Generals of the Confederate Army, 1861-1865

Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography
See below for biographies of Confederate Generals from Scribner’s Dictionary of American Biography.


LEE, ROBERT EDWARD (January 19, 1807- October 12, 1870), soldier, the fifth child and third son of Henry, "Light-Horse Harry," Lee [q.v.] and Anne Hill (Carter) Lee, was horn at "Stratford," Westmoreland County, Virginia His father, a member of a famous Virginia family, a distinguished cavalry officer of the Revolution, and a former governor of the state, had married as his second wife a daughter of the wealthy and religious planter, Charles Carter of "Shirley." His brilliant political prospects were wrecked by a mania for speculation, and in 1811 he was forced to leave "Stratford," which belonged to Henry Lee [q. v.], a son by his first marriage. Moving to Alexandria, Virginia, which offered inexpensive educational facilities, the family lived modestly on the income from a trust estate left Mrs. Lee by her father. The fortunes of "Light Horse Harry" continued to decline, and in 1813, having been badly injured in the Baltimore riot, he went to the West Indies. He died at Cumberland Island, Georgia, on his way home, March 25, 1818.

Diligent in his studies at the Alexandria schools and displaying marked aptitude for mathematics, Robert led a normal, outdoor life, but from boyhood he had the care of an ill mother. In 1824 the inspiration of his father's military career and the opportunity of procuring a professional education without draining the limited financial resources of the family led him to seek appointment to West Point. Entering in 1825, much more mature and better prepared than the average boy of his age, he distinguished himself alike by his scholarship and by his proficiency in military exercises, was adjutant of the corps, and was graduated number two in the class of 1829 without a demerit.

The seventeen years that followed his commission as brevet second lieutenant of engineers were such as might have been spent by any young officer of that service, who combined a fine presence with social graces, exemplary conduct, energy, and ability. After seventeen months of work on Fort Pulaski, Cockspur Island, Georgia, he served as assistant engineer at Fort Monroe, Virginia, from May 1831 to November 1834. While stationed there, he married at "Arlington," June 30, 1831, Mary Ann Randolph Custis, only daughter of George Washington Parke Custis [q.v.], grandson of Martha Washington. Association with Custis and with the Washington traditions at "Arlington" made his father's old commander Lee's ideal, whom he seems consciously to have emulated in his bearing and in his conception of duty. His marriage was happy. Mrs. Lee was not a housekeeper, and by her tardiness habitually offended his sense of punctuality, but she was intelligent and appreciative, though strong and outspoken in her political likes and dislikes. A constant reader, she had a deeply religious nature. She held his love, without a suggestion of wavering, through nearly forty years of married life.  She bore him seven children, George Washington Custis [q.v.] Mary, William H. Fitzhugh [q.v.], Agnes, Annie, Robert Edward, and Mildred, who were reared chiefly at "Arlington." Only William H. Fitzhugh and Robert left issue. The others died unmarried.

After leaving Fort Monroe, Lee was an assistant in the chief engineer's office in Washington during the years 1834-37, and in the summer of 1835 aided in running the Ohio-Michigan boundary line. His first important independent assignment came in July 1837, as superintending engineer for St. Louis harbor and the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. When this work, which he performed with much success, was suspended for lack of funds in October 1841, he was transferred to Fort Hamilton, New York harbor, where he remained, with one brief stay at headquarters in Washington (1844), until August 19, 1846. Then he was sent, via Washington, to San Antonio, Texas, as assistant engineer to the army under General John E. Wool. He followed Wool's futile marches until the column reached Buena Vista, and won much praise by a very bold reconnaissance in front of that place. Transferred then to the Vera Cruz expedition, he immediately captivated its commander, General Winfield Scott, by his diligence and capacity, and had every opportunity of winning a name for himself. At Vera Cruz, he was charged with locating the heavy land-batteries. The strategy of Cerro Gordo was largely based on reconnaissance made by him. In the advance on Mexico City he distinguished himself by two crossings of the lava field between San Augustin and Padierna in the dark, and during the battle of Churubusco he conducted the column of General Shields to the left of Scott's line. His exhausting work in placing batteries in front of Chapultepec and a slight wound received in the battle of September 13, 1847, forced him to retire from the field, but he rejoined Scott in Mexico City the next day and was promptly set to work preparing maps for future operations.

Lee had been made first lieutenant of engineers in 1836 and captain in 1838; when he returned to the United States in 1848 and was placed in charge of the construction of Fort Carroll, Baltimore harbor, he had been promoted for gallantry to the rank of brevet colonel. After three years and nine months at Fort Carroll (November 1848-August 1852), he was made superintendent at West Point, much against his wishes. His term there was distinguished by a number of improvements in the plant, by changes in the curriculum, and by close attention to the individual cadets, among whom were individuals different in taste and sympathies. is James Abbott McNeill Whistler, the artist, "Jeb" Stuart, the Confederate trooper. The social life of the academy was pleasant, but Lee was glad, with the assistance of Jefferson Davis, secretary of war, to change from the staff to the line as lieutenant-colonel of the 2nd  Cavalry in March 1855. The transfer hardly fulfilled his expectations. His Jong absences from home became increasingly burdensome as he grew older, and were rendered more tedious by repeated details for court-martial duty. In October 1857 his father-in-law died. He was named one of the executors and had to hasten home and procure a succession of furlough to settle a large property under a confusing testament. Mrs. Lee, meantime, had developed chronic arthritis and was fast becoming an invalid, to her husband's great distress. These circumstances kept him from active duty and made 1857-59 a dark period in his life. At one time he contemplated resigning from the army. During the time his regiment was on frontier duty in Texas, Lee was actually with it only from March 1856 to October 1857, and from February 1860 to the same month of the next year. During the last period he was in command of the Department of Texas. Prior to 1861, he had never commanded more troops in the field than four squadrons of horse, and that number only for a forty-day scout in June-July 1856. Chancing to be in Washington at the time of the John Brown raid in 1859, he was sent to Harpers Ferry to put down the "insurrection." He did so with little waste of time and life.

During the later months of his second period of duty in Texas, the secession movement began. Lee had no sympathy with it. With him, a Whig, warmly devoted to the Union, the political and economic arguments for Southern independence did not weigh . He knew little of constitutional law, and the few slaves he had owned in earlier years had died or been manumitted. The question with him-a question he hoped he would never see brought to an issue-was simply whether his first allegiance was due his state or the Union. He answered it without mental debate: in case Virginia seceded, the traditions of his family and its long association with Virginia instinctively determined him to cast in his lot with her. He stated this repeatedly before he left Texas, and said at the same time that he regarded secession as revolution. It was not until the discussions of wartime camp-fires had acquainted him more fully with its constitutional basis that he accepted the doctrine of secession.

Recalled to Washington in February 1861, and placed by General Scott on waiting orders, probably with an eye to promoting him quickly in case of war, Lee watched the crisis approach, but his natural optimism led him to believe that some solution would be found before extremists, Northern and Southern, could destroy the Union. On March 16, he was made colonel of the 1st Cavalry and accepted the commission without hesitation. On March 15, the Confederate secretary of war wrote him offering him rank as brigadier-general in the Confederate States army, but if he ever received the letter, which shows plainly that he had not been consulted, he ignored it. Virginia, meantime, had called a constitutional convention to decide on secession. While waiting on the action of his state, Lee realized that, regardless of her decision, his conscience would not permit him to bear arms against the South. Therefore, when Francis P. Blair on April 18, 1861, told him that he was authorized to offer him the field command of the United States army (Lee to Reverdy Johnson, February 25, 1868, R. E. Lee, Recollections and Letters of General Lee, pp. 27-28), Lee declined the offer and stated his reasons for doing so. He then called on General Scott and recounted what had happened. Scott, his frank friend and admirer, told him that his position was anomalous and that he should either resign or be ready to accept any duty assigned him. Lee felt that this was true, but his affection for the army and the Union was so deep that he still hoped his honor would not compel him to dissociate himself from either. The next day he learned that the Virginia convention had voted in favor of secession. He had thereupon to decide whether he should resign immediately or await the action of the voters of the state on the ordinance of secession, which had to be submitted for their approval. The events of that single day, however, convinced him that war would not wait on a referendum. Accordingly, he submitted his resignation on April 20, intending that it be effective immediately. As it was not accepted until his accounts had been checked in the routine manner, the formal date of resignation appears in official records as April 25.

