This is part two of a two part article on
the story of William French an officer not generally know or highly regarded in
the annals of Civil War, and his instrumental role in saving five valuable
artillery companies located in secessionist Texas during the final weeks of the
Buchanan Administration. Part 1 covered
French’s early military career. Part 2
is the story of the story of his role in safely evacuating five artillery
companies from rebel Texas in the weeks prior to Fort Sumter.
 |
| U.S. Army garrisons on the Rio Grande River January 1861 |
As part of the Army’s periodic reshuffling of artillery
companies, Light Company K was ordered to Texas in June of 1859. Caroline and the children Frank age 17,
William 15, Annie 6 and young George age 2 accompanied Major French on this
journey. Travelling by rail and river,
the company reached Helena Arkansas on June 17.
The rest of the journey was an overland march of 700 miles to their new post
at Fort Clark Texas that they reached on September 26. In June of 1860 the company moved to Fort
Duncan at Eagle Pass, 45 miles further down the Rio Grande. This fort was established in 1849 with a mission
to monitor the border with Mexico and protect settlers in west Texas. It was named for Colonel James Duncan, the
commander of Light Company A, Second Artillery and a hero of the Mexican
War.
French had three lieutenants present for duty with him. First Lieutenant James Slaughter (USA 1846) from
Virginia had been in the Army for 14 years.[1] A
great nephew of James Madison, he left his studies at VMI in 1846 to accept an
appointment as a lieutenant in the
newly formed regiment of Voltigeurs and Foot Riflemen at the start of
the Mexican War. Slaughter transferred to the First Artillery in 1848. The 33-year-old
Slaughter had been reporting sick for several months but remained with the
company at Fort Duncan.
First Lieutenant Samuel Chalfin (USMA 1847) was born in
Illinois. The 35-year-old Chalfin served in Mexico as an assistant adjutant
general and later in the Third Seminole War in Florida. He spent much of the 1850s at West Point as a
French and Spanish language instructor. The company second lieutenant was
Frederick Childs (USMA 1855). The 29
year old Childs was an Army brat. His father
was the legendary Brevet Brigadier General Thomas Childs, commander of a
battalion of red leg artillery in the Mexican War. Like Samuel Chalfin he served for much of the
1850s as an instructor at West Point where he taught geography, history and
ethics.
The senior enlisted man in Company K was 24-year-old First
Sergeant Redmond Tully. Born in Galway
Ireland, Tully immigrated to America in 1854.
One year later French enlisted the 18-year-old lad in Baltimore where
the young Irishman was employed as a barkeeper.
Tully had been with Company K ever since. At
a full six feet in height, the First Sergeant towered over his soldiers. The company’s monthly return for
February reflected 3 officers, 79 enlisted men, 63 artillery horses, and four
guns present.[2] In the antebellum army, each gun section (of
2 guns) was likely equipped with different ordnance. Company K may have had two Model 1841 6-lb
guns and two Model 1841 12-lb howitzers.
It is not clear how much the secession crisis had affected the men of
the company. French was from Maryland
and Chalfin was from Illinois but both Slaughter and Childs probably voiced
support for the southern position.
There were two foot artillery companies of the First
Artillery at Fort Duncan that were not mounted with guns or horses. . Company F’s captain was Samuel Jones
(USMA 1841). He was on detached service
in Washington DC as Assistant
to the Judge Advocate of the Army. In his absence, First Lieutenant Henry Closson
(USMA 1854) commanded Company F. The 28-year-old
Closson was from Burlington Vermont. He had seen a great deal of border warfare
and scouting service in his short career. After some frontier experience in
California, Closson was detailed to accompany the Corps of Engineers under
Lieutenant Michler, on the survey of the Mexican Boundary. He participated in the pursuit and surprise
of three parties of Lipan Indians in 1856. Later he was engaged against the
Seminole Indians in Florida.
Present with
Closson was Second Lieutenant Douglas Ramsay (USA 1855). He was the son of Captain William Ramsay, U.S.
Navy and brother of Lieutenant Alan Ramsay of the Marine Corps. Ramsay was
already 32 years old when appointed a second lieutenant in 1855 the year the
Army created four additional regiments.[3] First Sergeant William Morgan was the senior
enlisted man in Company F. Formerly a
miner from Glamorgan Wales, the 35-year-old Morgan had been with “F” since
1857. In total the company had 2
officers and 63 enlisted men present.
First Lieutenant
James Robinson (USMA 1852) commanded Company L.
Captain Samuel K. Dawson (USMA 1839) was on an eight month extended
leave of absence. Robinson was born in
Virginia but his family moved to Missouri when he was a teenager. He enlisted for service in the Mexican War
but his company was disbanded before it ever deployed. Robinson entered West Point at the relatively
advanced age of 21 graduating in 1852. He
served in the Third Seminole War in Florida and at Fort McHenry, Fort Monroe and
in addition to various posts in Texas.
The only other
officer with the company was Second Lieutenant Richard Jackson (USA 1860). Born in West Meath County Ireland in 1830,
Jackson enlisted in the Fourth Artillery in 1851. He was one of the very few enlisted men
before the war who made the jump to the officer ranks. The former First Sergeant of Company L, Fourth
Artillery, Jackson was appointed a second lieutenant in the First Artillery in
July 1860.
The First
Sergeant of “L“ was Lewis Keller. Keller
was born in Bavaria in 1830 and immigrated to the United States in 1850. He enlisted at Baltimore in 1854 giving his
occupation as a butcher. Keller had been with the company ever since. Company L had 2 officers and 77 enlisted men
present. All told, Fort Duncan was very
respectably garrisoned with a total of 8 officers, 219 enlisted men, 60 horses
and 4 guns at the post.
 |
| Captain Bennet Hill |
The other two
artillery companies assigned to the Department of Texas were at Fort Brown 325
miles down the Rio Grande. The fort was just outside of Brownsville opposite
the Mexican town of Matamoros and about 30 miles inland from the coast. French’s West Point classmate and friend
Captain Bennett Hill (USMA 1837), First Artillery commanded here. Hill was 44 years old and a native of
Washington DC. He was a reserved
scholarly type of officer who never married and by successful investment in
railroad stocks over the years had done quite well. Never in the best of health, he served only briefly
in the Mexican War being present at the siege of Vera Cruz. Hill commanded Company M continually since
his appointment to captain in 1848. He
saw duty in Washington territory, Fort Monroe, and Florida before being
assigned to Texas.
