Cavalry Leader - MOH winner - Railroad Man, William Jackson Palmer

USS ALASKA

Captain
Joined
Mar 16, 2016
To go with post - https://civilwartalk.com/threads/railroad-acronyms.142266/page-4#post-1805006

Quite the man - quite the life...

William Jackson Palmer (September 18, 1836 – March 13, 1909) was an American civil engineer, soldier, industrialist, and philanthropist. During the Civil War, he was promoted to Brevet Brigadier General and was a Medal of Honor recipient.

Palmer's early career helping build and develop the expanding
railroads of the United States in Pennsylvania was interrupted by the American Civil War. He served in colorful fashion as a Union Army cavalry Colonel and was appointed to the brevet grade of Brigadier General. After the war, he contributed financially to educational efforts for the freed former slaves of the South.

Heading west in 1867, while Palmer helped build the
Kansas Pacific Railway he met a young English doctor, Dr. William Abraham Bell who became his friend and partner in most of his business ventures in which we would generally find Palmer as president with Bell as vice president. The two men are best known as co-founders of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (Rio Grande). The Rio Grande and its successors eventually operated the largest network of narrow gauge railroad in the United States, and ultimately became part of the 21st century Union Pacific Railroad.

Palmer and Bell are notable for observing in
Great Britain (Bell's country of origin) and helping introduce to the United States railroads, the practices of burning coal (rather than wood) and the use of narrow gauge railroading. He helped develop rail-related industries in Colorado, such as a large steel mill near Pueblo. He was the founder of the new city of Colorado Springs, in 1871, as well as several other communities. After moving west, Palmer continued his philanthropic efforts in his adopted home, particularly educational institutions of higher education.

Civil War service
As the
American Civil War began in 1861, although his Quaker upbringing made Palmer abhor violence, his passionate abolitionism compelled him in keeping with the dictates of his conscience to enlist in the Pennsylvania volunteers. Palmer took a commission in the Union Army. He organized the Anderson Troop, an independent company of Pennsylvania cavalry, in the fall of 1861 and was elected its captain. Originally formed to act as a bodyguard for Brig. Gen. Robert Anderson, it instead served as the headquarters cavalry for General Don Carlos Buell, commanding the Army of the Ohio. Impressed with the "elite scouts" that Palmer had assembled, Buell detailed Palmer and 12 of his men to go back to Pennsylvania to recruit more men to form a battalion around the Anderson Troop that would be known as the "1st Anderson Cavalry".

In ten days of recruiting, however, Palmer received enough applications for enlistment to form a regiment, which was authorized as the
15th Pennsylvania Cavalry. He was appointed the regiment's colonel. Before Palmer was able to organize the regiment at Camp Alabama in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he and a portion of it were ordered on September 9 to help the Army of the Potomac resist the Confederates invasion of Maryland. For nearly a week Palmer, accompanied by a telegrapher, personally sought information of Lee's movements every night in civilian clothing, and transmitted his findings to General George B. McClellan via telegraph connections.

Two days after the
Battle of Antietam, Palmer was captured while scouting at the personal direction of McClellan, seeking information on any preparations by Lee's army to cross the Potomac River back into Virginia. He was on the Confederate side of the river, again garbed in civilian clothes and accompanied by a local blacksmith and a parson as his guides, attempting to recross to the Union side after midnight when he was captured by Confederate artillerymen sent to guard the dam he used for the crossing. When questioned, Palmer gave his name as "W.J. Peters," and claimed to be an engineer on an inspection trip. He was interrogated by General William N. Pendleton, who thought he was a spy. He was detained and sent to Richmond, Virginia, with a rambling note from Pendleton that was ignored.

Palmer was incarcerated at the notorious
Castle Thunder prison on Tobacco Row, Richmond where his true identity was never uncovered. Doubts about his identity were apparently reinforced by publication of a fictitious dispatch in the Philadelphia newspapers that purported that Palmer was in Washington, D.C. after scouting in Virginia. When he was freed after four months of confinement, he found that his guide, the Reverend J.J. Stine, had escaped but been arrested by Union authorities, accused of betraying him to the enemy. Rather than risk Palmer's life by publication of the circumstances in the Northern press, Stine had remained imprisoned in Fort Delaware until Palmer's personal application to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton resulted in his release.