Lee had not communicated with the Virginia authorities, and had hoped that he would not have to participate in a war he deplored; but he considered that his sword was at the command of his native state, and when Virginia chose him as commander of her forces he accepted on April 23 and threw all his energies into her defense. After making an extraordinary record in fortifying the rivers and mobilizing the volunteers of the state, he was informally designated as military adviser to President Davis, with the rank of general (confirmed August 31, 1861, to rank as of June 14, 1861). Dispatched on July 28 to the vicinity of Monterey, Virginia, he succeeded in halting a threatened invasion from western Virginia; but military jealousies, lack of supplies, bad weather, and over-elaborate strategy robbed him of larger results, and when he was recalled to serve again as the president's consultant his popular reputation had declined greatly. Despite some clamor against him, Davis's confidence in Lee was undiminished and he sent him, early in November, to organize the defenses of the South Atlantic seaboard. This work occupied Lee until March 1862, when he was summoned back to Richmond for a third time to assist the president, with the honorific but empty title of general in charge of military operations under the direction of the president.

The assignment was unpleasant, the duties were vague and the difficulties immense, but Lee steered a courageous course between President Davis and General Joseph E. Johnston, both of them hypersensitive, and with the help of "Stonewall" Jackson [q. v.], then commanding in the Shenandoah Valley, he worked out a plan to keep the Federals in northern Virginia from reenforcing General McClellan, who was then preparing to besiege Richmond. Johnston having been wounded May 31, 1862, Lee was assigned next day to the command of the troops he promptly named "The Army of Northern Virginia." At this time, when his career as a field -commander really began, he was fifty-five years old, physically magnificent and in full vigor, five feet, ten and a half inches tall, weighing around 170 pounds, with powerful shoulders and chest, a large neck and well-moulded head, dark-brown eyes, a florid complexion, and hair that was rapidly turning gray. A short beard, which he had not worn until that spring, covered a powerful jaw, and thin, straight lips. He had never commanded in a battle. During the thirty-four months that followed he at no time had a force comparable in numbers, in artillery, or in equipment to the opposing armies. This is the fact that must constantly be remembered in any study of his campaigns. The odds against him were always three to two and sometimes three to one.

He inherited a crisis. McClellan, with nearly 100,000 men, was within seven miles of Richmond. Three separate forces were threatening Jackson in the Valley of Virginia. A large Federal army was on the Rappahannock, preparing to support McClellan. If McClellan were reenforced or permitted to bring his siege guns within range, Richmond would certainly fall. Lee hurriedly fortified the city and collected such troops as he could from the South. Hi, problem was greatly simplified when Jackson, acting under the plan he and Lee had jointly formulated, defeated two Federal columns at Cross Keys and Port Republic, June 8-9. Lee brought Jackson's troops to Ashland, sixteen miles from Richmond, and, with the combined forces, took the offensive in what were destined to be the Seven Days' battles. At Mechanicsville on June 26, the slowness of a turning movement that Lee entrusted to Jackson led A. P. Hill to a costly and futile attempt to storm Beaver Dam Creek; the next day at Gaines's Mill, Lee drove Fitz John Porter's corps from the north side of the Chickahominy River and forced McClellan to change his base to the James. The rearguard action at Savage Station on the 29th did little more than expedite and somewhat confuse the Federal retreat; on June 30 a mistake as to the line of the enemy's withdrawal and the non-arrival of two of the converging columns led to an indecisive battle at Frayser's Farm, where Lee had hoped to envelop and destroy McClellan; on July 1, at Malvern Hill, the inexperience of the staff prevented the massing of the whole army in a tangled terrain for a simultaneous attack on the strong Federal positions. Isolated attacks, though gallantly pressed, failed to dislodge McClellan, who withdrew that night unchallenged and took refuge under cover of his gunboats at Harrison's Landing. This campaign was the most important period in Lee's military education. Strategically sound in principle, though demanding too much of untrained officers, the campaign was tactically bad on the Southern side. It taught Lee the necessity of simpler methods and organization. It served its immediate purpose, however, in relieving the threat against Richmond, and it supplied a large part of his army with superior small-arms. Similarly it raised greatly the morale of the army and inspired confidence in Lee.

Quietly and quickly ridding himself of incompetent division commanders, Lee soon detached Jackson to the vicinity of Orange Court House to confront a new "Army of Virginia" under Major-General John Pope. Lee had to watch both Pope and McClellan, not knowing which might strike first, but he carefully fed troops from the James to the Rapidan, and, at the first sure sign of the impending departure of McClellan to join Pope, he anticipated the actual Federal movement and soon confronted Pope with the greater part of his army. This was Lee's first display of skill in the difficult military art of troop-movement. Arriving at Gordonsville on August 15, Lee determined on an immediate campaign of maneuver, in order to increase the distance between Pope and McClellan and to subsist his army in territory that otherwise would be occupied by the enemy. His initial plan of surprising Pope between the Rapidan and Rappahannock rivers was thwarted, but he crossed the Rapidan, shifted his line as far up the Rappahannock as possible, and then, boldly dividing his army, sent Jackson by roundabout roads to attack Pope's line of communication. Jackson chose to strike at Manassas Junction, Pope's advance base. Knowing that Jackson's move would force Pope to retreat at once, Lee followed Jackson's route with Longstreet's command and before noon on August 29, when Jackson was fighting a defensive battle against part of the Union army, Lee concentrated his entire command in front of Pope. He encountered great unwillingness on the part of Major-General James Longstreet [q.v.] to attack that afternoon, because Longstreet believed delay until the next morning would offer greater advantage. Lee held to the view that it was the duty of the commanding general to bring the forces together at the right moment on the chosen ground of action and to leave actual combat to the divisional and brigade commanders, and he usually contented himself with "suggestions" to competent officers. In this instance, he yielded to Longstreet's stubbornness and disclosed for the first time his one great weakness as field commander- his inability to work with unwilling tools. The general assault, thus delayed, was delivered on August 30 and routed Pope in the battle of Second Manassas (Second Bull Run), but August 31 was lost in reconcentrating the weary and scattered army, and a rainstorm at Chantilly (Ox Hill) on the afternoon of September 1 kept Lee from overtaking his adversary.

Lee could not feed his army where it then stood. Neither could he attack the Washington fortifications, whither Pope had fled. A withdrawal would impair the morale of his army and raise that of the Federals. Accordingly, Lee determined to move into Maryland and to renew the campaign of maneuver there. Reaching Frederick on September 7, he soon found that the Federals were not evacuating Harpers Ferry as he had anticipated they would be. His line of communications through the Shenandoah Valley lay close to that strongly garrisoned post, so he was forced to detach five divisions under Jackson to reduce it. After their departure, a false rumor of a Federal advance on Hagerstown led him to direct Longstreet thither. He did so the more readily as he now planned to destroy the Baltimore & Ohio and then to advance on Harrisburg and cut the other main railway line that linked East and West. While Longstreet was on the road to Hagerstown, McClellan suddenly undertook a swift westward advance on Frederick, having received a copy of Lee's general order that had been carelessly dropped by a courier or staff-officer. Lee was caught with his forces badly divided. Hurrying Longstreet back on September 14 to support the rearguard under D. H. Hill, he vainly attempted to check McClellan on South Mountain (Boonsboro) that day. Finding this impossible, he ordered a retreat to Virginia, but learning that Harpers Ferry would certainly be captured by Jackson the next day, he retreated to Sharpsburg. He miscalculated the time required for the troop-movements, his only serious blunder in logistics, and on September 17, the bloodiest single day of the war, the slow arrival of troops from Harpers Ferry nearly cost him a serious defeat in the battle of Sharpsburg (Antietam). He held his ground on the 18th and then returned to Virginia, hoping soon to reenter Maryland. Including the troops captured at Harpers Ferry, he had inflicted a loss of 27,000 on his adversary during the Maryland expedition, but he had lost 13,000 himself, and his army was so badly shaken by straggling that he had to forego a further offensive.