With Hill and
Company M in Texas were Lieutenants Morris and Graham. First Lieutenant Lewis Morris was the son of
Captain Lewis Morris (USMA 1820) of the 3rd Infantry who was killed
in Mexico at Monterry in 1847. Perhaps
as a result, his son and namesake received an appointment to the First
Artillery the same year. At the age of
36, Morris was a very senior first lieutenant having served in that grade for
nearly fourteen years. The other officer
in Company M was 26-year-old Second Lieutenant William Montrose Graham (USA
1855). Like Morris, Graham’s father was
a West Point graduate. Major James
Graham (USMA 1817) was a senior officer in the Corps of Topographical
Engineers. His mother was Charlotte
Meade, sister of the future hero of Gettysburg.
William’s uncle and namesake Colonel William Graham of the Eleventh U.S.
Infantry was killed at Molino del Rey. In September 1860, he married Mary
Ricketts the daughter of Captain James Ricketts of the First Artillery. Like Lieutenant Ramsay in Company ‘F’ this
extremely well connected young man received an appointment during the Army’s
expansion in 1855.
The First
Sergeant of Company M was Robert Hall.
Hall was a 34 years old native of Edinboro Scotland where he attended
the University. Hall enlisted during the Mexican War and had been in the Army ever
since. A later commander thought so
highly of the Scotsman that he called him the “best First Sergeant in the Army”
when recommending him for an officer’s appointment. Hall married a “respectable” women from Texas
and had two young children.[4] Company M had 3 officers and 71 enlisted men
present.
The other
company at Fort Brown was Light Company M, Second Artillery. Light Company M’s guns were particularly
valuable because they were the new Model 1857 Light 12-pounders eventually
known as Napoleons – the only company in the army equipped with these advanced
weapons. It should come as no surprise
that the captain of such a special light company was none other than Henry
Hunt, one of the leading artillery innovators in the Army. Hunt was French’s colleague from the
Artillery Board. Hunt had departed the
company in December on leave in Washington to get married. While there Secretary of War Holt ordered him
to assume command of Harpers Ferry a strategic arsenal and armory on the
Potomac River 60 miles northwest of the capital. Holt feared that as the secession crisis
worsened, pro-secession elements in Virginia would seize the arsenal.[5]
Light Company M
had its full complement of lieutenants present in Texas. First Lieutenant Edward Platt (USMA 1849) was
in command in Hunt’s absence. Like
Lieutenants Chalfin and Childs the 31-year-old lieutenant from Burlington
Vermont had spent a good part of the 1850s teaching at West Point. Both he and Chalfin served together as French
language instructors. First Lieutenant
James Thompson (USMA 1851) was the company’s other first lieutenant. The 32-year-old
New Yorker also did a stint as an instructor at the Academy. Thompson taught mathematics from 1854 – 1857.
Rounding out the trio was Second Lieutenant Guilford Bailey (USMA 1856.) Bailey, from Lewis County New York was 26
years old. He recently transferred to Light Company M from Fort Leavenworth.
This was part of the Army’s policy of rotating artillery second lieutenants
into light companies to get hands on experience with the guns. Unlike several other artillery companies with
officers of pro Southern sympathies, all of Light Company M’s officers were solidly
for the Union.
Leading the
enlisted men was First Sergeant Terrence Reilly. Reilly was another Scotsman. Born in 1840, he enlisted in Company M in
1857 at the age of 17. He must have been
a good soldier because none other than Henry Hunt, a very demanding commander,
appointed the young man as First Sergeant in September 1860. ‘M’ had 3 officers, 62 enlisted men, 4
Napoleons and 64 horses present for duty.
With the
election of Abraham Lincoln, the southern states began seceding from the
Union. On January 10th, 1861
Florida became the sixth state Florida to leave. Almost immediately, the War Department took
immediate steps to see to the security of two strategic forts in the Florida
Keys. Fort Taylor was situated at Key
West and Fort Jefferson was in the Dry Tortugas 70 miles further west. These posts commanded access to the Gulf of
Mexico. Fort Taylor was unoccupied and Fort Jefferson had only a
small engineer detachment commanded by Captain Montgomery Meigs.
The day after
Florida voted to secede, Captain
Lewis Arnold’s Company C, Second Artillery departed Boston bound for Fort
Jefferson. The company came ashore at the nearly empty fort on January 18th.
On January 13th,
Captain John Brannan (USMA 1841), was ordered to move his 44 men of Company B First U.S.
Artillery from Key West Barracks to Fort Taylor. These two outposts were still very thinly
garrisoned and could be easily overwhelmed by Florida secessionists.
On February
1, 1861 Texas became the seventh state to secede. There was great danger that
the rebels would capture the men, guns and valuable artillery accouterments of
the five artillery companies stationed along the Rio Grande. While small in numbers of men and equipment,
these artillery companies were extremely valuable. In a future war, they could potentially form
the nucleus of a powerful artillery arm if they could be saved.
 |
| Secretary of War Joseph Holt |
In Washington
President Buchanan appointed Joseph Holt to replace John B. Floyd as Secretary
of War on January 18th 1861.
Holt was against slavery and strongly for the Union. In
a rare display of initiative and competence, the Buchanan administration under
its new Secretary of War took steps to simultaneously evacuate endangered Federal
forces in Texas, and strengthen the two strategic forts in the Florida Keys. On
February 7th, the War Department ordered Major French as senior
artillery officer in the Department of Texas to move all five artillery companies
to the port of Brazos Santiago for embarkation. The four First Artillery
companies would reinforce the Florida garrisons at Fort Jefferson and Fort
Taylor. Light Company M, Second
Artillery and its Napoleons would go to Fort Hamilton NY. French was advised that Brevet Major Fitz-John
Porter (USMA 1845) was on the way to Brazos with a steamer, a detachment of
artillery recruits and $40,000 to expedite the withdrawal.
Porter sailed
from New York on February 15th aboard the steamer Daniel Webster. The ship was loaded with recruits, supplies,
and medical stores for the garrisons of Forts Taylor and Jefferson. From there the ship would head to Brazos
Santiago at the mouth of the Rio Grande, with additional provisions for the artillery
troops scheduled to embark there.
At the beginning
of February French and Chalfin were on court martial duty at Fort
Clark. Due to the illness of Lieutenant
Slaughter, Lieutenant Childs was in command of Company K in their absence. As tensions mounted, French and Chalfin concluded
their business at Fort Clark and hurried back to Fort Duncan. On February 14th after turning
command back to French, Lieutenant Childs took a leave of absence bound for
Charleston South Carolina. He resigned
from the Army on March 4, 1861 and took a commission as a captain of artillery
in the Confederate Army on March 16.
