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Born at Somertton, Nansemond Co., Va., on 1 June 1832. Son of Washington Smith, a prosperous merchant and planter in Suffolk and in N.C. Worked as a merchant and clerk in Suffolk and North Carolina. 2nd Lieut., Co.A, 16th Va. Inf.: 17 April 1861. Promoted 1st Lieut. by May 1863. Wounded at Malvern Hill, Spotsylvania & Hatchers Run. At Spotsylvania he was struck by a minie ball in his right thigh, and was carried back to the field hospital. Finding that this location was under enemy fire he was directed to the division hospital two miles away: “but he was then too weak to hobble further. His comrade found a wheelbarrow and with the aid of another lifted him into it and placed him as comfortably as possible…this is probably the only instance on record where a wounded soldier rode from a battlefield in a wheel-barrow.” Repeatedly refused offers of promotion. On one occasion Gnl. Mahone sent a messenger to offer him the quartermastership of the regiment. Smith replied “I won’t accept it”, expecting the courier to dress it up – which he didn’t. Mahone responded: “Well, we’ll see if he won’t” and interviewed him on the subject. Nevertheless, he indulged Smith and didn’t force the promotion on him. At Appomattox. Returned to mercantile business for a few years after the war, but then gave it up to devote himself to managing his estate. Married Harriet G. Borland [d.1890] in 1869. Alive in 1900. Buried in Cedar Hill Cemetery. [Trask, 16th Virginia Infantry, p.117; Stewart, A Pair of Blankets, pp.132-133.]
Born in Winchester, Virginia, on 11th October 1835. Son of Dr Hugh Holmes McGuire & Anne Elizabeth Moss. Educated at Winchester Medical College, U.Pa. & Jefferson Medical College. Became professor of anatomy at Winchester Medical College in 1856. In 1858 he moved to Philadelphia and worked as an instructor in surgery. “At the time of the John Brown raid at Harper’s Ferry, becoming justly offended by the comments regarding that affair, he organized a movement which resulted in all the Southern medical students at Philadelphia, over three hundred in number, leaving that city and entering the medical college of Virginia.” Returned to Winchester in 1860. Pvt., Co.F, 2nd Va. Inf.: 1861. Surgeon: May 1861. Surgeon of the Stonewall Brigade: 1861. Medical director of the Army of the Valley: July 1861. Jed Hotchkiss described him: “The Doctor is one of my brother George sort of men, blunt, good humored, and full of honest life.” Medical Director of the 2nd Corps. McHenry Howard described an occasion in January 1863 when Jubal Early, Robert Rodes and another general visited Jackson’s headquarters for dinner: “A turkey – I think it was – was placed on the table in the large tent in which we were, and at this monent General Jackson went out for some purpose, possibly to say a long grace all by himself. Dr. McGuire, who had been lying down on his pallet along one side of the tent, sprang to his feet, with a suddenness which almost startled me, ‘Gentlemen,’ said he, ‘wouldn’t you like to have a drink before dinner?’ The general officers made no reply, but looked one. McGuire reached down and pulled out a canteen from under his bed and thrust it into the hands of one of the major-generals, saying, ‘Drink quick, the General will be back in a moment,’ and these three generals, high in rank, and I – longo intervallo – drank hurriedly, like schoolboys doing something wrong on the sly. McGuire hastily shoved the canteen back and we all straightened up just as Jackson reentered, whereupon we sat down to dinner.” In his diary for 8th March 1863 Jed Hotchkiss wrote: “Dr. McGuire buried his servant today and he is very sad, mourns for him as for a brother.” He appears to have been professionally innovative: “Some effort was made to procure animal virus. Surgeon Hunter Holmes McGuire…attempted to obtain vaccine virus from the udder of the cow early in 1863. Lafayette Guild, the army’s medical director, expressed the fear, however, that virus procured from the cow ‘may develop in the persons to whom it is immediately applied, a form of the disease in itself infectious’ and was ‘unwilling that the Army should be promiscuously vaccinated with it.” Captured at Waynesboro on 2nd March 1865. According to DeWitt Clinton Gallaher, “he told me he was trying to escape and had reached a piece of woods, where the Brandon Hotel now stands….[he] tried to jump his horse over a low rail fence and get into the woods. But alas! His horse fell with him! An officer told the fellow to put his gun down, saying ‘He’s my prisoner.’ The Dr. told me he was a Mason and that he made a Masonic sign and the Yankee officer being a Mason also had saved his life. He said the enemy treated him very nicely and paroled him.” He must have been exchanged very quickly, since he was at Appomattox. (His speedy release appears to have been an acknowledgement of his role in securing the release of captured Federal surgeons; the issue is discussed in Cunningham’s Doctors In Gray.) After the war he founded the University College of Medicine and was professor of Surgery at the Virginia Medical College until 1878. Married Mary Baldwin Stuart on 9th December 1866, and had nine or ten children. Was appointed President of the American Medical Association in 1893, “when he recommended the establishment of a national department of health.” Died in Richmond on 19th September 1900. Buried in Hollywood. [Hotchkiss, Confederate Military History Of Virginia, pp.1019-1020; McDonald, Make Me A Map Of The Valley, pp.22 & 119; Ferguson, Hollywood Cemetery, Her Forgotten Soldiers: Confederate Field Officers At Rest, p.75; Howard, Recollections Of A Maryland Confederate Soldier, p.191; Cunningham, Doctors In Gray: The Confederate Medical Service, pp.130, 198, 273.] Further information may be found at http://www.huntermcguire.goellnitz.org/
The thumbnail photo is of his statue in Capitol Square, Richmond
Last edited by bill_torrens; 03-25-2005 at 06:37 AM.
Bill,
I have started reading these, for a while I thought I would never catch up, but I'm almost there, these are fantastic, not only do they cover their serves but also little personal bits really make these great. I hope you will be able to publish these one day because I would love to be a customer. I especially enjoy the photos, one can't help but take their hat off to your exceptional work.
James
I'm so pleased that you enjoy reading these little biographies. I have plenty left to share with you and anyone else who is interested.
In terms of publishing the material on CD-ROM, there is nothing technically or logistically stopping me doing it. (Although I couldn't publish the photos.) But there are some copyright issues I need to sort out. I am a little worried about them, I must confess.
Born at White Post, Clarke Co., Va., in c.1836. Son of John Fouchee Fauntleroy & Lavinia Beverly Turner. Pvt., Co.D, 1st Va. Cavalry: 4th June 1861. Transferred to Co.D, 6th Va. Cavalry, on 12th September 1861. 1st Lieut. & Ordnance Officer, Stuart Horse Artillery: 15th October 1861. Captain on the staff of Henry T. Allen: 15th September 1863. E.P.Alexander wrote: "Among my subordinate officers at different jobs about this time I recall a very striking character, T. Kinloch Fauntleroy from somewhere in West Virginia. He combined in himself the reddest head, the most freckled face, the worst crossed eyes & the most terrible stammering I ever heard, with the most perfect sang-froid & self possession, and absolute freedom from self-consciousness, that I ever met...He first entered the army as a private in a cav. regt. & was once detailed as courier at hdqrs., when we were at Fairfax, & Prest. Davis was there on a visit. Fauntleroy, lying on grass in the yard, with another courier, said he wished Mr D. would make him a lieut. The other courier laughed and said, "Why don't you go and ask him?" - Mr D. at the time sitting in the porch with one of the genls. F. immediately walked up in the porch & saluting Mr D. asked him "please to make him a lieut." After a few questions Mr D. told him that when he returned to Richd. he would send him a commission, when F. stammered, "N-n-n-now, Mr President, can I rely upon you?" Well he got his commission, but after being attached to a battery of arty. for six months, he was not popular & they got rid of him some how, & he was sent to Gen. Johnston's headquarters for assignment, & I took him & put him in charge of a little outfit I had at Gordonsville altering old flintlock muskets to percussion. He once sent me a long telegram to Yorktown about his business & the telegraph operator getting his name & his business confused, put his signature to it as "T. Flintlock Fauntleroy". Gen. Johnston's staff got hold of it and Fauntleroy was ever afterwards known throughout the army solely as "Flint-lock Fauntleroy..." By 1863 he was a Major in the artillery at the Battle of Baton Rouge. “In another skirmish on the Red River, Fauntleroy’s guns turned back the Union fleet. Union Admiral Farragut sent the enemy a note which said, ‘My compliments to Major Fauntleroy….with my ships and your battery, I believe we could capture hell.’ ” Paroled at Shreveport on 14th June 1865. Had married Augusta Bright in 1864, and had three children. Post-war Methodist minister in Rushton, La. Married Elizabeth H.Y. Morgan in 1877, and had a further three children. [Alexander, Fighting For The Confederacy, p.76.]
