If You Could.....

[corn-fed-erate]

A fun question. If you could pick any Civil War "charactor" to be joined at the hip with, who would it be and why?

For me, with may interest in what happened in and around the Roanoke River, it would be either James W. Cooke or Gilbert Elliott. Leaning more toward Cooke.

There are some nagging questions that I could get answered:
How did they push something as big as the Albemarle into the river?
He floated over the "chain fleet" but how did he get past the chain at Fort Grey.
Elliot took sounding and brought the news back to Cooke on the Albemarle but where was Elliot during the battle at Plymouth. On Albemarle, on Cotton Plant, on shore watching?
Who was the captain of the Cotton Plant for both battles, where did the sharpshooters come from?
Where did he get the idea to grease the casemate with lard.
Was burning bacon and lard when the smokestack got shot up a command decision on the fly or had he seen it before?
Reported to Mallory that an ironclad was at Fort Branch awaiting iron from England (the Weldon), where the h☆ll did he hide it?

I would be able to witness:
Most of the Albemarle's story
The destruction of the Mosquito Fleet
The battle of Roanoke Island
Building of all of Elliott's boats (key to a mystery or two)
Building of the Halifax

Yeah, for me, Cooke would be the one I would want to walk beside. How about you.

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

Well, if you haven't read Robert G. Elliott's Ironclad of the Roanoke, that should be next on your reading list. (The author is a collateral descendant of Gilbert Elliott.)

Cooke was definitely an interesting person, and one that doesn't get the recognition he deserves.

I'd have to go with Henry Walke, naturally. It would make for a heck of a hook for the biography to be able to say I'd met the guy!

 

[corn-fed-erate]

Hand singed copy, pages flipped so many times they are falling out. Waiting for bio on Cooke or someone to find his long lost war time journals.

 

[vikingbear]

For this type of war it would have to be some on the rivers. Maybe a war time artist, some one who could jump from boat to boat to be were the action was. And on deck or some where to draw what you see. During a battle officers would still have to stay at their station, as a artist you could move to get a better view, and being "only" a artist you would most likely not be chased of the boat by "Uncle Billy". That way you could travel up and down rivers, be on military trains to cross over faster to other locations ect........

GRIZZ

 

[Mike d]

for me,, LT Charles Read, CSN

He saw nealy every type of action possible.
Head of the passes Nola,
hipboard during the runnig fight when the union fran the forts below Nola,
On the CSS Arkansas,
CSS Florida and then became a raider of his own on CSS Tacony and CSS Archer
then the cap it all off, the run on CSS Webb.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Gideon Welles / Gustavus Fox and William H. Seward - just to listen to the conversations / arguments that took place over the course of the war and the reasons for the final decisions made.

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[7th Texas Mounted Rifles]

My ancestor... specifically, the one honored below in my signature.
The bonus would be that after he was killed, i could see to it that he made it home for burial - and wouldn't end up in the unmarked grave in Houston that would be developed over.

Excluding familial connections?

I'd probably pick Ranald S. Mackenzie, assuming i can still be his shadow post-war...

Among his accomplishments, I'd really like to know exactly how he received the maiming that would later earn him the name 'Bad Hand'...

 

[bradford011]

There are quite a few I'd love to meet but one tops my list: Issac Newton Brown. The ARKANSAS, the Yazoo City Naval Yard and Charleston - the man saw action!

 

[JohnDLittlefield]

P.G.T. Beauregard, I think (while he was in Charleston)... elegance and style with a dash of attitude and daring- would be fun to see if history has passed down an accurate description of the creole.
Alternatively, I find Franklin Buchanan, John Ericsson, and Francis D. Lee very interesting characters as well.