Lee at once reorganized the army into two corps under Longstreet and Jackson, refitted it and restored its morale, and awaited the next move of the Army of the Potomac, which was now placed under command of Major-General A. E. Burnside. Nearly two months passed. Then, on November 14, Lee interpreted certain Federal troop movements as indicating that Burnside was marching toward Fredericksburg. Lee would have preferred to fight on the North Anna, where he could have followed up a victory, but he could not afford to sacrifice the supplies of the lower Rappahannock valley, so he followed Burnside, accepted battle at Fredericksburg and on December 13 repulsed repeated Federal assaults with bloody losses. He could not pursue the enemy because the Union artillery on the north side of the Rappahannock dominated the plain.

Food was scarce and forage almost unprocurable during the winter that followed. Most of the cavalry had to be sent to the rear, and two divisions of Longstreet's corps were dispatched to the south side of the James to meet a threatened advance against the railroad leading southward from Richmond. Lee hoped for the speedy return of these troops; but Longstreet did not take the offensive and dispersed his troops so widely, while collecting supplies in eastern North Carolina, that he could  not reconcentrate quickly on receipt of orders to rejoin Lee. The Army of Northern Virginia had, therefore, been reduced to 62,500 men when, on April 29, a new Federal commander, Major-General Joseph Hooker [q.v.], launched a well-planned offensive across the Rappahannock above and below Fredericksburg. Lee was just recovering at the time from a severe illness, but he did not hesitate. Reasoning that the main attack would be west of the town, he left 9,000 troops under Early at Fredericksburg, marched with the rest to meet Hooker and, on May I, found .his adversary withdrawing to a strong. line around Chancellorsville. Lee decided to turn the Federal position from the west and directed Jackson to undertake this movement. Jackson early the next morning countered with a proposal to employ all his infantry, 28,000, with part of Stuart's cavalry, so as to roll up the whole right wing of the Federal army. Lee consented, and with 14,000 men faced the enemy's main force at Chancellorsville while Jackson marched beyond Hooker's right. Late in the day Jackson routed the XI Corps in one of the most spectacular operations of modern war. The next morning the two wings of the Army of Northern Virginia attacked the Federals, forced them into the country between Chancellorsville and the Rappahannock, and were about to deliver another assault when Lee was forced to detach troops to cope with Major-General John Sedgwick, who had forced Early from the heights around Fredericksburg and was advancing on Lee's rear. Owing to the hesitant tactics of Major-General Lafayette McLaws at Salem Church, it took Lee two days to dispose of Sedgwick and to reconcentrate in front or Hooker. When Lee prepared to attack again on the morning of May 6, he found that Hooker had retreated to the north bank of the Rappahannock. This, the battle of Chancellorsville, was the most brilliant of Lee's victories, but it was one of the greatest of Southern tragedies because it cost him the service of Jackson, who was wounded on May 2 and died May 10. Lee had worked incomplete understanding with Jackson, whom he regarded as a perfect executive officer, arid he never was able to replace him.

In the reorganization of the army that Jackson's death necessitated, Lee decided to increase the number of corps to three and to reduce their size, because he considered the old corps too large for one man to handle to the fullest advantage in a wooded country. Esteeming A. P. Hill the best division commander in the army he named him to head the new III Corps, and for Jackson's II Corps he selected the latter's senior division commander, R . S . Ewell. This choice was dictated by sentiment, for Ewell had been associated with Jackson's most famous battles, but it placed one-third of the Army of Northern Virginia under an officer who had served only a few weeks with Lee and was unaccustomed to exercise the discretion that Lee always gave his corps commanders. The staff, of course, was reorganized at the same time, and many new officers were assigned to direct troops of whom they knew little. The result of all this was to create a new machinery of command for two-thirds of the army. Lee does not seem to have realized the dangers this change of command involved, but his decision to resume the offensive immediately and to carry the war into the enemy's country, before the new officers became familiar with their troops and their duties, must be accounted the major mistake of his entire career. It explains, more fully than anything else, the fatal lack of coordination at Gettysburg.

He was prompted to invade the North again for three reasons: first, to supply his army; secondly, to strengthen peace sentiment in the North by showing the futility of the effort to force the South into submission; and, thirdly, in the hope that he could compel Lincoln to detach troops from the far South and thereby relieve the pressure on Vicksburg. Leaving A. P. Hill with 20,000 to hold the line of the Rappahannock temporarily, he skilfully moved into the Shenandoah Valley and reentered Maryland, with Harrisburg again his objective. On June 23 Stuart's fondness for raids around the enemy led him to exceed his orders and to separate the largest and most proficient part of the cavalry from the rest of the army at a time when Lee needed every mounted unit to watch Hooker, who was now between him and Stuart. Finding on June 28 that Hooker had crossed into Maryland on the 25th, Lee had to concentrate quickly his columns, which had been widely scattered for the collection of supplies. The advance of A. P. Hill discovered a force of unknown strength at Gettysburg on June 30. Ewell advanced promptly from the north to support him and the two, on July 1, won a stiff fight, capturing 5,000 men. Lee arrived during the afternoon and, in the language he usually employed in dealing with his corps commanders, suggested to Ewell that the advantage be pushed south of Gettysburg. In the absence of peremptory orders, Ewell delayed the attack and gave the Federals time in which to strengthen their forces on Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill. Lee's one chance of victory lay in std~ing before the Federals could concentrate all their force on the strong ground of Cemetery Ridge, but on the morning of July 2 he encountered an unexpected difficulty. Before the army had left Virginia, Longstreet had urged Lee to employ offensive strategy but defensive tactics in Pennsylvania, and he had persuaded himself that Lee had promised to do this. When he discovered that Lee was determined to attack Meade, who had now succeeded Hooker in command, Longstreet felt that Lee was courting ruin. All his pride of opinion asserted itself. He was chagrined and humiliated at the rejection of his plan, and if he did not deliberately delay in the hope of keeping Lee from what he believed would be a slaughter, he at least acted so slowly and unwillingly that Cemetery Ridge was heavily manned and its capture was almost impossible when the I Corps assaulted late in the afternoon of July 2. The movement was just successful enough to make a renewal of the attack the next morning a virtual necessity. Pickett's and Pettigrew's (Heth's) divisions charged with a valor worthy of· the finest achievements of the army, but. they were hurled back with dismal slaughter, and the  battle was lost. Lee was forced to retreat the next day in order to reestablish his line of communications. On the night of July 13-14 he crossed the Potomac to Virginia soil. Gettysburg was the great defeat of his military career. The caution of Ewell and the defective staff work on the two newly formed corps were responsible for some serious tactical blunders. The absence of Stuart's cavalry during the preliminaries of the battle, the strength of the Union position, and the obduracy of Longstreet explained the rest. Lee assumed full responsibility for all that had happened and sought to resign the command of the army. It was no mere gesture of humility, for however culpable Longstreet was for his behavior, Lee was to be blamed for not dealing effectively with that stubborn officer. Yet, for all of Longstreet's defects, Lee had no one in the army whom he felt justified in substituting for him. He was compelled to make the best of the personnel he had.