Born in 1836 in Orangeburg, S.C. Educated at S.C. College, S.C. Medical College and U. Pa. Medical School. Surgeon, Hampton Legion, in 1861. On 22nd May 1861 Mary Chesnut wrote:- "Met John Darby in Atlanta and told him he was surgeon of the Hampton Legion, which delighted him. He had had adventures. He had remained a little too long in the Medical College in Philadelphia [the Philadelphia School of Anatomy] where he was some kind of professor; and they were within an ace of hanging him as a Southern spy. 'The rope was ready,' he chuckled. We had only a few moments on the platform to interchange confidences. At Atlanta, when he unguardedly said he was fresh from Philadelphia, he had barely escaped another lynching. There he was taken up as a Northern spy. 'Lively life among you, both sides,' he said, hurrying away." Appointed Surgeon of Hood's Division on 24th November 1862. After Chickamauga he travelled to Europe to pick up a false leg for Hood. Married Mary C. Preston in September 1864. Post-war Professor of Surgery at the New York College of Surgeons, "but died not long after he took that position." Had served briefly in the medical corps of the Prussian army during the Austro-Prussian War of 1866: “He was highly praised for his work in organizing the Prussian hospital and ambulance corps and was reported to have rendered valuable aid at both staff and line levels.” On his return to America he became Professor of Surgery at the University of the City of New York. Died in 1879. [Cunningham, Doctors In Gray: The Confederate Medical Service, p.272; Turner, Even More Confederate Faces, p.37; Simpson, Hood’s Texas Brigade: A Compendium, p.399.]
May I say once again, 'well done' on this thread you have created and maintained by such careful research and craftsmanship. I enjoy coming here and seeing the new additions.
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
I'm sorry I can't supply any Federal officers for your reading pleasure...perhaps someone else is engaged in a similar project on one of the Union armies. Although the numbers involved would be more than a little daunting.
GREENE, Benjamin H.
Born in Georgetown, S.C., on 17th September 1826. Civil engineer in Tennessee & Louisiana. V.A.D.C. to R.S. Ewell in July 1861. Major & C.S. to Ewell: 2nd September 1861. Major & C.S. to Early: August 1862. Major & A.A.I.G. to ewell: 16th June 1863. On 27th June 1863, in Carlisle, Pa., Ewell's Corps had a flag-raising ceremony:- "It was a hot, sultry day. When the new flag, carefully sewn by the women of Richmond, was unveiled, Ewell refused to raise it because the banner was too small to impress the people from Carlisle. Tailors were summoned from the ranks and told to stitch a new ensign, using the full-sized battle flag of the Thirty-Second North Carolina. While they worked away, a keg of lager beer was tapped by the Rebel officers who were scheduled to speak that day. "It was the strongest I ever saw", Campbell Brown wrote later as an excuse. "I never saw Rodes intoxicated before." [Various semi-drunken speeches from senior officers then followed.] The men loved it, and they called for more. Major Ben Greene seized the podium, smiled, waved his hands, and began to talk. "He was utterly incoherent," Campbell ruefully remembered. As the troops laughed and jeered, someone reached out and yanked Major Greene by the coattails from view. Loud boos greeted Greene's sudden departure, and as the soldiers began crying for still more speeches, consternation swept the stage. No one wanted to step up and face the jeering mob. Finally, a volunteer surged to the front and began to babble. It was Greene again, offering a "worse exhibition than before." At that moment, thankfully for the propriety of Lee's Army...the heavens intervened [with rain]." Brown described Grene again in October 1863: “Major Greene goes every day to the Rappahannock, to superintend the hauling of the R.Rd. iron, and is supposed to carry on an animated dialogue with Quartermasters, wagoners, &c., till four o’clock, when he comes home, exhausted, just too late for dinner.” Major & E.O. to Ewell: May 1864. Major & E.O. to Early: 28th May 1864. Hit by a spent bullet at Cold Harbor. Captured at Moorefield on 7th August 1864. Exchanged by February 1865. Paroled with the Army of Tennessee on 26th April 1865. Died on 4th January 1890. Buried in Live Oak Cemetery, Pass Christian, Miss. [Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.142; Jones, Campbell Brown’s Civil War, p.238.]
