He Beat Robert E. Lee at West Point

Charles Mason

Both Robert E. Lee and George B. McClellan were graduates of the United States Military Academy.  Lee graduated in 1829 and McClellan graduated seventeen years later in 1846.  Both ranked second in their respective classes.   Today, Lee and McClellan overshadow and outshine the two men who beat them out for top honors.  Charles Mason and Charles Stewart are not names that resonate in the history of the Civil War.  Most people don't even know them.  But both men deserve a better fate than to be considered obscure and unimportant.  Their contributions to Civil War history are significant and indeed surprising.  This is the first of two posts that consider the careers of the men who lead the West Point classes of 1829 and 1846.

Charles Mason was born on October 24, 1804 in Pompey New York, a small town near Syracuse. He was a full two years older than Robert E. Lee who was born on January 19, 1807.  Charles was the fifth of six children born to Chauncey and Esther Dodd Mason. Unlike the highbred Lee’s of Virginia, Charles’ father up to the end of his life was a carpenter.[1]  Mason attended local schools and at the ago of 19 was admitted to West Point.  Douglas Southall Freeman described Mason at West Point as “invincible”, a man “ of studious habits and uncommon ability.”[2] No matter how hard Lee worked, he was never able to academically supersede the young New Yorker. Like Lee, Mason never earned a single demerit in his four years at the Academy.   In July of every year, the position of adjutant was filled.  This was the highest-ranking cadet in the Corps.  It went to the man who manifested the finest military bearing and best record on the drill ground.  It is here that Lee came out on top, being appointed to that position in July of 1828. One year later, the men parted ways upon their graduation on July 1, 1829.  Marshall was number one and Lee number two.  Their high class standing destined both men for appointment to the elite Corps of Engineers.  Lee’s orders sent him to Fort Monroe.  He served his first assignment as an assistant engineer in the construction of that fort.  Mason remained at the Military Academy as Principal Assistant Professor of Engineering for two years. 

Mason did not elect to make the Army a career.  He resigned on December 31, 1831 and returned to Newburgh New York where he studied law and eventually joined a law firm.  Two years later he moved to New York City and became acting editor for the New York Post, a pro-Democratic paper.

            While Lee was establishing a reputation as a skilled military engineer, Mason moved in 1836 to Des Moines, then a small village in the Wisconsin Territory.  Governor Henry Dodge appointed him county attorney and Mason settled down on a farm at Burlington.  He married Angelica Gear a local girl and the couple had three daughters.  In 1838 when Iowa became a territory, President Van Buren appointed him Chief Judge of the Territorial Supreme Court.  In that role, Mason was instrumental in writing the criminal code for the new territory. 

Eighteen years before the famous Dred Scott decision, Chief Justice Mason in 1839 heard the case of Ralph, a Missouri slave who had been allowed by his master to come to Iowa in exchange for a promise of payment to buy his freedom.  Ralph did not pay and when his owner tried to force him back into slavery, Mason ruled that under the Missouri Compromise of 1820, slavery in Iowa was forever prohibited.  A master who permitted a slave to become a resident in Iowa could not exercise any acts of ownership within Iowa.[3] 

Mason served on the Supreme Court until 1848 when he was commissioned to chair a panel that prepared a code of laws for the new state of Iowa.  By now, Captain Lee was a bona fide war hero of the Mexican War.  Serving on Winfield Scott’s staff, Lee earned three brevets for gallantry at Cerro Gordo, Contreras, and Chapultepec. 

            In April 1853 President Pierce appointed Mason as the U.S. Commissioner of Patents in Washington D.C.  He was an energetic reformer who reorganized the system for applying for patents and inaugurated a system for obtaining weather information by telegraph.  Mason also hired the first woman to regular employment in a federal office.  This determined young Massachusetts woman was Clara Barton, future Civil War humanitarian and Red Cross founder.  Lee was back at the two men’s alma mater as Superintendent of West Point. 

