★ ★  Griffin, Charles

Charles Griffin

Charles Griffin.jpg

:us34stars:

Born:
December 18, 1825

Birthplace: Granville, Ohio

Father: Apollos Griffin 1787 – 1859
(Buried: Old Colony Burying Ground, Granville, Ohio)​

Mother: Permelia Gillett 1795 – 1857
(Buried: Manatee Burying Ground, Manatee, Florida)​

Wife: Sarah V. “Sallie” Carroll 1837 – 1917
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.)​

Children:

Charles Carroll Griffin 1862 – 1867​
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.)​

William Thomas Griffin 1864 – 1864​
(Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.)​

Education:

1847: Graduated from West Point Military Academy – (23rd in class)​

Occupation before War:

1847: Brevet 2nd Lt. United States Army, 4th Artillery​
1847 – 1849: 2nd Lt. United States Army, 2nd Artillery​
1849 – 1861: 1st Lt. United States Army, 2nd Artillery​
1860 – 1861: Assistant Artillery Instructor at West Point​
Charles Griffin 1.jpg


Civil War Career:


1861: Captain United States Army, 2nd Artillery​
1861 – 1866: Captain United States Army, 5th Artillery​
1861: Commander of Artillery in Washington, D.C.​
1861: Artillery Commander at First Battle of Bull Run, Virginia​
1861 – 1862: Served in the Defenses of Washington, D.C.​
1861: Brevetted Major for Gallantry at Battle of First Bull Run​
1862: Served in the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia​
1862 – 1865: Brigadier General of Union Army Volunteers Infantry​
1862: Served in the Battle of Mechanicsville, Virginia​
1862: Served in the Second Battle of Bull Run, Virginia​
1862: Served in the Battle of Antietam, Maryland​
1862: Served in the Battle of Fredericksburg, Virginia​
1863: Served in the Battle of Chancellorsville, Virginia​
1863: on Sick leave from army May 15th thru July 2nd
1863: Division Commander in the 5th Army Corps​
1863: Served at the third day Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania​
1863 – 1864: Court martial Duty in the Union Army​
1864 – 1865: Division Commander 1st Division 5th Army Corps​
1864: Brevetted Lt. Colonel for Gallantry at Battle of the Wilderness​
1864: Brevetted Major General in Union Army for Gallantry​
1864: Brevetted Colonel for Gallantry at Battle of Weldon Railroad​
1865: Commander of 5th Army Corps in the Richmond Campaign​
1865: Brevetted Brig. General for Gallantry Battle of Five Forks​
1865: Brevetted Major General for Gallantry during Civil War​
1865 – 1866: Major General of Union Army Infantry​
1866: Mustered out of Volunteer Service on January 15th

Occupation after War:

1861 – 1866: Captain United States Army, 5th Artillery​
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1866 – 1867: Colonel United States Army, 35th Infantry Regiment​
1866 – 1867: Commander of United States Army District of Texas​
1867: Temporary Commander of Fifth Military District​

Died:
September 15, 1867

Place of Death: Galveston, Texas

Cause of Death: Yellow Fever

Age at time of Death: 41 years old

Burial Place: Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
 
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Griffin was commander of 1st Division, 5th Corps, from Chancellorsville to Five Forks. He was absent at Gettysburg due to illness. He played a conspicuous role at the Wilderness, where his men were the first of Grant's infantry to respond to the approach of Ewell's Corps, and suffered heavy casualties in Warren's assault on May 5th, losing 1748 men out of the 8530 he had available. His command suffered further losses throughout the campaign, especially in Ayres' mixed Zouave/Regular Brigade.
 
Griffin was commander of 1st Division, 5th Corps, from Chancellorsville to Five Forks. He was absent at Gettysburg due to illness. He played a conspicuous role at the Wilderness, where his men were the first of Grant's infantry to respond to the approach of Ewell's Corps, and suffered heavy casualties in Warren's assault on May 5th, losing 1748 men out of the 8530 he had available. His command suffered further losses throughout the campaign, especially in Ayres' mixed Zouave/Regular Brigade.
An interesting what-if for Gettysburg is replacing James Barnes with Charles Griffin and how that would have influenced the actions of Tilton and Sweitzer's Brigades on July 2.

Ryan
 
I've been researching Griffin for a paper or perhaps online biography. This effort is frustrating, however, because Griffin seems to have left behind zero personal papers. No journal or memoir can be found (although Russell Beattie left a cryptic allusion to such a memoir in the introduction to his AOP history) and I've failed so far to track down letters to his wife or other family members. Though a West Pointer who never left the army, he doesn't even seem to have had any close friends in the army to correspond with, although he was liked by Warren and Chamberlain and won the affection of many of his men. He was hated by Pope (perhaps to his credit) and by V Corps artillery commander and diarist Charles Wainwright (who hated nearly everyone). He was brevet promoted to brig general (after Lincolns' personal intervention) while on the Peninsula and remained a general in Porter's corps that became the V Corps. Despite uninterrupted service from Bull Run through Appomattox, he managed to miss out on several major battles: he inadvertently led his brigade out of action at Second Bull Run (and thereby ruined Porter's career), the V Corps was held in reserve at Antietam and then missed most combat at Chancellorsville and then Griffin missed one of the V Corp's great triumphs at Gettsyburg while on leave. He was a significant figure in several controversial incidents, including the Union collapse on Henry Hill at First Bull Run, the events at Second Bull Run that led to Porter's dismissal, and Warren's firing by Sheridan at Five Forks. As others mentioned, he nearly got himself cashiered at The Wilderness when Grant witnessed Griffin's confronting Meade in the moments after the reversal at Saunders Field. Through his wife, Sallie, daughter of the powerful Carroll family of DC and Maryland, he was socially connected to the Lincolns who attended their Dec. '61 wedding. Sallie's brother was General Samuel Sprig Carroll. Sallie had the unfortunate experience of innocently provoking Mary Lincoln's most embarrassing public tirade on a visit to the troops near Petersburg in March 1865. Griffin died in a yellow fever epidemic in Texas in Sept. 1867; his only child preceded him in death by a few days. Sallie remarried to a minor Hungarian nobleman posted as an attache in Washington and the couple moved to London where Sallie was known as the Countess Esterhazy. She died childless in London without apparently leaving papers or artifacts of her first husband's distinguished career.
 
Then Captain Charles Griffin commanded Battery D, 5th U.S. Artillery at 1st Bull Run. It was one of the two batteries (the other being James Ricketts' Battery I, 1st U.S. Artillery) at the center of action on Henry House Hill.
 
2 chapters, 36 pages, are subtitled 'The Charles Griffin Era',

Too Great a Burden to Bear: The Struggle and Failure of the Freedmen's Bureau in Texas (Reconstructing America) by Christopher B. Bean

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In its brief seven-year existence, the Freedmen's Bureau became the epicenter of the debate about Reconstruction. Historians have only recently begun to focus on the Bureau's personnel in Texas, the individual agents termed the "hearts of Reconstruction." Specifically addressing the historiographical debates concerning the character of the Bureau and its sub-assistant commissioners (SACs), Too Great a Burden to Bear sheds new light on the work and reputation of these agents.


Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
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