Palmer was set free in a prisoner exchange for a prominent Richmond citizen, recuperated two weeks, and rejoined his regiment in February 1863. During his period of imprisonment, the regiment had become mutinous because of a failure to have officers appointed and other enlistment inducements it felt had not been honored. 212 troopers faced court-martial and the possibility of going before a firing squad for refusing to fight in the
Battle of Stone's River. Palmer reorganized the regiment, personally appointed officers in whose abilities he had great trust, and had the charges against the confined soldiers dropped on the condition that they behaved going forward. The severely demoralized group of men rallied and distinguished themselves during the 1863 Tullahoma Campaign, the Battle of Chickamauga, the capture of Brig. Gen. Robert B. Vance's raiding cavalry and re-capture of 28 wagons of a foraging train in January 1864, and the Franklin–Nashville Campaign.

At Chickamauga, Palmer's regiment was detailed as headquarters guard for the
Army of the Cumberland with many troopers doled out to the various corps as couriers and scouts. When Longstreet unexpectedly attacked the union right near Rosecrans' headquarters, Palmer gathered all the men of his regiment available and prepared to counterattack with a saber charge. The Union right flank dissolved, however, and after attempting to rally the panicked infantry, his regiment crossed the battlefield in good order under Confederate artillery fire to protect the Union artillery. During the army's retreat to Chattanooga, the 15th Pennsylvania provided escort for the army's supply train. Not easily impressed, Major General George H. Thomas (the "Rock of Chickamauga") recommended that Palmer receive a brigadier's star for his success at turning a highly demoralized group of men to an effective group of soldiers.

Palmer was vigorous in pursuing Confederate General
John Bell Hood after the Battle of Nashville in 1864. On March 9, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln nominated Palmer for appointment to the brevet grade of brigadier general of volunteers at the age of 28, with the U.S. Senate confirming the appointment on March 10, 1865. On March 16 he was promoted to command of the 1st Brigade of the Cavalry Division, District of East Tennessee, consisting of the 15th Pennsylvania, the 10th Michigan and the 12th Ohio Cavalry Regiments. A month later he assumed command of the division after General Alvan C. Gillem was promoted to command of the District of East Tennessee.Palmer was in the vanguard of Stoneman's (Union General George Stoneman) raid into Virginia and North Carolina in the last two months of the Civil War. At Martinsville, Virginia on April 8, 1865 Palmer's cavalry defeated a Confederate force of Cavalry commanded by Colonel James Wheeler, the cousin of Confederate Cavalry commander Fighting Joe Wheeler. If Palmer had pushed on to Danville, only 20 miles to the north, he might very well have captured Jefferson Davis, who up till then had not left the last capital of the Confederacy (Davis left the next day, upon receiving word of Lee's surrender). This was a little-known campaign immortalized in the Band's epic, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down".

Palmer commanded the cavalry pursuit of
Jefferson Davis following the surrender by General Joseph E. Johnston. Davis was followed through North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia and driven into the hands of General James H. Wilson. During the pursuit Palmer's former command overtook and captured near Covington, Georgia wagons carrying millions of dollars of specie, bonds, securities, notes, and other Confederate assets that had been kept in the Bank of Macon (Georgia). Palmer was mustered out of the Union Army on June 21, 1865.

General
George Henry Thomas wrote of Palmer:

"There is no officer in the regular or volunteer service who has performed the duties which have devolved upon him with more intelligence, zeal, or energy than General Palmer, whose uniform distinguished success throughout the war places his reputation beyond controversy."

On February 24, 1894, Palmer was awarded the
Medal of Honor for his actions as colonel leading the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry at Red Hill, Alabama, January 14, 1865 where "with less than 200 men, [he] attacked and defeated a superior force of the enemy, captured their fieldpiece and about 100 prisoners without losing a man." Six former officers of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry had nominated him the previous October to receive the honor, but for the scouting efforts in mufti during the Antietam Campaign that resulted in his capture. The War Department rejected that nomination on the basis that the acts, while valorous, had not been performed of a field of battle. They then submitted a new nomination for the action at Red Hill, which was approved.

Pennsylvania railroads
In 1851, Palmer went to work in western Pennsylvania for Hempfield Railroad's engineering department as a clerk. Two years later, at age 17, he worked under chief engineer
Charles Ellet, Jr. as a rodman. Palmer became transitman for Hempfield in 1854.