French’s
instructions from the War Department were followed up by Department Orders #25 from
the Department of Texas on February 14th. They ordered the artillery
garrisons at Forts Duncan and Brown to immediately march to Brazos Santiago for
embarkation. It also ordered Companies
C
and
E,
Third
Infantry,
then
at Ringgold
Barracks, to replace the Fort Brown artillery garrison and to take charge of the artillery
horses. Finally Company B, Third Infantry,
was
ordered to immediately repair from its home station at Fort Clark to relieve
French’s command at Fort Duncan.[6]
Pennsylvania-born
Major Williams Nichols (USMA 1838), the Departmental Adjutant General in San
Antonio told French to “move quickly … the object of the authorities of Texas
is to demand the surrender of the guns of the light batteries.”[7]
Nichols was keenly aware of the machinations of General David Twiggs (USA
1812), the Department commander. Twiggs
a Georgian was already in negotiations with Texas authorities regarding the
disposition of Army equipment and supplies in the state.
French’s
command wasted no time. The same day Major Nichols’ orders arrived, French
ordered Lieutenants Chalfin and Robinson to gather up what few wagons and
ambulances were available and take the officers’ families by way of San Antonio
to Indianola for transportation home. It
must have been a difficult moment as William French said goodbye to Caroline
and his four children as they began their own long journey back to Caroline’s
father’s estate in Delaware. [8]
On February
18th, Twiggs surrendered the public property of the United States
Army in the Department of Texas to state commissioners with the proviso that
the troops, their personnel property and arms, and the light artillery
companies with their guns would be permitted to leave the state.[9] That agreement would hold up as long as no
hostilities broke out between the Federal government and the newly organizing
Confederate government in Montgomery Alabama.
On February 18 Twiggs received orders from the War Department relieving
him of command of the Department of Texas and naming Colonel Carlos Waite (USA
1820) as his successor. On March 1st,
by the direction of
the President of the United States, Twiggs was summarily dismissed from the Army
of the United States, for his treachery to the flag of his country.[10]
As French was
making preparations to leave Fort Duncan, Major Oliver Shepherd (USMA 1840) with
Company B, Third Infantry arrived from Fort Clark to relieve him. For reasons that are not clear, Shepherd
seized three of French’s wagons for his own use at Duncan. This undoubtedly incited
an acrimonious argument between the two officers. French had just one wagon and a motley
assortment of Mexican carts in addition to his forge and battery wagons. He had no recourse but to throw out some of
the ordnance stores to lighten his forge and battery wagons.[11] At 3pm on February 20th he lead his
column of artillerymen, guns, caissons, the forge and battery wagons and a few
other carts out of Fort Duncan for the last time. A large amount of company property including most of the officer’s
personal belongings was left behind for want of transportation. The command had a 320-mile journey ahead of them through
inhospitable territory in unseasonably warm weather.[12] No one knew how the Texans would react or if
they would interfere with the move.
By
February 26th French’s command had marched 100 miles and arrived Fort
McIntosh Texas. The fort located outside
the town of Laredo was home to Companies F & I of the Third Infantry. Perhaps recalling his run ins with Major
Shepherd upriver, French did not stay long.
Lieutenant Slaughter left the column at Laredo reporting himself sick. He would soon have a commission as a
lieutenant in the Corps of Artillery of the Provisional Army of the Confederate
States. Six months later Slaughter was facing
his former colleagues of the First Artillery on the front lines around Fort
Pickens Florida. He was dismissed from
the Army on May 15, 1861. Private Robert
Alexander from Company F also deserted at Laredo[13]. More desertions would follow in the days
ahead.
At
nearly the same time, 1,100 miles to the east of Laredo Major Porter was hurriedly
offloading supplies at the Federal forts of Fort Jefferson and Taylor. Porter’s
arrival brought sorely needed supplies and recruits. If he could get the artillery out of Texas in
the next several weeks, he would be back to the Keys with many more troops to
further strengthen these still understrength garrisons. Fitz John wasted no time in discharging his
cargo and set out for Texas on February 26th.
Meanwhile
back in Texas, French’s next stop was Ringgold Barracks, 107 miles from Laredo. He arrived there on March 3rd. Ringgold was named after another artillery
officer, Samuel Ringgold of the Third Artillery who
was mortally wounded at the Battle
of Palo Alto. Until recently the fort
held three companies of the Third Infantry under the command of Lieutenant
Colonel Electus Backus (USMA 1824). Department Orders #25 ordered Companies C and E at
that post to replace the Fort Brown artillery garrison
and
to take charge of the artillery
horses. Backus sent these two companies off on
February 25th. When
French reached Ringgold
Barracks on March 3rd, Company A, Third Infantry was the one
remaining infantry company at the post. French stayed one day at Ringgold
before departing on March 5th.
As he left the post, the guns of Light Company K fired a final national
salute. Around noon an express rider
from Fort Brown reached French with a dispatch from Major Porter.
 |
| Major Fitz-John Porter |
French knew
Porter from Mexico where the young lieutenant from a distinguished naval family
won renown serving in Light Company G, Fourth Artillery. Just two years out of West Point, Porter in
the space of a week earned two brevets for gallantry at Molino Del Rey and
again at the Belen Gate. At the latter place on September 13th 1847 his
company was horribly cut up and lost its commander Captain Simon Drum (USMA
1830) and Lieutenant Calvin Benjamin (USMA 1842) and four men killed. Porter and 20 enlisted men were wounded
attesting to the hot position of the battery.
Porter spent six years at West Point during Robert E. Lee’s superintendence
in the early 1850s serving as an artillery instructor and as the adjutant. In 1856 he was appointed to the Adjutant
General’s branch.
Armed with wide
discretionary authority by General Scott, this very capable officer was now anchored at Brazos Santiago at
the mouth of the Rio Grande River. Porter was determined to sort things out
and get as many Federal troops out as he could. After sizing up the situation he decided to use his
discretionary authority to supersede Department Orders #25. In
addition to the artillery, Porter would attempt to and bring out five additional infantry companies from the Third Infantry. They were:
- · Companies C and E. These companies had already moved to Fort Brown from Ringgold Barracks. Under DO # 25 they had been designated to care for the artillery horses.
- · Company A remaining at Ringgold Barracks
- · Companies F and I at Fort McIntosh.
