigning a wound, and had been carried off by the ambulance corps. This was the third report of Offutt’s cowardice in the face of the enemy, and resentment began to boil among the men and some of the company captains. When Offutt returned to the regiment the day after the battle with no evidence of having suffered any wound, the disgusted officers began to consider what steps they might take..... ” On 17 July two officers of the 6th wrote a letter, which was additionally signed by five privates and a sergeant, detailing Offutt’s behaviour. At Port Republic he “remained behind with the ambulances and was rebuked by a private soldier for so doing.” At Gaines Mill, “when his regiment was ordered to charge the lines of the enemy, [he] remained at the foot of the hill sheltered by a tree, completely out of danger, and was there during the whole time his regiment was under fire, a space of one hour and a half, displaying a palpable instance of cowardice.” By August he was in hospital in Lynchburg, “complaining of health problems.” He resigned on 5 or 7 November 1862. [Gannon, Irish Rebels, Confederate Tigers, pp.84, 90, 142-4, 328.]