Frank H. Jackson, president of Westmoreland Coal Company and Palmer's uncle, encouraged him to go to England to study coal mining and railroads. Palmer was particularly interested in running railroad engines on anthracite coal. He left in the summer of 1855 for a six-month period and wrote articles for Miner's Journal of
Pottsville, Pennsylvania to finance the trip abroad. He also borrowed money from his uncle. While in England, he met with noted railroad engineers—like Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Robert Stephenson—and visited railroads, mills, and coal mines.

Palmer went to work in 1856 for Westmoreland Coal Company as secretary and treasurer. The following year he worked at
Pennsylvania Railroad and became private secretary to President John Edgar Thomson, a successful Quaker businessman, at a time when Andrew Carnegie was a peer and secretary to a company vice president. Palmer wrote, Reports of Experiments with Coal Burning Locomotives and learned about running a railroad from Thomson. Palmer began an evaluation of converting engines to run on coal, which was more abundant, rather than wood. His findings were key to changing the type of fuel used to run the country's locomotives. He began a relationship with Thomas A. Scott at Pennsylvania Railroad, who became Assistant Secretary of War in charge of military transportation during the Civil War.

Kansas Pacific Railway

After the War, Palmer resumed the railroad career he had started previous to the conflict. In 1867, a very optimistic, eager 30-year-old Palmer, and his 21-year-old chief assistant
Edward Hibberd Johnson, headed west from their hometown of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Palmer worked the Kansas Pacific Railway first as secretary and treasurer and then as managing director responsible for extending service through south central Colorado. With Kansas Pacific chief engineer Colonel William Henry Greenwood, Palmer organized a surveying expedition that recommended in 1868 that the route to the coast be diverted at Ellsworth, Kansas to Pueblo, Colorado and through the Royal Gorge to the San Luis Valley where it would turn south to Santa Fe, New Mexico. The route was rejected by the Kansas Pacific's board of directors in favor of a line through Denver, which was completed in 1870.

Denver and Rio Grande Railway
While in the
Colorado Territory, Palmer went to Colorado City (now Old Colorado City) to consider a north-south route from Denver for his own railway. Palmer had a vision to build a railroad south from Denver through New Mexico and El Paso to Mexico City. Palmer founded—with Greenwood, Colonel D.C. Dodge, Governor Alexander Cameron Hunt, Charles B. Lambord and others—and was elected president of the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad in 1870.

The first section of the railway included the first
3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge railroad tracks in the West. The line ran south of Denver and across the Palmer Divide, which separates the Platte River and Arkansas River watersheds, and to Colorado Springs by 1871. The line went to Pueblo in 1872, and further south to coal fields beyond Trinidad in 1873. The railroad had service along the Arkansas River canyon to other coal mining locations, to the metal mining town of Leadville, and the iron mines in Saguache County, Colorado. Palmer stepped down as president in 1883 to focus greater attention on developing the Mexican line.

Rio Grande Western Railway
Palmer was president of the Rio Grande Western Railway from 1881 or 1883 to 1901. He built lines from the terminus of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railway in Grand Junction to the Utah cities of Ogden and Salt Lake City. This provided direct service from Denver to Utah via narrow-gauge railway.

Mexican National Railway
In the spring of 1880, Palmer was made president of the Mexican National Railway (now National Railroad of Mexico). He hired Greenwood again as chief engineer in May, only to have Greenwood robbed and murdered on a survey near Mexico City on August 29. Most of the line was completed by 1883. The railroad made it to Mexico City.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jackson_Palmer

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
Palmer was also instrumental it the steel and coal industry in Colorado...

Colorado Coal and Iron Company was formed in 1880 when three Denver and Rio Grande subsidiaries controlled by William J. Palmer merged. These were the Colorado Coal and Steel Works Company, the Central Colorado Improvement Company, and the Southern Colorado Coal and Town Company. In 1890 the company appointed Henry S. Grove President. Grove, a recognized "Captain of Industry" would eventually merge the company with the Colorado Fuel Company to form the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company, which for many years was Colorado's largest employer and dominated industry around the state for decades.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_Coal_and_Iron_Company

Palmer envisioned "an integrated industrial complex based on steel manufacturing" in which all necessary resources were controlled by one company. In 1880, Palmer constructed
Colorado Coal and Iron Company's (CC&I) steel mill south of Pueblo and laid out the town of Bessemer (now incorporated in Pueblo). The Minnequa plant became one of the greatest iron and steel plants in the country. His dream became a reality for his successors when, in 1892, CC&I merged with the Colorado Fuel Company to form Colorado Fuel and Iron.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Jackson_Palmer