Porter
acted decisively. He fired off dispatches
to the different infantry commanders as well as to French and Hill providing
instructions for evacuating their forces.[14] Porter knew he would need another ship if he were
to get all the additional forces out of Texas.
In his March
4th dispatch to French, Porter advised that he was sending additional
wagons forward to meet him on the road.
Porter suggested that if French did not need all of the wagons, that he share
some with Captain Bowman whose company remained at Ringgold. French met the
wagons on the road near Camp LA Blanca just fifty miles short of Fort Brown and
decided he needed all of them. In his reply to
Porter French explained his reason for keeping all the wagons as the “heat of
the weather and the lengthened marches”.
Who knows if there wasn’t a hint of payback as French recalled how Major
Shepherd deprived him of wagons back at Duncan. French indicated that he would
link up at Fort Brown with Porter and Captain Hill’s artillerymen on March 8th.
Bennett
Hill was experiencing his
own problems with secessionists at Fort Brown. Early in February Lieutenant Graham
returned from leave by way of New Orleans.
There he learned that it was the intention of General Twiggs to order
all Army units in the Department to concentrate at San Antonio so that they
could be easily surrendered to Texas forces.[15] Graham duly reported this to Hill when he
arrived back at Fort Brown. (Major
Nichols had already confirmed these same fears to French). Hill notified the War Department that he
would not obey any orders from General Twiggs who he felt was acting in bad
faith. On February 21st Hill
learned that a large force of secessionists had departed Galveston bound for
Brazos Santiago where a large supply of ordnance stores was located. Brazos Santiago is about 30 miles from Hill’s
command at Fort Brown. Anticipating
this, Hill had already sent Lieutenant Thompson and a detachment to Brazos to
secure these stores on February 9th, With Graham’s intelligence, he sent
a larger detachment of cavalry from Captain George Stoneman’s (USMA 1846) company
under the command of Lieutenant Graham to join Thompson. Graham had orders to destroy the stores if
they were unable to secure them. It was
to late. Before Graham arrived, a force
of approximately 500 Texans appeared at Brazos demanding the surrender of the
stores. Thompson with only 12 men had no
means to resist and sullenly complied with the secessionist demands on February
21st.
On February
23rd, the same Texas authorities that made trouble for Thompson at
Brazos now arrived at Captain Hill’s doorstep demanding the surrender of the
public property at Fort Brown. Captain Hill and his adjutant Lieutenant
Guilford Bailey met with the Texas delegation.
Hill summarized the meeting in his report to Colonel Waite at San Antonio. In replying to the Texans, he declared “it would be impossible, without
instructions from my Government, to accede to your request to deliver into your
possession the public property, or any portion thereof, at this post.”[16]
Hill felt that he dealt from a position of strength. Not only did he have his own two companies of
regular artillery at Fort Brown but Captain George Stoneman’s cavalry command
of Companies E & G, 2nd Cavalry was in the vicinity.[17] One of Stoneman’s lieutenants was Marius Manning
Kimmel (USMA 1857). He was the father of
Husband Kimmel commander of the Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7th,
1941. [18]
Hill
had just received Department Order #25, and was aware that French’s artillery
battalion and two infantry companies of the Third Infantry were on the way to
Fort Brown. Assured of Stoneman’s full
support, Hill curtly rebuffed
the Texan’s demands. He dismissed the rebels with
intimation that he should feel it to be his duty to send traitors in irons to
Washington.[19] For their part, the Texans had no stomach for dealing with what we
would today call a combined arms team of regular army infantry, cavalry and
artillery equipped with 8 pieces of artillery.
The Texan forces remained around Brownsville but made no further efforts
to interfere with the withdrawal.
On February 28th
the first wave of troops dispatched under Department Order # 25 reached Fort Brown. Companies C & E of the Third Infantry under
the command of Captain William Johns (USMA 1836) arrived from Ringgold Barracks.
They made the 100-mile journey arriving at Fort Brown in three days. Originally under Department Order # 25 it was
intended that these soldiers take charge of the artillery horses that were to
be left behind. However Porter using the
broad powers vested in him by General Scott, directed that Captain Johns’
command should be evacuated with the artillery.
He ordered Johns to turn over command of Fort Brown to Captain Stoneman
and prepare to move on to Brazos.
 |
| French's Route from Fort Duncan to Brazos |
French’s
command began arriving at Fort Brown on March 8th. Light
Company K was the first to arrive. The
last part of the column arrived on the 9th. The 320-mile march took 16 days. The average pace
of 20 miles per day was respectable considering all of the equipment being
hauled, the inhospitable terrain, hot temperatures and the constant
watchfulness for interference by Texas forces that shadowed their every
move. Lieutenants Robinson and Chalfin
were already at Fort Brown with the company trains after escorting the
officer’s families to Indianola. The
fort was teeming with U.S. troops. There
were now five artillery companies, two infantry companies and two cavalry
companies there. Texas forces continued
to assemble and organize outside the fort in nearby Brownsville.
French had only
one day to get up to speed with Hill about the overall situation. Hill had been literally “holding down the
fort” for over two weeks awaiting French’s arrival and was anxious to get to
Brazos. On March 9th, he set
off with his company. French’s
battalion followed the next day. Captain
Johns’ two companies of the Third Infantry departed on March 11th. The last to leave was Light Company M, 2nd
Artillery under Lieutenant Thompson.
That company, hauling its four precious Napoleons departed Fort Brown on
March 12th.[20]
By the end of
the next day all the forces that were going to leave Texas under Major Porter
were at the mouth of the Rio Grande. The
original plan was to embark from Brazos but the town was now crawling with
armed Texan irregulars. Porter judged it
safer to conduct the evacuation from the mouth of the Rio Grande.
The troops had
a couple of days to rest as Major Porter made final arrangements. With the additional infantry forces that he was
taking, Porter needed another ship. On
March 13th he contracted with the
agent of the Southern Steamship Company to charter the steamer Rusk. Ironically this was the same steamship that two weeks
earlier brought to Brazos the rebel Texans who made so much trouble for
Lieutenant Thomas. While Porter fully
disclosed his planned use of the Rusk to her captain and the ship’s agent,
Texas authorities later on were none to happy to learn that the ship was used
to reinforce Federal garrisons in the Keys.[21]
During the
final days in Texas a wave of desertions swept through the companies being
evacuated. In the space of a week
beginning on March 8th 41 enlisted men deserted from the seven
departing artillery and infantry companies.[22]
Fitz-John Porter in his report to the adjutant general said, “a few weak men yielded to temptation and persuasions and
deserted their flag for another service.”