            In August 1857 Mason resigned as Patent Commissioner, unhappy with the politics of the Buchanan administration.  He returned to Iowa and was elected to the state’s Board of Education.  Meanwhile, Lieutenant Colonel Lee commanded the 2^nd Cavalry Regiment in Texas.  He returned that year to Washington to settle his father in laws tangled estate at Arlington.  Undoubtedly Mason who was back in Iowa read of Lee’s lead role in the capture of John Brown at Harper’s Ferry in October 1859.

In 1861, Mason unsuccessfully ran as the Democratic candidate for governor of Iowa.  The former army officer from New York opposed secession but stood up for the constitutional rights of the southern states.  He cast his lot with the Peace Democrats declaring that the Union “can never be perpetuated by force of arms and that a republican government held together by the sword becomes a military despotism.”[4]  Mason’s only overt support of the war was his appointment by Iowa governor Samuel Kirkwood to a state war bond commission.  Lee likely had similar sentiments to Mason on the issue of secession and the rights of South. Promoted to Colonel, of the 1^st U.S. Cavalry on March 16, 1861, he was now one of only 19 regimental commanders in the Army.[5]  His command of that regiment would last one month. Turning down an offer of a senior command in the Federal Army, Lee resigned on April 25, 1861 to follow Virginia into the Confederacy. 

            Mason returned to Washington in 1862.  By then, Lee was remaking the Army of Virginia in his own image and emerging as the preeminent military leader of the Confederacy. Mason leveraged his political connections, to establish the lucrative patent law firm of Mason, Fenwick and Lawrence.  He was active in Democratic circles determined to oust Lincoln in the 1864 campaign.  Among other roles, he chaired the Democratic National Central Committee.  Lee was also determined to see Lincoln defeated in the 1864 elections.  Mason no doubt followed the military successes of his former classmate.  Lee, an avid reader of Northern newspapers was no doubt aware of his former rival’s partisan activities in Washington as well.

            Mason ran again for governor of Iowa in 1868 and lost convincingly.  As he grew older, Mason remained active in local affairs in Burlington serving as president of the local water company and several railways.  He returned to the national scene as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1868 and 1872.  Throughout his long life, Charles Mason retained a great interest in farming and agricultural science and the farm at Burlington was the center his family life.   

While Charles Mason did not offer his services to the Union war effort, his son-in-law had a distinguished military career. George Collier Remey from Davenport Iowa was an 1859 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy.  Like Charles Mason, he graduated with honors.[6]  Though born far from the ocean, Remey served with great distinction on the seas during the Civil War.  He was on the gunboat Marblehead during the Peninsula Campaign and subsequently a part of the Union blockading squadron off Charleston South Carolina.  In the ill-fated attacks against that city in September 1863, Lieutenant Remey commanded a division of landing boats.  His was the only one to make it ashore and was smashed by Confederate gunfire.  Remey was captured and spent 13 months in a Confederate prison.  In 1873 Remey married Mary Josephine Mason.  In his long illustrious career, he served in the Spanish American War and commanded the United States Asiatic Fleet before retiring as a Rear Admiral in 1903.

Later in life, Charles Mason reflected about the war years, and his role as a leading Copperhead.  Writing in his diary he said "I played the game of life at a great crisis and I lost. I must be satisfied."[7] One can only wonder if his classmate ever harbored similar sentiments.

Twelve years after Robert E. Lee’s death and 53 years after the two young men graduated from West Point, Charles Mason died on February 25, 1882 at his beloved farm at Burlington Iowa.  He was 78 years old.

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[1] 1850 Census

[2] R.E. Lee by Douglas Southall Freeman Pulitzer Prize Edition Volume 1 page 80; New York Charles Scribner’s Sons 1947

[3] Acton, Richard. “Charles Mason” The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa. University of Iowa Press, 2009. Web 14 April 2017.

http://uipress.lib.uiowa.edu/bdi/DetailsPage.aspx?id=253

[4] Ibid

[5] At the start of the Civil War, there were ten infantry regiments, five cavalry regiments, and four artillery regiments in the regular army.

[6] Remey graduated fourth in his class.  At 17 years of age, he was also the youngest graduate. 