Cheers,
USS ALASKA



 
Gen WJ Palmer Presentation - rotated.jpg
View attachment 200512 Thank you so much for starting this terrific thread! As life is full of coincidences, I just happened to have acquired the watch pictured here a few weeks ago. It is a Waltham 15 jewel, 16 Size "Model 16KW" of the "Appleton, Tracy & Company" Grade in an 18 karat gold case with a presentation on the "dust cover" (i.e., on the inner rear lid). I apologize for the lousy picture, as I just got home from vacation and the pic was shot with my cell phone. I plan to post several better pictures in a day or two. The presentation reads, "Presented to Gen.l Wm. J. Palmer by the Officers of his Regiment, 15th Penna. Cavalry, October 5, 1868."

That this watch would have been very precious to General Palmer is clear from the fact that no fewer than sixteen 15th PA Cavalry veterans worked with him in his many future endeavors. In 1907, after Palmer had become paralyzed as the result of a fall from a horse, he paid the travel expenses of all 200 surviving members of his regiment and chartered a train enabling all of them to join him for their final reunion at his sprawling estate, Glen Eyrie, in Colorado Springs! There is a terrific photo of the entire gathering with Palmer in the center:

http://stonemangazette.blogspot.com/2015/05/reconciled-yankees-honor-jeff-davis.html

(That reunion also has an interesting side-story, as Jefferson Davis's daughter was an honored guest at the reunion. That is especially interesting, as Palmer had posted Wanted notices for Davis offering $100,00 for his capture, and Palmer and the 15th PA Cavalry had pursued and very nearly captured Davis during his flight from Richmond. In fact, Major General James H. Wilson, who's 4th Michigan Cavalry unit did capture Davis, credited Palmer with having driven Davis into his hands.)

I have since acquired several books on Palmer and his unit, which does not even begin to exhaust the subject. I have never before found a single timepiece that combines horological interest (as it has an unusual aftermarket stemwinding and pin setting conversion), with a provenance that adds interesting personal history (a Quaker who went to war on account of his strong abolitionist beliefs, and who became an important post-war philanthropist); Civil War history (an MoH recipient who commanded a very unusual and distinguished cavalry unit and who undertook intrepid spy missions), railroad history (well covered in USS Alaska's posts); and history of the West, (There is an equestrian statue of Palmer in Colorado Springs, and many different things named after him around the state: e.g., the Palmer Divide and Palmer Lake, to name but two.)
 

Attachments

  • Capatin WJ Palmer - in uniform.jpg
    Capatin WJ Palmer - in uniform.jpg
    16 KB · Views: 79
  • General WJ Palmer - in uniform.jpg
    General WJ Palmer - in uniform.jpg
    13.8 KB · Views: 79
  • Pioneer Museum display and CMoH.jpg
    Pioneer Museum display and CMoH.jpg
    212.7 KB · Views: 71
  • WJ Palmer Equestrian Statue.jpg
    WJ Palmer Equestrian Statue.jpg
    50.8 KB · Views: 180
  • Glen_Eyrie_castle_in.jpg
    Glen_Eyrie_castle_in.jpg
    205 KB · Views: 84
  • WJ Palmer civilian with watch chain.jpg
    WJ Palmer civilian with watch chain.jpg
    5.9 KB · Views: 82
Last edited:
Wow sir - that is some piece of art...



What would something like that cost back in 1868?

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
Well, the 1864 Waltham wholesale "To the Trade" catalog lists the price of such an uncased movement as $52.50 before undisclosed discounts, so the actual retail price wold have been no lower than that, and probably higher. The case contains at least 2 precious ounces of 18 karat gold, or 1.5 precious ounces of gold net, which was at $28/oz. in 1868. So when you add these together and tack on a retail mark-up, you are somewhere north of $100, plus the cost of the custom engraving, which might have cost several dollars additional. The average tradesman earned around $300 annually in 1868.

And that doesn't count the aftermarket conversion of the movement from key wound and set to stem round and pin set, which couldn't have been cheap!
 
