General Ormsby Macknight Mitchell

[donna]

Here is a general I just read about in my "Kentucky Explorer Magazine". He was a distinguished American astronomer who was born in Union County Kentucky on August 28, 1810 and died of yellow fever at Beaufort, South Carolina on October 30, 1862 at age 52. He received his early education in Lebanon, Ohio. He was appointed to a cadetship at West Point in 1825 and graduated in 1829. He was 15th in a class of 46, among whom were those distinguished Confederate chieftains, Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston.

He filled the position of professor of mathematics in West Point for two years and subsequently studied law and practiced in Cincinnati until 1834, when he was elected professor of mathematics, philosophy and astronomy in the Cincinnati College. In 1845 he succeeded in the establishment of an observatory in Cincinnati, raising the requisite amount of money therefore by his own exertions.

In 1859 he was chosen director of the Albany, New York observatory and also retained his connection with the one in Cincinnati. He was a popular lecturer on astronomy and his contributions to science, oral and written, were valuable. Among his published works are "Planetary and Stellar Worlds" and "Popular Astronomy" and a treatise on algebra.

He was commissioned a brigadier general in the Union Army on August, 1861. Later he was promoted to major general. He was commander of the "Department of the South" at the time of his death.

From "The Kentucky Explorer Magazine", December 2015/January 2016, page 100.

 

[Buckeye Bill]

The Northern Kentucky city of Fort Mitchell is named after Union Brigadier General Mitchel. Somehow the city added an extra L.

There is a house which is off the Dixie Highway which sits on the exact spot of the Federal fort. The paved driveway which leads up to this residence was the same path the military engineers built in 1862. The residence grounds still contains rifle pits.

The Fort Mitchel structure was built to protect Cincinnati, Ohio. Union Brigadier General Lew Wallace (author of Ben Hur) was ordered to build various forts and batteries surrounding the Northern Kentucky hills in 1862 to protect Cincinnati from a possible Confederate invasion.

Good stuff, Donna!

 

[leftyhunter]

Here is a general I just read about in my "Kentucky Explorer Magazine". He was a distinguished American astronomer who was born in Union County Kentucky on August 28, 1810 and died of yellow fever at Beaufort, South Carolina on October 30, 1862 at age 52. He received his early education in Lebanon, Ohio. He was appointed to a cadetship at West Point in 1825 and graduated in 1829. He was 15th in a class of 46, among whom were those distinguished Confederate chieftains, Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston.

He filled the position of professor of mathematics in West Point for two years and subsequently studied law and practiced in Cincinnati until 1834, when he was elected professor of mathematics, philosophy and astronomy in the Cincinnati College. In 1845 he succeeded in the establishment of an observatory in Cincinnati, raising the requisite amount of money therefore by his own exertions.

In 1859 he was chosen director of the Albany, New York observatory and also retained his connection with the one in Cincinnati. He was a popular lecturer on astronomy and his contributions to science, oral and written, were valuable. Among his published works are "Planetary and Stellar Worlds" and "Popular Astronomy" and a treatise on algebra.

He was commissioned a brigadier general in the Union Army on August, 1861. Later he was promoted to major general. He was commander of the "Department of the South" at the time of his death.

From "The Kentucky Explorer Magazine", December 2015/January 2016, page 100.

McPhearson in his book "Battle Cry of Freedom" argues that with a little more support Ormsby could of captured Chattanooga by 1862.
Leftyhunter

 

[diane]

The Great Locomotive Chase might not have been his greatest moment, but it sure sounded like it could work! Mitchell was one of those would-he-have-been...? generals who died very early in the war. He also made a workable township for the freed slaves in South Carolina that worked very well - then was abolished. He was on the right track, though!

 

[5fish]

Gen. Mitchel was an astronomer. He has a place on Mars named after him:

• A persistently bright region near the Mars south pole that was first observed by Mitchel in 1846 is named in his honor – 'The Mountains of Mitchel'. It is located near 70°S, 40°E.

And in South Carolina he has an African American community named after him... he was stationed in SC...

• Mitchellville, S.C., on Hilton Head Island, an African American community during and after the Civil War was named for him.
• The first post-Civil War freedmen's town created in the United States (on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina), Mitchelville, was named for him.

 

[5fish]

Here is more on the Mountains of Mitchel...

Known for nearly two centuries as the "Mountains of Mitchel," this feature was named for Ormsby McKnight Mitchel (1809-1862), an astronomer at the University of Cincinnatio, Ohio, who discovered it while observing Mars through a telescope in 1846. Mitchel noticed that this area is typically "left behind" as a bright penninsula when the rest of the polar cap recedes past this area later in the spring.

Here is a link to NASA about the Mountains... https://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/mgs/msss/camera/images/9_17_99_mtchl/index.html



Here is a picture of them Mountains...

 

[photoman475]

McPhearson in his book "Battle Cry of Freedom" argues that with a little more support Ormsby could of captured Chattanooga by 1862.

Donald Stoker in his The Grand Design: Strategy and the U.S. Civil War argues the same thing. Stoker says Ormsby Mitchel's taking of Chattanooga in 1862 would have badly hurt the CSA and prevented so many casualties later in the war.

 

[5fish]

Everyone talks about Chattanooga but was Mitchel not famous in his day for taking Huntsville without firing a shot....