[7] The Biographical Dictionary of Iowa

The Little Things…

It turns out that artillery companies leave a lot of stuff on the battlefield after an engagement.[i]  For most units, commanders report soldiers killed and wounded.  In artillery companies they also report their losses of horses.  This is logical as artillery horses are the prime movers for an artillery battery.  But the artillery even goes beyond that.  We get a good idea of the kinds of equipment necessary to keep the artillery running from the reports of two Federal artillery commanders at Antietam.

Captain William Montrose Graham

William Graham had been a soldier for seven years.  Unlike most ante-bellum regular army officers, he was not a West Point graduate.  There is some evidence that he applied to the Academy but for reasons unknown to me never got the appointment.  He certainly had an impeccable pedigree.  Both his father and uncle were graduates of the West Point Class of 1817.  His father James a noted explorer and surveyor was a Major in the Topographical Engineers when his son received his appointment as a lieutenant in the First Artillery in 1855.  His uncle William a hero of the Mexican War fell while leading his regiment at Molino Del Rey.  Graham followed the typical career path of a young officer in the pre-war army with duty at isolated posts in Florida and Texas.  William Graham must have been a very capable artillery officer.  In October 1861 when William French[ii], then captain of Light Company “K” was promoted to major, 27 year old William Graham was appointed to this coveted command and promoted to captain. Light Company K was one of the eight “light” artillery companies in the regular military establishment.  Selection for promotion to command a light company was not based on seniority, but on merit. [iii] It says a lot for William Graham that he got the appointment

On September 17^th, 1862, Graham’s company was attached to the Artillery Reserve of the Army of the Potomac.  Around noon “K” was sent forward to support Israel Richardson’s Second Corps’ division advancing on the Sunken Road.  In the severe fighting there, Graham lost four soldiers killed and five wounded.  Seventeen horses were killed, and six wounded severely. So hot was the fire that General Richardson was mortally wounded by a shell fragment while standing in the battery. 

Graham’s full report is in Henry Hunt’s papers at the Library of Congress.  It contains information on the materiel losses of the battery that is not included in the report in OR 19:1.  Graham writes [in the full report] that “My loss in materiel was 192 rounds of ammunition expended, 2 trail hand spikes (1 broken), 5 wheel traces broken, 1 prolonge, 1 breech sight, 3 whips (drivers) two sabers and belts, 4 sets lead harnesses (single), 5 halters and straps, 5 nose bags, 2 pair spurs and straps.”

James “Jock” Stewart also followed an unlikely career path to command of a light artillery company.  At the start of the Civil War, Stewart, a ten-year army veteran was First Sergeant of Light Company B, 4^th U.S. Artillery.  During his tenure, the immigrant from Leith Scotland saw hard frontier service in Texas and Utah.  “B” was another one of the “Elite 8.”[iv] John Gibbon who commanded the battery called Stewart “the best 1^st Sergeant I ever saw in the service.”[v]  Elevation of an enlisted man to commissioned rank in the regular army was extremely rare before the Civil War.[vi]  Things had certainly changed by October 1861.  The establishment of the new Fifth U.S. Artillery Regiment created many new officer vacancies.  Additionally, the departure of many officers through resignation, or promotion to higher ranking volunteer and staff positions added many more openings. Due in some measure to Gibbon’s efforts, Stewart was appointed a second lieutenant in Gibbon’s battery in November 1861.  About that time, Gibbon accepted a volunteer commission to command a brigade of western soldiers. He was perhaps instrumental in keeping his old battery attached to his new command in what eventually became known first as the Black Hat Brigade, and later as the Iron Brigade of the West.  The brigade was part of Abner Doubleday’s division of Joseph Hooker’s First Corps during the Maryland Campaign.   It supported the infantry attack down the Hagerstown Pike in the early stages of the battle.  Joseph Campbell a 24-year-old graduate of the West Point Class of June 1861 who succeeded Gibbon was seriously wounded at the height of the Confederate counterattack at the Cornfield.   At 36 years of age, Stewart, the old man of the company and last remaining officer assumed command.   He not only led the company for the remainder of the battle but for virtually the rest of the war.[vii]  Light Company “B” suffered some of the highest casualties of any artillery unit in the Civil War. In addition to Captain Campbell who never returned to active command, “B” lost nine soldiers killed, and 30 wounded. 