But 41 soldiers or about nine percent of the total force deserting in a
week was a significant loss. Perhaps some like First Sergeant Hall
also started families in Texas that did not want to leave. Hall however did not desert. The commonly held view that the enlisted
ranks of the regular army stood fast while a large number of officers went
south does not bear up under scrutiny in this instance.
Porter had his
ships but bad weather referred to at the time as an “equinoctial gale[23]”
prevented their departure until March 19th. [24]
Porter’s plan was to load the artillery companies bound for the Florida forts
on the Rusk. Hunt’s Light Company M and
the Napoleons, and the two infantry companies would load on the Daniel Webster.
The ships would sail to the Florida forts together. The Webster would continue on to Fort
Hamilton. As much as Porter wanted to
get three additional infantry companies out of Texas, delays by these companies
in reaching Fort Brown precluded their inclusion in the expedition. He would be forced to leave without them.[25]
By noon on
March 19th the troops, guns, ammunition, and camp equipment was loaded. For many of the soldiers, the hardest thing
was abandoning their artillery horses. The unit could not perform its mission
without them and much of an artilleryman’s day revolved around the care of the
horses. Around 120 of them were left
behind. The ships were not outfitted to
handle the animals and War Department orders specifically directed that they be
left behind.
 |
| Reinforcing the Florida Keys |
At 4pm on March
19th, the two ships left the mouth of the Rio Grande bound for Fort
Jefferson. On the 24th, they
dropped anchor there. Captain Hill bid
Major Porter farewell as he disembarked with Companies L & M. Captain Lewis Arnold warmly greeted his old
friend and classmate. Arnold, Hill and
French were all graduates of the West Point Class of 1837.
The next day
Major French joined Captain Brannan at Fort Taylor with Light Company K and
Company F and assumed command there. The
Rusk returned to its unhappy southern owners who had unwittingly contributed to
the successful reinforcement of two important Federal forts. The Daniel Webster proceeded to New York
arriving on March 30. Henry Hunt
rejoined his company there and just six days later was part of a large expedition
organized by the new Lincoln administration to reinforce another key Florida
port - Fort Pickens outside of Pensacola.
Fitz-John Porter
had more than accomplished his mission. The
reinforcement of Forts Jefferson and Taylor tripled the number of soldiers at
these key forts ensuring their security from Confederate attack. Both installations played a crucial role in
the blockade of southern ports and the interception of blockade-runners. Not only did he safely bring out five critically
important artillery companies, he also managed to extricate two infantry
companies as well. These five artillery companies played important roles during
the Civil War.
Company F, First Artillery
Company F moved
from Fort Taylor to Fort Pickens in May of 1861 and fought at the Battle of
Santa Rosa Island on October 9, 1861. Upon
Captain Jones resignation on April 21st 1861, Captain Richard Duryea
(USMA 1849) assumed command of the company and remained its captain for the
remainder of the war. In September of 1862
”F” was dispatched to Louisiana and participated in the Port Hudson campaign of
1863. In July of 1864 the company was
ordered to New York along with Company L for refitting as a light artillery
company. It was combined with Company A
at Camp Barry and served in the Washington defenses at Fort Morton Virginia for
the remainder of the war.
Henry Clossen served
with Company F until his promotion to Captain on May 14 1861 when he assumed
command of Company L. He commanded “L”
for the remainder of the war. Closson
generally was not with his company usually serving as Chief of Artillery in the
Department where he was assigned. He
earned brevets for gallantry for Port Hudson and the Battle of Fort Morgan
Alabama. Closson as a regular officer
continued his career after the war and rose to the rank of Colonel of the
Fourth Artillery. He retired in 1896 after 42 years service and died in
1917.
Douglas
Ramsay was promoted to First Lieutenant on February 25th, and
transferred to Light Company I, First Artillery in May. Four months after
leaving Texas, Ramsay was killed when his battery was overrun at the First
Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861.
First Sergeant
Morgan of Company F reenlisted in August 1862 and served for the remainder of
the war with his company. It was
reported at the naval bombardment of Pensacola in November 1861 that Morgan “behaved with admirable coolness.” [26] He was discharged from the Army on March
29, 1865.
Company L, First Artillery
Company L
remained at Fort Jefferson until July when it also moved to Fort Pickens. With the appointment of Captain Dawson to a
majority in the new 19th Infantry, Lieutenant Clossen was promoted
to Captain in December and assumed command of “L”. It joined Company F in New Orleans and took
part in the Port Hudson operations. The
company remained in Louisiana until August 1864 when it moved to Camp Barry in
Washington DC. It became part of Phil Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah
fighting at Cedar Creek in October of 1864. It served with that army for the rest
of the war.
After
delivering Company L safely to Fort Jefferson, James Robinson, due to “Southern associations”
(he was born in Virginia and raised in Missouri), resigned from the Army on May
15, 1861. Robinson however did not take
up arms against the Union instead electing to sit out the war at Fort Jefferson
as post sutler. After the war, he lived in Boston with
his wife and six children. He became an author and publisher died there in
1918.
Richard
Jackson was promoted to Captain in February 1862 and took command of Company D. He accepted a volunteer commission as Major
and Acting Assistant General in the 10th Corps in April 1863. He was Chief of Artillery in operations
against Fort Sumter in 1863. Jackson
served in that position in both the 10th and 25th Corps
in the Army of the James and later was that Army’s chief of staff. His last wartime assignment was commanding an
infantry division in the 25th Corps.
Jackson won five brevets for gallantry during the war. Entering the Army in 1851, this remarkable soldier
ended the war as a brigadier general U.S.V with a brevet rank of Major General. Jackson remained in the regular army after
the war. He was struck by lightning when he was on duty in the honor guard
for Ulysses S. Grant’s body at Mount McGregor on July 30th 1885.[27] Jackson reached the regular army rank of lieutenant colonel, Fourth
Artillery in 1888. He died on active
duty at Fort McPherson Georgia in 1892.
First Sergeant
Keller of “L” obtained a volunteer commission in the Louisiana Volunteer
Cavalry in December 1863. After
mustering out, he returned to the regular Army as an Ordnance Sergeant spending
most of his postwar career at Camp Douglas Utah. Keller retired from the Army in 1885 after 31
years service and died at Buffalo New York in 1907.
Company M, First Artillery
Company M
remained at Fort Jefferson until June of 1862 when it moved to Beaufort South
Carolina. When Captain Hill was promoted
to major, Captain Loomis Langdon (USMA 1854) received the command. He served with the company for the remainder
of the war. “M” remained in South
Carolina until February 1864 when it moved to Jacksonville Florida. The company was badly cut up at the ill-fated
Battle of Olustee on February 20th.