Despite his 20,000 casualties, Lee was anxious to resume the offensive after Gettysburg, but the detachment of two divisions of Longstreet's corps to Tennessee, the condition of the commissary, and the scarcity of replacements rendered this impossible. Only two abortive operations, one by him against Bristoe Station and one by Meade to Mine Run, occurred until May 4, 1864, when Grant crossed the Rapidan, headed for Richmond Lee then had somewhat more than 60,000 men. Grant's force was almost precisely twice that. Grant's cavalry and artillery were better than they had ever been ; the horses of the Army of Northern Virginia had been so close to starvation in the winter of 1863-64 that they could scarcely drag the guns or carry the men. The quartermasters' and commissary stores of the Army of the Potomac were ample and flawlessly organized; Lee's men had been subsisting on a daily ration of a pint of cornmeal and a quarter of a pound of bacon, and they had scarcely any equipment or supplies except their arms and ammunition. It was impossible from the outset, therefore, for Lee to assume the offensive against Grant on open ground where the artillery of the enemy could be used and the full Union strength be employed. He did not attempt to dispute the crossing of the Rapidan, but hurried forward to the Wilderness of Spotsylvania, in the hope of catching Grant on the move in that tangled terrain, the American counterpart of the Meuse-Argonne. On May 5 and 6 Lee repulsed Grant's attacks with heavy slaughter, and on the 6th was in the midst of a turning movement when the serious wounding of Longstreet threw the Confederate right into disorder. On May 7, Lee concluded that Grant was swinging southward, and by the dispatch of Longstreet's corps (now under R. H. Anderson) to Spotsylvania Court House, he blocked Grant's road to Richmond. Two weeks' fighting and maneuvering followed at Spotsylvania (May 8-21). Longstreet was hors de combat. A. P . Hill was ill and Ewell was scarcely able to keep the field. Lee had to give the closest attention to the tactical dispositions as well as to the strategy, but he constructed admirable field fortifications and beat off all Grant's assaults except that of May 12 on a salient in Ewell's front ("The Bloody Angle"). In that day's action Grant gained an early advantage because Lee, on mistaken reports from his scouts, had withdrawn the artillery supporting Edward Johnson's division; but a new line was drawn in rear of the salient and the enemy, on May 14, abandoned the captured position. Sensing on May 21 that Grant was starting another flank movement, Lee made a forced march to the North Anna and again confronted him when he arrived on May 23. The Army of Northern Virginia took up the strongest position it had yet occupied, diverted Grant's line of advance on Richmond, and effectively covered the Virginia Central railroad, though part of its track was temporarily torn up. Had Lee been able to strike either the Federal right, under Warren, or the left, under Hancock, immediately after the Union forces had crossed the river, he might have inflicted a severe defeat on one or the other of Grant's exposed wings; but after the Federals were entrenched, Lee's opportunity was lost. Moreover, he was stricken with a debilitating intestinal malady and before he recovered, Grant (May 27) had moved again by Lee's right, this time down the Pamunkey River. Lee marched swiftly, faced Grant on the Totopotomoy (May 28-30), and forced him to maneuver to the Confederate right for the fourth time. During the whole of this period, from the time he engaged Grant on May 4, Lee was constantly seeking an opportunity to catch Grant on the move, or to attack the Federals in detail , but he found no opening. At Cold Harbor, on June 3, Grant was repulsed with such heavy casualties that he abandoned his bludgeoning -tactics. During the month that had then elapsed since Grant had crossed the Rapidan, his losses had been about 50,000, a number equal to approximately 90 per cent. of the strength of the infantry of Lee's army at the opening of the campaign. The record of Lee's losses, if ever filed, was destroyed in the evacuation of Richmond. The number was approximately half that of Grant's.

Beginning on the night of June 12-13, Grant withdrew from Cold Harbor, marched to Wilcox’s Landing, and crossed the James River to destroy Lee's communications and to invest Richmond by way of Petersburg. Lee had anticipated such a move, but since the absence of his cavalry kept him from penetrating the screen Grant threw about the Army of the Potomac, and Beauregard on the south side of the river could not ascertain what part of Grant's army confronted him there, Lee was uncertain of the position of his adversary and therefore hesitated to uncover Richmond. He had been compelled to detach Breckinridge and later the II Corps (now Early's) to meet new threats in western Virginia and in the Shenandoah Valley, and for that reason, his ability to reenforce Beauregard was limited. He fed troops to the south side, however, as fast as he had assurance of a Federal concentration there and, with the help of Hoke's division, which Lee sent him promptly, Beauregard saved Petersburg. The investment of that city, which formally began on June 18, was essentially a campaign of attrition. With headquarters in or near the city, Lee had to defend a line of thirty miles, slowly lengthened to thirty-six. At the same time, he had to protect the railroads connecting Richmond with the South. He sent Early into Maryland in the hope that Grant would detach troops heavily to defend Washington, or else would be tempted to attack the strong lines in front of Petersburg. Early reached the outskirts of Washington but the diversion failed of its larger purpose. Lee's forces steadily declined through casualties and, after the winter began, through desertion, chiefly on the part of new conscripts. Every day brought starvation nearer; the exhaustion of the horse supply threatened to render the army immobile; Lee could only hold on by fortifying heavily and by using as a reserve the troops on the extreme right of the Petersburg front, where the lines of the opposing forces were not close together. The principal actions of the siege were the Crater, July 30, 1864, the battles of the Weldon railroad and Reams's Station, August 19-25, 1864, and the capture of Fort Harrison, on the north side of the James, September 29, 1864.

On February 6, 1865, orders were issued designating Lee general-in-chief of all the Confederate armies, but the condition of his own command and the plight of operations elsewhere made it impossible for him to give more than a general strategic direction to the last-ditch battles of the exhausted Confederacy. In March the advance of Sherman's army into North Carolina made it certain that Lee would be overwhelmed if he remained at Petersburg. On the 25th he made a desperate attempt to divide the Federals by an assault on Fort Stedman, and when the repulse of this was followed by an extension of the Federal left and by a general assault on the Petersburg lines, he was forced to evacuate Petersburg and Richmond on the night of April 2-3 and to begin a retreat toward the small army of General Joseph E. Johnston in western North Carolina. Failure to receive supplies at Amelia Court House on April 4 lost him a day and compelled him, when the Federals arrived in his front, to turn toward Lynchburg up the Southside railroad. On April 6, his retreating line was struck at Sailor's Creek, and on the 9th, finding himself blocked by Sheridan, and almost surrounded at Appomattox Court House, he was forced to surrender to General Grant. Of the 35,000 troops with which he started from the Richmond Petersburg line, only 7,800 remained with arms in their hands. When he appeared among his men after the surrender, mounted on his famous war horse, "Traveller," the veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia overwhelmed him with their regard and sympathy.

As a paroled prisoner of war, treated with great consideration by the Federal army, Lee returned to Richmond and remained there or in the vicinity until the autumn. He had no home, for "Arlington" had been sold in 1863 for nonpayment of taxes, but in September, having accepted the presidency of Washington College, he moved to Lexington, Virginia. He was profoundly interested in the education of the young men of the South, and, with the help of an enthusiastic faculty, he soon raised a discouraged college to a high level of scholarship and attendance, though it is not certain that all of the interesting educational innovations at the school originated with him. His supreme interest after the war was in restoring the economic, cultural, and political life of the South. Shunning all discussion of politics, and reading little about the war, though he at one time planned to write a history of the campaigns of his army, he set an example of obedience to civil authority. He applied for a pardon on June 13, 1865, and consistently urged his former soldiers to work hard, to keep the peace, and to accept the outcome of the war. Indicted for treason, he was never brought to trial. On his few lengthy journeys, especially on a tour of the South Atlantic seaboard for his health in the spring of 1870, he was welcomed with a measure of affection no other Southerner since Washington has received. His mail, which was immense, was crowded with offers of business proposals, all of which he rejected. In the midst of peaceful activities, he was stricken on September 28 and died on October 12, 1870, in Lexington, where he was buried. He probably had angina pectoris, and his final illness was due to some atherosclerotic process. The news of his death put every Southern community in mourning. Admiration for him, which had been almost universal in the South after 1862, found new expression in biographies, in monuments, and in countless memorial addresses. Washington College changed its name to Washington and Lee University in his honor. After sixty years, the affection and reverence of the South for him are, if anything, higher than in 1870. No American has ever had an influence on the people of the old Confederate states comparable to his. In all matters on which he expressed himself, he is still regarded as the final authority. In him the South still sees the embodiment of all its best ideals.

While Lee was distinguished as an educator, his place in American history is that of a notable Christian gentleman and a great soldier. He was confirmed in the Episcopal church in 1853, and the fundamentals of the Christian religion-humility, prayer, faith, and kindness-were his code of daily ·conduct. His equanimity was religious, rather than philosophical, and, though he was not a fatalist, he believed that God directed the daily affairs of man and ordered even man's adversities to his good. It was for this reason that he accepted defeat without repining. His unique relations with his soldiers, his affection for children, his dignified courtesy, and his love of animals are illustrated by a thousand anecdotes that are part of the spiritual treasury of Americans. His temper and patience seldom failed him. Self-control was second nature. His rare outbursts of wrath, usually attended by a reddening of the neck and a curious jerk of the head, were generally followed by some particularly gracious act to the object of his displeasure.