A partial list of equipment

As a former first sergeant, Stewart was used to keeping detailed records.   Unlike William Graham who reported his losses on his official report, Stewart listed them in his monthly return for September 1862.   After detailing the movements of the battery for the month and the losses of men and horses, Stewart continues:  “All axle strips of battery more or less broken occasioned by rapid firing and the uneven nature of the ground not having cannoneers sufficient to run the guns to more favorable positions.  One limber disabled by cannon shot; 24 horses killed and 12 wounded; Required for use in the battery: 46 horses and 12 water buckets, 2 tar buckets, 1 sponge bucket, 60 blankets 50 curry combs, 50 horse brushes, 3 spare poles, 1 spare wheel and 6 to be exchanged; 6 picks and [illegible] 6 shovels, caisson, 4 hand spikes, trail, 4 sets lead harnesses, artillery, 2 near & 2 off; 15 wheel traces, 24 whips, 6 saddler's awls, and handlers, [illegible] lbs. square and flat iron, 25 head stalls and 4 bridles.”

The force of war knocks loose and breaks a lot of equipment. While the equipment listed above does not seem that important, these implements together contribute to the combat readiness of the company.  Some of these “little things” are needed for the care of the horses.  [The image from 1864 Field Artillery Tactics book lists some of this equipment.]  The rest are for servicing guns and ammunition.  An artillery company could not function without these seemingly little things.  In addition to all the other duties that company officers and NCOs performed after a battle, there was the lengthy painstaking inventory of lost, damaged and destroyed equipment. The Quartermaster Department demanded a thorough accounting of all equipment, big and little, before they would replace anything.  Graham and Stewart who were very good at their jobs give us an interesting perspective on this aspect of an artillery company. 

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[i] Throughout this article, I refer to artillery units as companies.  For the First through Fourth Artillery at this time of the war, company was the term most frequently used.  The term battery at this time meant the horses and guns that are added to “mount” a foot artillery company.  However in the new Fifth U.S. Artillery, the units are referred to as batteries in their organizational orders.  As the war progressed the term battery became more frequently used even in the old legacy artillery companies.

[ii] This is the same William French who under his volunteer commission as a brigadier general commanded a Second Corps division in the Sunken Road at Antietam.

[iii] General Order Number 12, March 1, 1849: Vacancies occurring in Companies of Artillery designated by the President to be organized and equipped as Light Artillery, will be filled by selection.  If the vacancy happens to be in the grade of Captain, it will be filled by order of the Secretary of War, on the recommendation of the Colonel, who will name the Captain best qualified for the service.”

[iv] In 1860, the eight light artilleries in the regular army were Light Companies I and K of the First Artillery, A and M of the Second Artillery, C and E of the Third Artillery, and B and G of the Fourth Artillery.  In these eight companies, selection for command was based on merit and not seniority.  Selection for command in all other the other 40 (foot) artillery companies was based on seniority.

[v] Personal Recollections of the Civil War by John Gibbon. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1928 page 13

[vi] In December 1860 only eight of 219 serving artillery officers (under 4%) were former non-commissioned officers.  Two years later 29 officers were former sergeants.

[vii] Stewart remained in command of Light Company B until December 1864 when he was promoted to First Lieutenant and transferred to Company A.  He replaced Alonzo Cushing in that company who was killed at Gettysburg.

Roommates

Assistant Marshall Peter Cannon was responsible for enumerating the 1850 census in the village of Cornwall, Orange County New York.  On October 22, 1850, he arrived at a dwelling he listed as number 538 in his record.  Seven young army officers live there ranging in age from 23 to 29.  They were all junior members of the faculty of the United States Military at West Point. Cannon started a new page in his census book and added the following names:

1850 Census Record for Cornwall Village

Fitz-John Porter, age 26 was born in New Hampshire.  Porter is a first lieutenant in the 4^th Artillery. He was twice brevetted for gallantry (to Major) in Mexico at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. His assignment at the Military Academy is Assistant Instructor of Artillery. He graduated from West Point five years ago in 1845.