Born in Greene Co., Ala., in c.1831. Son of John D. Arrington & Elizabeth Cherry. In mercantile business with his brother George at Forkland, Ala. "At the beginning of the war in 1861, these two young men, with the care of their business, their mother and sister and the wife and child of the elder, decided that one should go to war, and the other remain for the present. Naturally the military service was assumed by the younger and unmarried, and James went to the front and gallantly sustained the honor of the family as aide-de-camp, with the rank of first lieutenant, on the staff of Gen. Robert E.Rodes." He initially served as a Pvt. in Co.D, 5th Ala. Inf. Lieut. & A.D.C. to Rodes: 12th March 1863. Severely wounded on 25th August 1864: “Rodes was distraught over the severe wound received by Lieutenant Arrington, his aide. His thigh had been broken by a musket-ball, an injury which was to prove fatal.” On 26th August Henry Beck of the 5th Alabama noted in his diary: “Sat up with Lieut. A. all night, after getting breakfast, started to the brigade which was two miles beyond Shephardstown, met Dr. Mitchell on the way, he concluded to move Lieut. A. today to Winchester. The ladies were extremely sorry to hear of it, returned to camp with Dr. M. Soon after arriving there rec’d orders to move back towards Leetown. On the way back stopped to assist Lieut. A. in the ambulance, saw him off. The parting of Lieut. A. with the ladies was very affecting, the latter being very sorry at his leaving them…” Wounded and captured at Winchester on 19th September 1864. P.O.W. in Fort Delaware, where "he contracted a pulmonary disease, from which he died at Winchester, Va., while on his way home, soon after the close of the war." [Swisher, Warrior In Gray, p.220; Krick, Staff Officers In Gray, p.63; Hubbs, Voices From Company D, p.309.]
Born in c.1826. Graduated from U.Ga. in 1846. Lawyer in Athens, Ga., “where his popularity was such, according to the Banner, that he was the first Democrat ever to be sent to the state legislature from the Whig-dominated town.” Married Rosa Huguenin. Captain, Co.C, Cobb’s Legion Cav: 1st August 1861. Major: 23rd May 1862. On 3rd October 1862 Tom Cobb wrote to his wife: “I wish you and Mrs Delony could have seen and heard Major D and myself last night. We lay on the grass in the dim moonlight long after all the others were asleep, and talked about home and the dear ones there and the hopes of peace and our plans and wishes for a quiet life by our firesides, You would have concluded that we were sick of war." Lt-Colonel: 1st November 1862. Wounded in face at Gettysburg. On 7th July 1863 he wrote to his wife from Williamsport: “My wound is on my forehead over [the right] eye and I have a severe cold, the consequence is a neuralgic pain in my eye which at times is insufferable." Mortally wounded at Brandy Station on 23rd September 1863: “I saw Major DeLoney, my former Captain, smiting Yankees right and left as he charged along in advance. He sat on his charger grandly, his fine physique and full mahogany beard flowing, he looked a very Titan war god, flushed with the exuberance and exhiliration of victory……golden-hearted, brave, brainy DeLoney, how his men loved him, and how he stood by them, contending always for their rights and looking after their comforts, when others would treat them indifferently! His heart and purse were ever open to their needs…..I admired his character so much that I gave up a first Lieutenancy in an infantry company at Americus and begged a private’s place in his company….he died in prison from a gun shot wound in the leg, received in battle at Jack’s Shop on the Robinson river, refusing to allow amputation, even though gangreen had set in” Died in a Washington D.C. hospital on 2nd October 1863. [Stegeman, These Men She Gave, pp.67-68, 87, 96; Howard, Sketch of Cobb Legion Cavalry and Some Incidents and Scenes Remembered, pp.7, 11.]
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