Surviving Generals, 50 Years Later

John Hartwell

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As Memorial Day, 1915, approached, it was announced that there were "Only 28 Generals Left Who Held Command in the Civil War." (exclusive of generals by brevet).

Of 132 Major Generals and 446 Brigadier Generals in the Union Army, these seventeen men survived (according to the Adjutant General's Office):

Major Generals:
Grenville Mellen Dodge, Council Bluffs, Ia​
Peter Joseph Osterhaus, Duisberg, Germany​
Nelson Appleton Miles, Washington D.C.​
James Harrison Wilson, Wilmington, Del.​
Brigadier Generals:
Adelbert Ames, Tewksbury Center, Mass.​
Christopher Columbus Andrews, St. Paul, Minn.​
Selden Connor, Augusta, Me.​
John Rutter Brooke, Rosemont, Penn.​
Lewis Addison Grant, Minneapolis, Minn.​
David McMurtrie Gregg, Reading, Penn.​
Martin Davis Hardin, Lake Forest, Ill.​
Frank Stillman Nickerson, Mount Hope, Boston, Mass.​
Charles Jackson Paine, Boston, Mass.​
Galusha Pennypacker, Philadelphis, Penn.​
Bryan Root Pierce, Grand Rapids, Mich.​
William Henry Seward, Auburn, N.Y.​
William Sooy Smith, Medford, Or.​

Only eleven Confederate Generals were known to be living in 1915, all of them former Brigadier Generals:

Francis Marion Cockrell, Washington D.C.​
Basil Wilson Duke, Louisville, Ky.​
John McCausland, Mason Co., W. Va.​
Marcus Joseph Wright, Washington, D.C.​
William Ruffin Cox, Richmond, Va.​
William McComb, Louisa Co., Va.​
Samuel Wragg Ferguson, Greenville, Miss.​
Roger Atkinson Pryor, New York City​
Evander McIver Law, Bartow, Fla.​
Felix Huston Robertson, Crawford, Tex.​
Thomas Benton Smith, Nashville, Tenn.​
That is the list as published in several newspapers in 1915. There are others not included. (Gen. J. Warren Keifer of Ohio comes to mind.) How many others can be added?

Attached is the full page from the May 30, 1915, Boston Globe, which included photographs and brief sketches of each of the 28 generals on the list.
 

Attachments

  • The_Boston_Globe_Sun__May_30__1915_.pdf
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