George B. McClellan, age 23 was born in Pennsylvania.  McClellan is a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.  He was twice brevetted for gallantry (to Captain) in Mexico at Contreras and Chapultepec.  McClellan commands the company of engineer troops at West Point.  He graduated from the Academy four years ago in 1846. 

Francis Clarke, age 29 born was born in New York.  Clarke is a first lieutenant in the 4^th Artillery.  The longest serving officer in this dwelling, Clarke graduated from the Academy in 1840. He has spent nine of the next ten years as an instructor there.  At the time of the 1850 census, Clarke has risen to be Principal Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, and Geology. 

James Duane, age 26 was also born in New York.  Duane is a brevet second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers.  Graduated just two years earlier in 1848, Duane never left the Academy and at the time of the census serves in the elite company of Sappers, Miners, and Pontoniers possibly under McClellan’s command.

Charles T. Baker, age 29 was born in Connecticut.  Baker is a first lieutenant in the 6^th Infantry.  An 1842 graduate, Baker initially served in Florida and on the western frontier but has been stationed at the Military Academy since 1845. He did not see action in Mexico.  Baker’s assignment at the Military Academy is Assistant Instructor of Infantry Tactics. 

Truman Seymour, age 26 was born in Vermont.  Seymour is a first lieutenant in the 1^st Artillery.  He was another Mexican War veteran twice brevetted (to Captain) for gallantry at Cerro Gordo and Contreras.  Seymour is a classmate of McClellan also graduating from West Point in 1846.  A talented artist, Seymour serves at West Point as the Assistant Professor of Drawing.

The last man enumerated and the only southerner in the house is Edmund K. Smith.  Smith was 26 years old and born in Florida.  Known as “Kirby,” he was a first lieutenant in the 7^th Infantry.  Smith graduated from West Point in 1845 with Porter and was immediately dispatched to Zachary Taylor’s Army of Occupation.  He earned two brevets for gallantry (to Captain) under Winfield Scott at Cerro Gordo and Contreras. Smith is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics at West Point.    

Also living at this dwelling is Joshua Holmes and his wife Jane.  The couple, both 39 years of age, were born in England.  They have two sons and two daughters Jane (age 14), James (age 11), Emma (age 8) and Alfred. (age 6).  The children were all born in New York.  (There is some evidence that one if not both of the boys enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War.)[1]  Mr. Holmes identifies himself as a laborer.  Perhaps he worked at the Academy while his wife rears four children and keeps house for seven young officers.

We don’t remember these men as young bachelors living together under one roof.  We don’t think of them indulging in all the things that young men in their 20s indulge in. We may not think to regard four of them as very young combat veterans of the Mexican War - exactly the same age as the young American soldiers whom today return from the wars of the 21st century.   We probably don’t envision them playing with the Holmes children after a day in the classroom or on the drill field.

Our view of them is based not on who they were in 1850 but on who they were in the next war some eleven years in the future. In 1850 they were all still relatively unknown.  Who of them could envision that in twelve years the youngest of their group would stand at the center stage of American military and political affairs commanding the nation's most important army, in the bloodiest conflict in our history?[2]  This would not be a foreign war like the one just completed in Mexico.  It would be a civil war that would tear north and south apart.  Another of the roommates would emerge as the trusted lieutenant of that future army commander. This man would ably lead a corps in the terrible battles of the summer and autumn of 1862.   From those heights of military accomplishment, he would descend just weeks later to become the defendant in a politically orchestrated court martial that would destroy his army career and set him on a lifelong path to seek redemption. [3]   

Who would know then that another roommate would be hailed as a hero of the first battle in that terrible future war at an unfinished fort in the harbor of Charleston South Carolina? This man would also fight with the first two as a brigade commander at a bloody battle in Maryland twelve years later.[4]

Two other roommates would be on that field as well.  One, an accomplished gunner would lead seven batteries of light artillery in some of the toughest and bloodiest fighting of the day.[5]  The other, one of the finest engineers in the army, would receive the key assignment to find a ford on a creek around the flank of formidable enemy defenses.  The ford he selected and his subsequent actions would significantly affect the outcome of the day’s fighting and remain controversial till the present day.[6] 