Both absolutely and in the light of the odds he faced in men and resources, Lee has been adjudged one of the greatest of modern soldiers and probably the most eminent American strategist. His achievements did not owe their brilliance to contrasted mediocrity, for most of his adversaries were able. Neither was he a great soldier because he had a great lieutenant in Jackson. Lee devised and Jackson executed. If Lee won fewer victories after Jackson's death it was not because he lacked strategical ability when acting alone but because his resources were diminished and because he found no successor to "Stonewall." His one great weakness was his inability to shape contrary minds to his purpose. Stubborn incompetents he courteously disregarded, but in dealing wid1 Longstreet he thrice yielded to the latter's obstinacy and sought victory by assiduous pursuit of the second-best plan. Excessive consideration for the feelings of others explained this weakness. His strategical powers sprang from his extraordinary brain-power, his ability to put himself in the place of his .opponents, his analysis of military intelligence, his masterful logistics, and his capacity for gauging accurately the offensive and defensive strength of given bodies of troops. These qualities and the long odds with which he had to contend in all his campaigns explain a daring that would have been rashness in a less capable leader. A desperate cause demanded desperate risks. His power to inspire confidence and to create morale was due to his record of victories, his inflexible justice, his attention to detail, his great aptitude for organization, his imperturbable presence in battle, his regard for his men, and the quality of his military material. He was less renowned as a tactician than as a strategist, because of his theory of the duties of a commanding general (outlined in the references to Second Manassas); but his facility in tactics increased steadily, especially in the employment of field fortification , which some consider his greatest contribution to the science ot war. Where possible, he always reconnoitered in person. and with an unusual eye for terrain. He was wont to say that he had to see for himself. It he failed to follow up his successes, it was not for slowness or lack of clash but because the margin of superiority in combat was always so narrow that his army was usually exhausted after a victory.

Almost alone among the principal Confederate commanders he was consistently on good terms with the administration. Only on some three occasions, and these at times when President Davis was suffering to an unusual degree from the facial neuralgia that dogged him throughout the war, did he ever receive sharp messages from the chief executive. One of these he tore into bits; the others he ignored. The first reason for his Silence in dealing with as difficult as man as the Confederate President was his unfailing, deferential respect for constituted authority, a respect equaling that displayed by General Washington himself. The second reason was his willingness at all times to subordinate his operations to the general strategy of the administration and to ex ,plain his plans to the Pres ident. He knew Davis thoroughly, and in the urgent matter of reënforcements, which was always a subject of delicate and difficult correspondence, he usually got troops, if they were to be had, by stating frankly that if he did not receive them he might be compelled to retreat on Richmond. That never failed to arouse the President to action. Davis consulted him often regarding the enlistment and organization of the troops and about the strategy of campaigns on other fronts. Lee was prompt to answer and frank in his advice, but he was slow to impose his views on other commanders, especially on General Joseph E. Johnston, whose capacities he perhaps over-valued. In nearly all his dispatches to the President, when operations elsewhere were under discussion, he explained that it was impossible to judge at a distance, when he did not know the special difficulties that had to be encountered. Consequently his influence on the "grand strategy'' of the South was not great. To him, however, more than to any other military official, was due the enactment of the conscript laws.

[The major manuscript sources are as follows: Private papers, in the possess ion of the daughters of Captain Robert E . Lee; engineering papers, Army Engineers' archives, Washington;


Educational papers, at West Point, and Washington and Lee University;

Military papers, War Department, Washington, and in the care of a committee of trustees for U. C. V ., Richmond, Virginia;

Field-telegrams on operations of June-August 1864, Confederate Museum, Richmond, Virginia.

His maps and military library are at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia.

The greater part of his printed letters and dispatches appear in War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army) ; Lee's Dispatches (1915);

J. W. Jones, Personal Reminiscence s, Anecdote s and Letters of General Robert E. Lee (1874); J. W. Jones, Life and Letters of Robert Edward Lee (1906);

and the invaluable Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee, by his son Captain Robert E. Lee (2nd ed., 1924).

Other important books on his life or campaigns are:

E. P. Alexander, Military Memoirs of a Confederate (1907);

Gamaliel Bradford, Lee the American (1912);

E. J. Lee, Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892 (1895);

A. L. Long, Memoirs of Robert E. Lee. (1886); James Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox (1896);

Sir Frederick Maurice, Robert E. Lee, the Soldier (1925); Sir Frederick Maurice, ed., An Aide-de-Camp of Lee (1927);

Walter H. Taylor, General Lee, His Campaigns in Virginia, 1861-65 (1906).


To these may be added: Memoirs of Lieutenant-General Scott. (1864);

Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government (2 volumes, 1881);

Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1887-88);

Fitzhugh Lee, General Lee (1894);

John Bigelow, Jr., The Campaign of Chancellorsville (1910)

The best of the one volume biographies, which number twenty or more, is H. A. White: Robert E. Lee and the Southern Confederacy (1897). The four volume . biography by the writer of this sketch will probably appear simultaneously with the publication of this work.]

D.S.F.


LEE, GEORGE WASHINGTON CUSTIS (September 16, 1832-February 18, 1913), soldier and educator, eldest son of General Robert Edward [q.v.] and Mary Ann Randolph (Custis) Lee, was born at Fortress Monroe, Vil. Receiving his early education in private schools of Virginia, he entered the Military Academy at West Point in 1850, from which he graduated at the head of his class in 1854. Upon graduation, he was assigned to service in the United States Army Corps of Engineers and performed work in river and harbor improvements in various sections of the country. At the outbreak of the Civil War he was on duty as assistant in the office of the chief engineer of the army at Washington. On May 2, 1861, he resigned his commission as first lieutenant in the army and offered his service to the Confederacy. His father made no effort to influence his son in his decision. "Custis," wrote the elder Lee to his wife, "must decide for himself and I shall respect his decision whatever it may be." Commissioned captain of engineers in the Confederate army, July 1, 1861, he  was engaged in the construction of the fortifications of Richmond until his appointment, August 31, 1861, as aide-de-camp on the staff of President Davis, with the rank of colonel of cavalry. His military ability was at once recognized by Jefferson Davis who often entrusted him with important mission. In September 1861, he was dispatched to Norfolk to examine the state of defense of that place; in October 1862, with the Federals threatening Wilmington, North Carolina, he was sent there to assist in the organization of the forces of resistance; and, in October 1863, his advice upon the reorganization of the Artillery Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia was sought by his father, General Lee. Although his active service on the battlefield was limited to the last months of the war, owing to the demand for his activities in other departments of the military service, his efficient and successful career won for him military advancement. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier-general, June 25, 1863, and later, on October 21, 1864, to major-general.

Custis Lee longed for an active command, but President Davis was loath to part with him. "Our intercourse has been so pleasant," Davis wrote him in December 1864, and your service so very useful to me in the relation of an Aid, that I should feel a two fold reluctance in parting from you, and should not hope to replace you by any one equally acceptable and beneficial to me. I have felt that your acquirements and natural endowments entitled you to a larger field and to better opportunities of fame than you have as a member of my staff .... For immediate usefulness it may well be doubted whether you are not as useful to the general service in the capacity of Aid to the Executive as you would be as Commander of a Division" (Rowland, post, VI, p. 431). During the last days of the Confederacy, Lee's brigade composed of departmental clerks and mechanics of Richmond, which he had previously organized for emergency purposes in the defense of Richmond, was attached to Ewell's corps and participated in the final retreat from Petersburg. Engaged at Sailor's Creek, it displayed "a gallantry never surpassed," and Lee was commended by his superior officer for his conduct in that sanguinary battle. He, with most of his command, was captured in this engagement. The war over, he became in October 1865 professor of military and civil engineering at the Virginia Military Institute, which position he occupied until he succeeded his father, February 1, 1871, as president of Washington and Lee University. The adoption of the elective system of study, the establishment of endowed scholarships, and the increase of the endowment are achievements of his long administration of twenty- six years. He was also a generous benefactor of the institution, presenting, among his gifts, portraits of Washington and Lafayette by Peale, and heirlooms of the Custis family. Resigning July 1, 1897, he retired to "Ravensworth," an ancestral home, in Fairfax County, Virginia. He remained unmarried.