In late spring of 1864 as part of a general concentration of regular
artillery batteries in Virginia, “M” moved to Fort Monroe and became part of
General Butler’s Army of the James. It
eventually was sent to the Petersburg line and remained there until April 1865. It is the only one of the five Texas
companies that participated in the final campaign in the east fighting at the
Battle of Appomattox Court House on April 9th, 1865
Bennett Hill remained
with Company M until he was promoted to major in the 2nd Artillery
in December 1862. He remained in command at Fort Jefferson until October of
1862. Like many of the field grade
officers in the artillery regiments, Hill was not well enough to perform active
field service. He served as Chief Mustering and Disbursing Officer, and
Superintendent of Volunteer Recruiting Service, in West Virginia, from October
1862, to April 1863; thereafter he held a similar assignment for the State of
Michigan from April 23, 1863, to July 31, 1865. In August of 1863 he was
promoted a lieutenant colonel of the Fifth Artillery. Hill received two brevets for Civil War
service to the rank of brigadier general.
He retired in 1870 and died in 1886.
Lewis Morris was
promoted to Captain and command of Company C, 1st Artillery on April
21, 1861. In August of 1862 he accepted
a volunteer commission as Colonel of the Seventh New York Heavy Artillery. His regiment served in the Washington
defenses as heavy artillery until the 1864 Overland Campaign. Like his father before him Lewis Morris was
also killed in battle. He fell at the head of his regiment in the horrific
fighting at Cold Harbor.
It was sent
to the Army of the Potomac and saw its first action at Cold Harbor. Lewis Morris was killed at the head of his
regiment in the horrific fighting at Cold Harbor on June 4, 1864.
William
Graham was promoted to first lieutenant in March and to captain in October
1861. He assumed command of Light
Company K and lead it throughout the Civil War.
William Graham was one of the premier artilleryman to emerge from the
Civil War. He was brevetted for
gallantry in the Peninsula Campaign, and for Antietam and Gettysburg. In August 1863 he assumed command of the 2nd
Brigade of Horse Artillery, which he commanded until April 1864. Graham emerged
from the war as a brevet brigadier general.
He returned to the regular army and after a long career in the artillery
was promoted to brigadier general in the regular army on May 26, 1897. At the start of the Spanish-American War in May 1898, he was promoted to
major general of U.S. Volunteers. After brief service in command of the 2nd
Corps, he retired from the regular army on his 64th birthday, and was honorably
mustered out of the volunteers on November 30, 1898. Graham died in 1916.
First Sergeant
Robert Hall was appointed a lieutenant in the First Artillery in October 1861.
He remained with Company M at Fort Jefferson and later at Beaufort S.C. When his company moved to the Army of the
James in April 1864, Hall transferred to Company B, First Artillery and became
its commander In December 1864 Hall accepted a volunteer commission as Colonel
of 38th USCT. He received
five brevets for gallant and meritorious service up to the rank brigadier
general of U.S.V. After mustering out
in 1867 Hall returned to the First Artillery serving as adjutant and
quartermaster. He died on duty at
Summerville South Carolina in 1874.
Light Company K, First Artillery
Light Company K
remained at Fort Taylor until the end of 1861.
In Washington the new Army commander George B. McClellan wanted as many
regular artillery companies as possible to be part of his new Army of the
Potomac. Light Company K left Fort
Taylor in December under Redmond Tully, former First Sergeant and now a newly
minted second lieutenant. Upon arrival
in Washington in January 1862, the company met its new commander, Captain
William Graham who succeeded French when he was promoted to major in the 2nd
Artillery. “K” was assigned with other regular
army batteries to the elite Artillery Reserve.
The company served at the Battle of Antietam in the Sunken Road under
Captain Graham supporting Richardson’s attack.
After Chancellorsville it was converted to horse artillery and served
with the cavalry corps through the Overland Campaign. The company was transferred to the Army of
the Shenandoah in August 1864 participating in all of that army’s principal
actions through the end of the war.
William French was
promoted to major, Second Artillery in October 1861. Shortly after that he was appointed a
brigadier general in the U.S.V. French
was assigned to a brigade command in Israel Richardson’s division of the Second
Corps, Army of the Potomac where he performed very well in the Peninsula
Campaign. Shortly before Antietam, a
third division was formed in the Second Corps and French moved over to command
it. French lead his new division at the
Sunken Road during the Battle of Antietam and again at Fredericksburg and
Chancellorsville. Reassigned to command
Harpers Ferry during the Gettysburg campaign, French assumed command of the
Third Corps on July 7th, 1863
He participated in the unsuccessful Mine Run campaign and gave up corps
command in the reorganization of the Army of the Potomac that eliminated the
Third Corps. Mustering out of volunteer
service in May 1864, French reverted to his regular army rank of Lieutenant
Colonel of the Third Artillery. He
served on several artillery related assignments for the remainder of the
war. During the war, French received
brevets for gallantry at Fair Oaks, Antietam, and Chancellorsville and ended the
war with a brevet rank of major general.
French went on to serve 15 more years reaching the rank of Colonel,
Fourth Artillery in 1877. He retired in
1880 and died less than a year later on May 20, 1881.
 |
| Lieutenant Frank French 1842-1865 |
Perhaps with
some help from his father, French’s eldest son Frank age 19 secured a
commission in the First Artillery in September 1861. He served with Light Company I and was
wounded at Balls Bluff and again more severely at Antietam. Like his father, he received brevets for gallantry
at Fair Oaks and Antietam and also for Cold Harbor. The younger French never fully recovered from
his Antietam injuries and died at his grandfather’s Delaware estate on
September 4 1865 at the age of 23. His
father was not present at his son’s deathbed having been sent to the Pacific
coast with his new regiment one month earlier.
Samuel Chalfin accepted an appointment in the new Fifth
Artillery Regiment in May 1861. The next
year he was promoted to captain in the Fifth Artillery in command of Battery
L. He served in the defenses of Fort
Taylor, Fort Pickens and Baltimore before accepting an appointment as a major
in the adjutant general’s branch. From
1863 onward Chalfin served in Washington DC in various administrative
positions. He resigned from the army in
1869 and died in 1891.
First Sergeant Tully was appointed a Second Lieutenant in
the First Artillery in November of 1861.
He commanded “K” in its transfer from Ft Taylor to Washington DC in
December but was back at Fort Taylor by April 1862 to take his new position in
Company D. Tully spent the first half of
the war in the Department of the South.