Surprisingly, one of the two officers with the longest length of service would play no role in the upcoming Civil War.  His resignation from the army a little over a year later would begin his a career as a farmer in Connecticut.[7] 

Maybe most unlikely was the idea at the time that one of these roommates would violate his sacred oath of appointment and take up arms against the United States.  This man twelve years later, would be one of the first two officers elevated to the rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate Army and the last to surrender a major command of that same army at Galveston Texas, six weeks after Lee surrendered at Appomattox.[8]  

That is in the future.  Those men just described are older, more serious versions of the seven men now living with the Holmes family in the village of Cornwall in Orange County New York.  For now, they are simply seven young army officer’s serving as junior faculty members or staff at the United States Military Academy.  All have promising futures.  None of them know what lies in store. It is October 22, 1850 and Assistant Marshal Peter Cannon is at the door.  

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[1] According to the Civil War Database, there is only one Alfred Holmes from New York in the entire database.  His age is off by two years.  He enlisted in 1864 in Company G, 15^th NY Heavy Artillery.  He shortly thereafter transferred into the Navy.  While there are 28 “James Holmes” entries from New York who served in New York outfits, there is one intriguing possibility.  James Holmes enlisted on May 9, 1861 in Company A, 15^th Engineers.  This was a specialized unit specifically recruited and trained as engineers.  Given the Holme’s family proximity to West Point and its renown as an engineer school, is it possible that one of the engineer officers who lived with the Holmes family assisted young James in enlisting in this very elite engineer unit?  

[2] George B. McClellan (1826-1885) commanded the Army of the Potomac from July 1861 to November 1862. On November 1, 1861 he succeeded Winfield Scott as commander in chief of the United States Army. He held that post until relieved by President Lincoln on March 11, 1862.  He was the 1864 candidate of the Democratic party for President of the United States. 

[3] Fitz-John Porter (1822-1901) commanded the Fifth Corps, Army of the Potomac at Antietam.  He was relieved of corps command and arrested on November 25, 1862.  Tried by general court martial for disobedience and misconduct at Second Bull Run, Porter was dismissed from the Army on January 21 1863.  He spent the next 14 years fighting to vindicate himself.  In 1878 the Schofield Commission exonerated Porter of the charges but it took an additional eight years for President Arthur to commute Porter’s sentence and restore him to the rank of Colonel in the United States Army.

[4] Truman Seymour (1824-1891) commanded Company H, 1^st US Artillery during the battle at Fort Sumter in April 1861.  After the garrison surrendered, he returned to a hero’s welcome in New York.  At Antietam, Seymour commanded a brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves that started the fighting in the East Woods on September 16.  Seymour retired from the Army in 1876 and eventually moved to Florence Italy where he took up painting.  He died and was buried there in 1891.

[5] Francis Clarke (1820-1866) was the Chief of Artillery of the Second Corps at Antietam.  He died shortly after the end of the war.

[6] James Duane (1824-1897) commanded the regular army engineer battalion at Antietam.  He was ordered to find a ford on the Antietam Creek along the Union Army’s left flank that the Ninth Corps could advance across to outflank the Confederate defenses. He ended his career in the United States Army as a brigadier general and Chief of Engineers. 

[7] Charles T. Baker (1822-1881) served an additional year at West Point only to resign from the Army on December 31 1851.  He returned to his hometown at Windham CT and took  up farming there. While I could not find a record of subsequent service in the Civil War, there is a GAR placard on his grave at Windham Center Cemetery.

[8] Edmund Kirby Smith (1824-1893) resigned from the U.S. Army on April 6, 1861.  While five of his former roommates confronted Robert E. Lee’s army in the Maryland, Smith lead another army into Kentucky in the fall of 1862. He defeated a federal force at Richmond Kentucky on August 30 1862.  On October 9, 1862 he along with James Longstreet became the first two officers promoted to the newly created rank of lieutenant general in the Confederate Army.  (Thomas Jackson’s effective date of promotion was not until October 10, 1862.)  Smith commanded Confederate forces in the Trans-Mississippi for the second half of the war and surrendered the Confederacy’s last army-level command at Galveston Texas on May 26 1865.