Who's Who in America, 1912-13;

H. L. Abbot, Half Century Record of the Class at West Point 1850 to 1854 (1905);

R. E. Lee, Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee (1904);

G . W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates. of the U. S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891);

E. J. Lee, Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892 (1895);

Dunbar Rowland, Jefferson Davis, Constitutionalist, His Letters, Papers, and Speeches (10 volumes, 1923);

War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army) ;

Confederate Veteran, April 1913; Lexington Gazette, February 19, 1913;

Alexandria Gazette, February 18, 19, 1913.]

W.G.B.


LEE, FITZHUGH (November 19, 1835-April 28, 1905), soldier, eldest of the six sons of Sydney Smith and Anna Maria (Mason) Lee, was born at "Clermont," Fairfax County, Virginia. His father, a naval officer in the United States and later in the Confederate service, was an elder brother of General Robert E. Lee and the second son of "Light-Horse Harry" Lee by his second marriage, to Anne Hill Carter. His mother was a grand-daughter of the Revolutionary philosopher, George Mason, and a sister of Senator James M. Mason. After preliminary education in neighborhood private schools, Fitzhugh Lee entered West Point in 1852. He was distinguished more for comradeship and horsemanship than for scholarship and narrowly escaped dismissal for his pranks, but he was graduated forty-fifth in a class of forty-nine in 1856, and served as a cavalry instructor at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, until January l , 1858, when he was ordered to Texas as second lieutenant in the 2nd Cavalry. Dangerously wounded on May 19, 1859, in Indian fighting, he recovered in time to participate in another brush with the natives, June 16, 1860. Named assistant instructor in the department of tactics at West Point, he served there from December 29, 1860, to May 3, 1861, then tendered his resignation (accepted May 21, 1861) and offered his services to Virginia. As first lieutenant in: the regular Confederate army, he acted as a staff-officer to Ewell and to Joseph E. Johnston during the Manassas campaign and in August 1861 was made lieutenant-colonel of the 1st Virginia Cavalry. For his participation in the Peninsular operations and in Stuart's ride around McClellan, he was promoted brigadier-general on July 25, 1862. His delay in reaching the Rapidan on August 17 was one factor in postponing the offensive against General Pope, and was censured in reports by General "Jeb" Stuart, but if he was at fault, which is not altogether certain, he redeemed himself the next month when his admirable delaying-tactics, covering the withdrawal from South Mountain, gained for the main army a much-needed day in which to reconcentrate at Sharpsburg.

After the Dumfries and Occoquan raids of December 1862, the shortage of horses and the lack of forage threatened the disintegration of the Confederate cavalry, but Lee contrived to subsist his men and mounts on the upper Rappahannock. He was in direct command in the battle of Kelly's Ford, March 17, 1863, where his handling of his small force in dealing with the largely superior column of General W.W. Averell won great praise. During the Chancellorsville campaign, he led the only complete brigade of cavalry present with the main army and performed perhaps the greatest service of his military career in guarding Jackson's march on May 2 round the exposed right wing of Hooker's army. He it was who discovered that the right of the XI Corps was "in the air," and it was on the basis of his reconnaissance that Jackson extended Rodes's division to the left for the decisive attack. He participated creditably in the remaining operations of the Army of Northern Virginia during 1863 and on September 3 was made major-general. During the operations of 1864 his stand at Spotsylvania Court House on May 8 made it possible for the I Corps to seize that strategic crossroads. He was ceaselessly engaged in exhausting combat, reconnaissance, and outpost duty with the Army of Northern Virginia until August. Then he was dispatched with his cavalry division to the Shenandoah Valley to support General Jubal A. Early. On September 19, in the desperate fighting at Winchester, where he had three horses shot under him, he was seriously wounded and incapacitated for duty until January 1865, when he assumed command of the cavalry on the north side of James River. After Wade Hampton was sent to North Carolina, Fitzhugh Lee became senior cavalry commander of the Army of Northern Virginia but did not operate as chief of the remnant of the cavalry corps until nearly the end of the siege of Petersburg. On April I, in his absence, his cavalry division was roughly handled at Five Forks, but during the retreat to Appomattox he kept the commanding general advised of the movements of the enemy and, when the army was surrounded and about to surrender on April 9, he rode off with part of his troopers. Realizing, however, that resistance was useless, he surrendered April 11 at Farmville.

While Fitzhugh Lee lacked the profound strategical sense of Forrest and made no such contributions as Stuart to the art of reconnaissance and the tactical employment of the mounted army, he was active in the field, a good tactician, hard-hitting, and not without skill in reconnaissance. He is generally ranked among the first dozen cavalry officers born in America. After spending a brief time in Richmond as a paroled prisoner of war, he went to Stafford County, where he engaged in farming. "I had been accustomed all my life," he subsequently said, "to draw corn from the quartermaster, and found it rather hard now to draw it from the obstinate soil, but I did it!" His historic name, his personal popularity, and his skill as a campaigner contributed to his election as governor of Virginia over John Sargent Wise by a vote of 152,544 to 136,510 in November 1885. His four-year term, though unmarked by any notable achievement, did much to secure the continued Democratic control of the state government.

Defeated for the nomination to the United States Senate in 1893, he was named consul-general to Havana, April 13, 1896, which office he retained during the confused events preceding the outbreak of war in 1898. The tact and firmness which he then displayed made him a national figure, and his return to Washington on April 12, 1898, took on something of the nature of a triumph. Commissioned major-general of volunteers on May 5, 1898, he was assigned the VII Army Corps, which was designed to be the chief combat-force in the occupation of Cuba. The capture of Santiago obviated the necessity of other operations, but he took his command to Cuba, established headquarters at Camp Columbia, near Havana, and was charged with the reestablishment of order. From April 12, 1899, to March 2, 1901, he was brigadier-general of volunteers under the act of March 2, 1899, and for part of this time he commanded the Department of the Missouri. On March 2, 1901, he was retired a brigadier-general. He then busied himself in planning for the Jamestown Exposition of 1907. He died in Washington and was buried in Hollywood cemetery, Richmond, Virginia He had married, April 19, 1871, Ellen Bernard Fowle, who with five children survived him. In physique, "Fitz" Lee, as he was always called, was about five feet ten inches in height, bearded, florid, heavy, and broad-shouldered, an admirable horseman. A facile writer, he published an address, "Chancellorsville" (Southern Historical Society Papers, December, 1879) and a biography, General Lee (1894). The latter is a standard work, though marred by many inaccuracies. His political abilities were, if anything, superior to those he displayed as a soldier, and he possessed much skill in public address. He is often confused with his first cousin, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee [q.v.], also a Confederate major-general of cavalry.

[The manuscript Letter book of the superintendent of West Point contains the story of Fitz Lee's escapades as a cadet.

A diverting account of some of his experiences in Texas appears in E. J. Lee, Lee of Virginia, 1642-1892 (1895). G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891), gives his assignments in the Federal army prior to 1861.

His scant correspondence and infrequent reports appear in the War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army).

His messages as governor of Virginia were published in the Journal of the House of Delegates of the State of Virginia and in the Journal of the Senate of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Some of his dispatches as consul-general appear in House Doc. 406, 55 Congress, 2 Session

Other sources include : Who's Who in America, 1903-05;

Confed. Military History (1899), III, 622-25;

J. W. Jones, Virginia's Next Governor, Gen Fitzhugh Lee (1885); and the Times-Dispatch (Richmond), April 29, 1905, January 5, 1908.

Lee left no unpublished military MSS.; except for a few brief field-dispatches on the retreat to Appomattox. These are in the military papers of General Robert E. Lee.]

D.S.F.