In April 1864 his battery was assigned to the Army of the James and
Tully spent the last months of the war on the Petersburg front. He earned a brevet for gallantry at Darbytown
Road new Richmond on October 7, 1864. After
the war he transferred to the infantry and after a long and distinguished
career retired from the Army in 1891. He
died in 1895.
Light Company M, Second Artillery
After a brief
stint at Fort Pickens, Light Company M, Second Artillery returned to Virginia
and fought at the First Battle of Bull Run under Henry Hunt. When Hunt accepted a majority in the new 5th
Artillery he was succeeded in command by Captain Henry Benson (USA 1848). The company was one of the first organized as
Horse Artillery after Bull Run. Benson
died of wounds suffered at Malvern Hill in August 1862. Second Lieutenant Peter Hains (USMA 1861) briefly
succeeded Benson and lead the battery at Antietam. There it supported Pleasonton’s cavalry
division at the Middle Bridge. For the rest of the war First Lieutenant (later
Captain) Alexander C.M. Pennington (USMA 1860) commanded the company. Light
Company M fought in all of the major campaigns with the Army of the Potomac until
the Overland Campaign. In September 1864
it was transferred to the Cavalry Division of the Army of the Shenandoah where
it served for the remainder of the war. Like
“K”, this battery served with great distinction.
Edward Platt
fought with the battery at First Bull Run.
Promoted to captain on May 15, 1861, he commanded Company D, Second
Artillery until elevated to Chief of Artillery for General Smith’s division in
the Sixth Corps in May 1862. Platt fought on the Peninsula with the Sixth
Corps. In September of 1862 he was
appointed a Lieutenant Colonel, Assistant Inspector General of the Sixth Corps;
In March 1863 he was appointed Judge Advocate of the Army of the Potomac and
served there until July 1864 when he returned to West Point as Acting Professor
of Spanish. Platt earned brevets for
gallantry for First Bull Run and Fredericksburg. After the war he served largely in staff
positions in California, South Carolina the Gulf and Kansas. He died on duty in 1884 at Fort Leavenworth.
James Thompson
was promoted to Captain of Company G, 2nd Artillery on August 1861.
He led the unit in the fighting of the Seven Days in June 1862. After returning from sick leave in September
1862 he became Chief of Artillery in the defenses of Cincinnati and from that
point served in the Army of the Ohio and Cumberland where he distinguished
himself at Chickamauga. Towards the end
of the war, he served as a mustering officer at Louisville and Cincinnatti. Thompson was retired for disability in 1869
and died in 1880. His son John born in 1860 would one day invent the Thompson
machine gun known as the Tommy gun and rise to the rank of brigadier
general.
Guilford Baily
accepted a volunteer commission as Colonel of the First New York Light
Artillery Regiment in September 1861. Baily capably organized and led the
regiment. Many of its batteries were
among the best in the Army of the Potomac.
Charles Wainwright, one of his regimental officers said of Baily that
”there were few men of more promise among us.”[28] Made Chief of Artillery in Silas Casey’s
division of the Fourth Corps, Bailey was killed leading one of his batteries at
the Battle of Seven Pines Virginia on May 31, 1862.
First
Sergeant Reilly served in “M” for the first two years of the war. Successive commanding officers commended him
in official reports for his actions at First Bull Run, Williamsburg, and the
Seven Days.[29] At Antietam the sergeant commanded the left
section “with remarkable coolness.”[30] Reilly finally received an appointment as a
second lieutenant in the Fourth Artillery in March 1863. He joined Company E, Fourth Artillery in
August 1863. Reilly served with the company occasionally in command through the
end of the war. He was promoted to first
lieutenant in June 1864. Reilly was
awarded two brevets for gallant and meritorious service. On December 21, 1865 Reilly was convicted in
General Court Martial of several counts of intoxication, mutinous conduct,
threatening a fellow officer and breach of arrest. The court found him guilty of all but two
counts and sentenced him to be cashiered from the Army.[31] Reilly died in 1902 of Bright’s disease.
It is to Fitz
John Porter that much of the credit goes for the successful escape of the
artillery. This exceptional officer
demonstrated the leadership, organizational ability, drive, and negotiating
skills, to perform this difficult mission.
He likely was chosen for these very reasons for this difficult
assignment. Upon completing his mission,
Porter was assigned as the Chief of Staff for General Robert Patterson’s
Department of Pennsylvania. He was
rewarded with a regular army commission as Colonel of the new 15th
Infantry Regiment on May 14th, and Brigadier General, U.S.V. on May 17th, and Major General on
July 4th, 1862. Successfully
commanding a division and corps, it was General Porter’s leadership and courage
that saved the Army of the Potomac in the Battle of Gaines Mill in the Seven
Days. But this protégé of George
McClellan suffered just as dramatic a fall from power in the autumn of 1862 as
his ascent had been a year earlier.
Porter’s Fifth Corps was dispatched to the Army of Virginia in August
1862. They became John Pope’s scapegoat
for the disastrous Union defeat at Second Manassas. Now under a cloud McClellan convinced Lincoln
and Halleck to permit Porter to remain in command of his corps during the
Maryland Campaign. However, with McClellan’s
relief from command on November 5th, Porter’s departure from the
Army followed a week later. Arrested on November 25th on charges
brought by John Pope for his conduct at Second Manassas. Porter was convicted
and dismissed from the Army on January 21, 1863. He spent the next 23 years fighting to
restore his name. On May 6, 1882
President Arthur commuted Porter’s sentence and on July 1, 1886 a bill passed the Congress to restore Porter to
his regular army rank of colonel. Porter died in 1901.
In his final
report Porter said this about the artillerymen from Texas:
“In testimony of the character of
that portion of the army which came under my observation on the Rio Grande, I
wish to state that I never saw a more orderly and better disposed and more
easily controlled body of men, each man apparently seconding every effort and
wish of the officers to sustain under trying circumstances a well-earned
reputation for discipline and loyalty. “
[1] James Slaughter (1827-1901) from Virginia was
dismissed from the U.S. Army on May 14, 1861.
He received a commission as a lieutenant of artillery in the Confederate
Army rising to the rank of brigadier general.
Slaughter served as an inspector-general on various staffs in
Alabama Mississippi and later as Chief of Artillery to General Magruder in
Texas. (USA-1846) indicates the year that he was appointed as an officer and
that he was not a graduate of the Military Academy.