Last edited:
Palmer and the 15th PA Cavalry had pursued and very nearly captured Davis during his flight from Richmond.
Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry barely missed Davis, but they caught Braxton Bragg and intercepted much of the material that the leaders were intent on taking with them in their foiled escape.
On April 8, 1865,
while searching for Davis near the fork of the Appalachee and Oconee Livers, Colonel Betts, Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, captured seven wagons in the woods, which contained one hundred and eighty-eight thousand dollars in coin, one million five hundred and eighty-eight thousand dollars in bank notes, bonds, and securities, and about four millions of Confederate money, besides considerable specie, plate, and other valuables belonging to private citizens of Macon. The wagons contained also the private baggage, maps and official papers of Generals Beauregard and Pillow.​
On April 10, 1865, "company G, Captain Samuel Phillips, captured General Bragg, his wife, staff officers, and three wagons".
< Samuel P. Bates, History of Pennsylvania volunteers, 1861-5. (Harrisburg: B. Singerly, 1870), Volume IV, p. 910.>
 
Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry barely missed Davis, but they caught Braxton Bragg and intercepted much of the material that the leaders were intent on taking with them in their foiled escape.
Yes. George Henry Thomas considered the 15th PA the best cavalry unit in the Army of the Cumberland, and said so. They were a favorite of Rosecrans too. Palmer himself was actually nominated for the MoH twice and Thomas nominated him for promotion to brigadier three times before he succeeded.
 
Last edited:
What an extraordinary story, thank you! Extraordinary man gee whiz! His career throws a whole, different light on something which I've always seen as so tragic. Another vet, again PA became hugely wealthy in railroads and coalmines, horribly oppressed workers to get there. The thing is, a good number were vets who served with him.

Palmer's story is just reassuring. Can't put my finger on exactly why it just is.
 
What an extraordinary story, thank you! Extraordinary man gee whiz! His career throws a whole, different light on something which I've always seen as so tragic. Another vet, again PA became hugely wealthy in railroads and coalmines, horribly oppressed workers to get there. The thing is, a good number were vets who served with him.

Palmer's story is just reassuring. Can't put my finger on exactly why it just is.
Yes, I feel the same way about Palmer and his endeavors. He was definitely a man of the 19th century, and of 19th century capitalism with all its wonderous achievements and its appalling exploitation and injustices. But Palmer was also a forward looking man who tried to leave the world a better place than he found it. He designed new towns in a grand, idealistic mode, endowed a historic black college, founded a university and was generous to all those who helped him, including a former slave who saved his life during a mission behind Confederate lines. In 1865, when some other federal units plundered indiscriminately in Georgia and South Carolina, Palmer forced his soldiers to return stolen personal property and he strove energetically, with some significant effect that was remarked upon, to control his regiment's worst behavior.
 
Last edited:
Neat thread. I have run across Palmer since moving to Colorado. Not in that detail until now i see why he has monuments and a presence with schools and such. Downtown ish Colorado Springs a while back. That's Pike's peak obscured in background. model t convention or something...
dd901973eca54f17e73b9088e8b109b8.jpg
 
Palmer's name is sprinkled all over the map of Colorado: The Palmer Divide, Palmer Lake, and Palmer Park, to name a few. At Palmer Hall at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, students still supposedly rub the stone nose of General Palmer's dog for luck before exams. The Palmer Laboratory at the University of Colorado in Boulder, CO is a molecular biology lab. Coloradoencyclopedia.org writes:

"Palmer had a lasting impact on the state of Colorado, especially on Colorado Springs. He founded Colorado Springs, now the second largest city in Colorado, retired and died there in 1909. As a philanthropist, Palmer established the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind. He also helped to found a tuberculosishospital and the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. In addition to these facilities, many southwestern Colorado institutions have been named after him or dedicated in his honor. These include the William J. Palmer high school in Colorado Springs, the social sciences building on the Colorado College campus, and a statue in downtown Colorado Springs at the intersection of Nevada and Platte Avenues. The Colorado Cultural Resources survey describes that the statue as “William Jackson Palmer and his favorite horse, Diablo. The statue faces south, with the General (in civilian attire) in a relaxed pose facing southwest towards Pike Peak.” Without Palmer, Colorado Springs might not have been brought into existence, and the town certainly would not have developed into the educational and cultural hub it is today."

A second Palmer Hall, not mentioned in the Colorado Encyclopedia article quoted above, is at Hampton University in Hampton VA, a historically black college founded in 1868 to provide education to freedmen. This building too was named in honor of General Palmer, who made large contributions to the college. A picture of the tablet honoring the general on the wall of Hampton U.'s Palmer Hall is shown here.

Palmer Hall wall plaque - Hampton U.jpg
 
Last edited:
Back
Top