JACKSON, THOMAS JONATHAN (January 21, 1824- May 10, 1863), best known as "Stonewall" Jackson, Confederate soldier, was born at Clarksburg, Virginia (now West Virginia). His great-grandfather, John Jackson, who came to America in 1748 and finally settled in western Virginia, though born in England was of Scotch-Irish stock. Thomas was the second son and the third of four children of Jonathan Jackson, a lawyer, and Julia Beckwith (Neale) Jackson, and, as his parents died in poverty during his early childhood, he was reared by his uncle, Cummins E. Jackson. He himself added the name Jonathan when nearly grown. Entering West Point in July 1842, much handicapped by a poor preliminary education, he "studied very hard," by his own admission, "for what he got," and was so engrossed in his work that he said afterward he did not remember having spoken to a single woman during his whole cadetship; but he rose steadily in his grades, year by year, and in 1846 graduated seventeenth in a class of fifty-nine that included G. B. McClellan, A. P. Hill, and others of scarcely less subsequent distinction. Sent almost immediately to Mexico, he was distinguished at Vera Cruz, at Cerro Gordo, and at Chapultepec, became a major by brevet within eighteen months after graduation, and was publicly complimented by General Scott. Returning to the United States in 1848, he served at Fort Columbus (1848) and Fort Hamilton (1849-51), New York, and was sent to Florida in the latter year, but accepted the professorship of artillery tactics and natural philosophy at the Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, Virginia, in 1851, and resigned from the army, effective February 29, 1852.

Jackson was not especially successful as a teacher and was the butt of many a cadet joke. While at Lexington he found his chief satisfactions in travel, in the fellowship of the Presbyterian church, and in a very sunny domestic life. His first wife, Eleanor Junkin, died in the fall of 1854, fourteen months after she wedded him, and on July 16, 1857, he married Mary Anna Morrison. Both his wives were the daughters of Presbyterian ministers. He often spent his summer vacations in the North and in 1856 traveled five months in Europe, where he seems to have been more interested in scenery and art than in the military establishments of the great powers. He had no part in public affairs prior to the Civil War, beyond that of commanding the cadet corps at the hanging of John Brown, on December 2, 1859. A Democrat and the owner of a few slaves, most of whom he bought at their own request, he deplored the prospect of war, which he described as the "sum of all evils."

Ordered to Richmond on April 21, 1861, with part of the cadet corps, Jackson was so little known that when his name was presented for a commission a member of the Virginia convention inquired, "Who is this Major Jackson?" He was soon sent to Harper's Ferry as colonel of infantry, and on June 17, 1861, was made brigadier- general. Having brought his command to high efficiency, he moved it with the rest of General Joseph E. Johnston's army to the battlefield of Bull Run, where it steadfastly sustained the Federal onslaught at a critical moment. "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall," cried Brigadier-General Barnard E. Bee, as his own troops retreated (Charleston Mercury, July 25, 1861). This incident gave Jackson his sobriquet of "Stonewall," which he always insisted Bee had intended to apply to his brigade and not to him personally. With prestige much increased by this battle, Jackson became a major-general on October 7, 1861, and on November 5 assumed command in the Shenandoah Valley, a district of the Department of Northern Virginia. The next few months added nothing to his reputation. An unsuccessful raid against Romney in January 1862, conducted in bitter weather, was followed by a controversy with Brigadier-General W. W. Loring, who insisted that Jackson had spared his own troops and had put the burden of outpost duty on Loring's command. Jackson immediately preferred charges against Loring and sought to bring him before a court martial.

On March 8-9, Johnston evacuated Manassas, retreating to the line of the Rappahannock, and thereby forced Jackson, most unwillingly, to abandon Winchester on March 1 r. This move was the beginning of the Valley campaign of 1862, which many critics regard as the most remarkable display of strategic science, based on accurate reasoning, correct anticipation of the enemy's plans, rapid marches, and judicious disposition of an inferior force, in all American military history. Marching up the Valley, Jackson turned on his pursuer, Major-General James Shields, under a m is apprehension of the Federal strength, and was repulsed with heavy losses at Kernstown, near Winchester, on March 23. This engagement was accounted a defeat for Jackson, and as it followed quickly on the Romney expedition it destroyed the fame he had gained at First Manassas (Bull Run). Rumor spread that he was dangerously reckless and that he became insane when excited. It was not until the campaign had developed further that the Confederacy realized how his daring attack on Shields had alarmed the Federals and had led to the retention in northern and western Virginia of troops that otherwise would have strengthened McClellan in his attack on Richmond.

From April 17 to May 12, 1862, Jackson's movements were under the supervision of Robert E. Lee. The two had known each other since the Mexican War. Lee had recommended Jackson for the post at Lexington and probably was responsible ·for sending him to Harper's Ferry. In perfect understanding, they developed a plan to attack Brigadier-General N. P. Banks and thereby prevent the dispatch of troops from Banks to McDowell, who was preparing to move southward from Fredericksburg to join McClellan in front of Richmond. As a preliminary, Jackson attacked Milroy, commanding a part of Fremont's army, at McDowell, west of Staunton, on May 8. Before the situation had cleared up after this minor engagement, General Joseph E. Johnston, who .had then brought his army close to Richmond, resumed his direction of Jackson's movement. Fearing that Banks was too strongly entrenched at Strasburg to be attacked, Johnston ordered part of Jackson's army from the Valley, but Jackson saw his opportunity and appealed to Richmond. This was the real crisis of the campaign. Lee approved a continuance of the offensive, Jackson moved rapidly down the Valley, struck Banks at Front Royal on May 23, and on May 24-25 drove him through Winchester and to the Potomac. The Lincoln administration at once took alarm for the safety of Washington and suspended the southward march of McDowell, who was expected to unite with McClellan in overwhelming Johnston near Richmond. In its effects, this probably was Jackson's greatest single contribution to the Southern cause.

After pursuing Banks to the Potomac, Jackson was forced immediately to withdraw up the Valley to protect his rear, threatened by Shields from the east and by Fremont from the west. Although the line of the retreat of his 16,000 men was the objective of 62,000 Federals, Jackson escaped by rapid marching, and when he had drawn the enemy to a favorable position he prepared to attack his pursuers separately. His margin of time was the narrowest, for Fremont was advancing down the Valley west of the Massanutton Mountains and Shields's division was strung out from Luray southward. Taking advantage of the ground, Ewell checked Fremont at Cross Keys on June 8, and the next clay Jackson successfully attacked Shields's advanced guard at Port Republic and hurled it back. This was perhaps Jackson's most brilliant battle tactically and it disclosed for the fir st time his great skill in making rapid dispositions in the face of the enemy. These two actions are better known than the battle of Winchester and they virtually paralyzed action by the divided Federals in Jackson's front, but the effects of these two onslaughts were hardly as great as those that follow ed the operations of May 23-25. The great object of Jackson's campaign, which was to prevent the dispatch of troops from northern Virginia to the Richmond front, had already been accomplished.

The withdrawal of Shields and Fremont ended the Valley campaign. Lee, meantime, had succeeded Johnston in command of the forces around Richmond, which now became known as the Army of Northern Virginia. His first plan was to reenforce Jackson with troops from the Carolinas and Georgia for a march into Pennsylvania, in the hope that this would draw the Union armies from Richmond and the South Atlantic seaboard, but the exposed states would not consent to the transfer of the required troops. Lee had accordingly to substitute a second plan, involving a more limited offensive in the Valley with a subsequent rapid movement of Jackson's army to Richmond. To this end, Lawton's brigade from Georgia and eight . regiments under Whiting from the Army of Northern Virginia were sent to Jackson on June 8-11, 1862. The Federals, however, had retreated too fast and too far for this offensive to be completed in the time Lee could allow. He accordingly ordered Jackson to Richmond with nearly the whole of his force and detrained him at Fredericks Hall on June 23 in order to employ him in the Seven Days' Campaign. Jackson, unfortunately, was in a strange country and was physically worn down from lack of sleep, on which he was very dependent. His march on June 26 was slow and was so obstructed by the enemy that he did not execute Lee's plan to turn Beaver Dam Creek, thereby causing delay and a costly, futile assault on Fitzjohn Porter by A. P. Hill. At Gaines's Mill on June 27 Jackson's troops fought well, and on the 29th they were sent in pursuit of McClellan, who was changing his base from the Pamunkey to the James. Jackson slept little during this pursuit and on June 30, when he arrived at White Oak Swamp, he was so close to physical collapse that his mind did not function with its usual military precision and he did not attempt to take a position no stronger than several he successfully stormed when in good physical condition. His failure to cross the swamp that day contributed materially to the disruption of Lee's elaborate plan for the envelopment of McClellan by simultaneous convergence at Glendale on June 30. In the battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, the final action of the campaign, Jackson had no conspicuous part.