[2] Returns
From Regular Army Artillery Regiments, June 1821-Jan. 1901; (National Archives Microfilm M727, 38
rolls); Records of the Adjutant General’s Office, 1780s-1917, Record Group 94;
National Archives, Washington, D.C.
Returns used here are the February 1861 reports.
[3] His brother Alan was appointed as a lieutenant in the
Marine Corps in 1857. He served on the
USS Richmond in the West Gulf Blockading Squadron during the campaign against
Port Hudson in 1863. Alan Ramsay died of
small pox in 1864.
[4] Major Lewis Arnold, Second Artillery Letter of
recommendation for an officer appointment for Robert Hall, July 17, 1861.
[5] Hunt married Mary Craig on December 27, 1860 in
Washington. His first wife Emily died in
May 1857 of long-term complications from the birth of his second child. Hunt’s two children were actually in San
Antonio Texas being cared for by his brother in law Major Nichols and his
family. The separation from the children
caused Hunt now in Washington no small degree of worry. When Major Nichols was paroled after the
surrender in Texas, he brought the children out safely with his family. From The
Man Behind the Guns – A Military Biography of General Henry J. Hunt by
Edward Longacre (New York De Capo Press 2003)
Pursuant to instructions from the headquarters of the Army,
dated January 31, 1861, received today, the following movements of troops will
take place:
I. Companies F, K, and L, First Artillery, at Fort Duncan,
Company M, First, and Company M, Second Artillery, at Fort Brown, will march,
immediately upon receipt of this order, for Brazos Santiago, at which place a
steamer has been directed to be in readiness to receive them for transportation
out of Texas. The light companies will take their guns, ammunition, and
equipments with them, but will leave their horses on embarkation. The other
companies will move with their arms and ammunition, and all the companies with
such camp equipage, as can be transported by the means within their command.
II. Companies C and E, Third Infantry, will move to Fort
Brown without delay, to replace the garrison ordered out of Texas, and will
take charge of the artillery horses of Companies K, First, and M, Second
Artillery, for which purpose details from each company will be made.
III. Company B, Third Infantry, will repair at once to Fort
Duncan, and relieve the present garrison of that station.
IV. The troops from Fort Duncan will carry provisions as far
as Fort Brown.
V. The transportation will be taken from the means at the
posts from which the movements will be made.
By
order of Brevet Major-General Twiggs:
W. A.
NICHOLS,
Assistant Adjutant- General
[7] Monthly Return for Company F, First U.S. Artillery
February 28, 1861
[9] OR Series 2 Volume 1 page 5
[10] OR Series1 Volume1 page 591 General Orders No. 5, War
Department dated March 1, 1861
[12]
French makes reference to “the heat of the weather” in his March 6 message to
Porter.
OR Series 2 Volume 1 page 19.
[13] From March 1861 Monthly Return of 1st
Artillery Regiment and Army Record of Enlistment Robert Anderson https://www.fold3.com/image/310824111?terms=Robert%20Alexander
[14] Porter in dispatches dated March 4th, 1861 “by authority and in the name of the general
in chief” ordered Lieutenant Colonel Backus commanding Ringgold Barracks to
order Company A, 3rd Infantry still at Ringgold Barracks to proceed
to Fort Brown. He also directed Major
Sibley at Ft McIntosh to send Companies F&I to Fort Brown as well. Porter was attempting to embark no less than
five infantry companies to evacuation.
[15] OR Series1 Volume1 page 591 Letter from Captain Hill,
First Artillery to Colonel Cooper, Adjutant General; February 19, 1861
[16] OR Series1 Volume1 page 540 Captain Bennet Hill to
General Nichols Texas State Commissioner February 32, 1861;
[17] Stoneman’s command consisted of Companies E & G
of the 2nd Cavalry. With
Stoneman were Lieutenants James Witherell (USA 1855), Manning Kimmel (USMA
1857) and 122 troopers. This is based on the February 1861 return for
the 2nd Cavalry Regiment. Witherell drowned on March 20, 1861. The evacuation camp set up at Brazos was
named Camp Witherell in his memory.
[18] Kimmel (1832 – 1916) was from Missouri. He fought for the
Union with the 2nd Cavalry at Bull Run but subsequently resigned his
commission and served in the West under such Confederate commanders as Earl Van
Dorn, Kirby Smith, Sterling Price and John Magruder.
[19] Haskin First
Artillery Page 138
[20] All departure dates are from the regimental monthly
returns.
[21] See OR Series 2 Volume 1 for Porter’s full report on
chartering the Rusk.
[22] According to the March returns, 41 soldiers deserted while the
command awaited orders to move to the coast:
1st Artillery: Company
F lost seven soldiers; Company K lost 9 soldiers; Company L lost 2 soldiers;
Company M lost 9 soldiers; 2nd Artillery: Company M lost 2 soldiers. Additionally 12 men from the 3rd
Infantry deserted.
[23]An equinoctial gale is a storm of violent winds and
rain occurring at or near the time of an equinox (i.e. March 21) and popularly,
but erroneously believed to be physically associated with it. Source:
dictionary.com.
[24] Haskin, First
Artillery page 139
[25] Company A reached Fort Brown on March 11th
as the artillery garrison was departing.
It did not depart Fort Brown for the coast until March 20th. It missed Porter’s departure by one day. Porter also planned to take out Companies
F&I at Fort McIntosh. Major Sibley
in command there suffered numerous delays.
They reached the Mouth of the Rio Grande on March 26. After marches and countermarches the three
companies were caught up in the results of the attack on Fort Sumter. They were compelled to surrender to
Confederate forces at Saluria Texas on April 26th. Held briefly the companies were paroled and
allowed to depart Texas for New York where they finally arrived on June 1st. Stoneman’s command was more fortunate. They left their camp on the Rio Grande on
March 20th arriving at New York on April 11th. Source OR Series 3 volume 1 pages 24 and 25.
[27] Eicher, John H. and David J. Civil War High Commands (Stanford CA, Stanford University Press
2001) 316
[28] Wainwright Charles S. A Diary of Battle edited by Allan Nevins (New York, Da Capo Press 1998), 76
[29] OR Series 1 Volume 2 377 First Bull Run; "very efficient,"
Major Hunt; OR 11:1 694 Peninsula; "intelligence, coolness,
and bravery " Lieutenant Barlow; OR 11:2 251
Seven Days "recommended for a commission" Henry Benson; Supplement-Army Official Records-Volume 3 page 525 Antietam "remarkable coolness"
Peter Hains
[30] OR Series 1 Volume 19:1
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