On July 13, Jackson was detached and moved to Gordonsville, whence his 24,000 men advanced to Cedar Run and fought an inconclusive engagement with Pope's army on August 9. Lee soon joined him and planned for August 18 an offensive that was delayed by a series of mishaps. On August 24, at a conference between them, a decision was reached to divide the army temporarily and to send Jackson by way of Thoroughfare Gap to Manassas Junction, Pope's advanced base. Jackson at once began the most famous of all his marches and covered fifty-one miles in two days with 20,000 men. He destroyed the enemy's base on August 27, and then retired to a well-chosen position at Groveton, six miles northwest of Manassas, there to hold the Federals at bay until Longstreet could join him. On the 28th and 29th, most admirably feeding in his reserves as needed, Jackson fought a stubborn action, beat off all attacks and on August 30-31 was still strong enough to share in the offensive by which Pope was driven back to the Washington defenses (Second Bull Run). "Neither strategically nor tactically did ... [Jackson] make a single mistake" in this daring campaign (Henderson, post, II, 235). To him, more than to any of his lieutenants, Lee owed the success of a turning movement that enabled him to continue the offensive and to carry the war into the enemy's country.

By this time, Jackson had become a Southern hero, and his "foot cavalry," as his fast-marching infantry was called, was the most famous of Confederate commands. Although he shunned all display and did nothing to evoke the causerie de bivouac that Napoleon regarded as almost essential to a general's success in creating morale, Jackson had personal peculiarities that lent themselves to legend. At thirty-eight he was "Old Jack" to his adoring soldiers, who cheered him tumultuously whenever they saw him, and magnified his every eccentricity. He wore a weather-beaten cap and gigantic boots, with the plainest of uniforms. Riding an ugly horse at the head of his column, and often mud-spattered, he frequently was seen to lift one of his arms to its full length above his head, as if invoking divine blessing, though actually the gesture had its origin in nothing more significant than a belief that the arm was contracting and needed to be stretched. His religious impulses were known throughout the army. On the eve of battle, he would rise several times during the night for prayer, and he was so strict in his observance of the Sabbath that he would not even write a letter to his wife when he thought it would travel in the mails on Sunday. His favorite company was that of Presbyterian divines; his chosen topic of conversation was theology. Stern and exacting in discipline, he was uncommunicative in his dealings with his subordinates. The greater their responsibility, the more he demanded of them. Ewell said, "I never saw one of Jackson's couriers approach without expecting an order to assault the North Pole" (Henderson, I, 438), and this officer, his most trusted lieutenant, was firmly convinced that Jackson was insane. In action, his eyes, which normally were somewhat dreamy, would blaze with excitement, and until the Second Manassas campaign he was suspected of undue fondness for playing alone hand. He was absolutely loyal to Lee, however, whom he professed himself willing to "follow blindfolded."

During the advance into Maryland in 1862, Jackson led Lee's advanced guard, captured Harper's Ferry and 12,520 prisoners on September 1S, and shared in the bloody action at Sharpsburg (Antietam) on September 17. He again distinguished himself at the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13. Meantime, on October 10, he had been promoted lieutenant-general and had been given command of the second of the two corps into which the Army of Northern Virginia had been divided. Wintering at Moss Neck, eleven miles down the Rappahannock from Fredericksburg, Jackson prepared his reports of the operations subsequent to Kernstown and, in April, had a short visit from his wife and her infant daughter, Julia, whom he had never seen.

On April 29 he was called away by the news that the Federal army, 130,000 strong, was crossing the Rappahannock above and below Fredericksburg in an effort to double up both flanks of Lee's army of 62,000. Leaving 10,000 of his 37,000 men to hold off the Federal left wing under Sedgwick, Jackson moved westward into the Wilderness of Spotsylvania on April 30 to join Lee who was facing Hooker's main army, advancing down the Rappahannock toward Fredericksburg. On May I the advanced guard of the Union forces was driven back to a strong position near Chancellorsville. That night Lee and Jackson had a conference at which it was decided to follow much the same strategy as had been employed at Second Manassas, and to leave 14,000 men in Hooker's front while Jackson proceeded to the rear of the enemy. Before daylight on May 2 Jackson began the last of his great marches, one of the most effective operations of its kind in the history of war. Near sunset, in a most dramatic setting, Jackson struck the rear of the Union right, completely routed the XI Corps, which was unaware of his presence, and so threatened Hooker's line that a retreat across the Rappahannock became inevitable. In the twilight, returning from the front, Jackson was severely wounded by the fire of his own men and died of pneumonia at Guiney's Station, south of Fredericksburg, May 10. His body was carried to Richmond, where it lay in state, and thence to Lexington, Virginia, where it was interred and has since rested.

"I know not how to replace him," Lee wrote in absolute truth, giving Jackson full credit for what was, perhaps, the most spectacular victory of Lee's career. The Army of Northern Virginia was never the same after Jackson's death, and, though Lee conducted in 1864 some of his most brilliant maneuvers, he did not find another lieutenant who so well understood him or could execute his orders with such powerful, perfectly coordinated, hammer-strokes of attack. In any list of the half-dozen greatest American soldiers, Jackson is included by virtually all critics, though his career of field-service in the Confederate Army was limited to less than twenty-five months and his opportunities for independent command were few and brief. President Davis apparently never considered the dispatch of Jackson to Tennessee, where strategy of his type might have changed the course of the war.

In person, Jackson was of medium height and somewhat thin, with large hands and feet. He was an excellent though not a graceful horseman. His stride was long and rapid; his voice was low; his manner, most affectionate in private life, was simple but grave and slightly stiff in public; in address he was modest and in conversation he was not brilliant or magnetic. His military reading, which was not particularly wide, centered about Napoleon. It is possible that his study of Napoleon had been exaggerated. His copy of Napoleon's Maxims of War, which was in his haversack at the time he was wounded, does not appear to have been consulted often or read closely.

[Of numerous early lives of Jackson, the only one of permanent historical value is that by his adjutant-general, R. L. Dabney, Life of Lieutenant-General Thos. J. Jackson (2 volumes, 1864-66).

The standard work is G. F. R. Henderson, Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War (2 volumes, 1898), one of the most fascinating of military biographies.

Particular aspects of his campaigns and career were dealt with by his surgeon, H. M. McGuire, in Southern History Society Papers, XIV (1886), XIX (189 1), XXV (1897) ;

and by one of his aides, Jas. P. Smith, in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, III (1888), Religious Character of Stonewall Jackson (1897), Stonewall  Jackson and Chancellorsville (1904), and in Sou. History Society Papers, XLIII (1920).

His private life and correspondence are presented in the book by his wife, Mary Anna Jackson, Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson (1895).

T. J. Arnold, Early Life and Letters of General Thos. J. Jackson (1916),

and R. B. Cook, Family and Early Life of Stonewall Jackson (1924), give much new detail on his youth.

Next to Henderson, the best study of his operations in 1862 is Wm. Allan, History of the Campaigns of General T. J. (Stonewall) Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia (1880).

His principal reports are in War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), I series, volumes II, V, XI, part 2, XII, parts 1, 2, XIX, part 1, XXI. The reports of Chancellorsville are in volume XXV, part r. The "Correspondence" volumes bearing the same numbers contain his dispatches.

There is an obituary in Richmond Sentinel, May II, 1863. Many of his relics are at the V. M . I., Lexington, Virginia; some of them and his sword are in the Confederate Museum, Richmond. The raincoat in which he was shot at Chancellorsville is in the museum at Edinburg, Scotland his horse, "little Sorrel," mounted by a taxidermist, is in the museum of Lee Camp Soldiers' Home, Richmond, Virginia]

D.S.F.


HARDEE, WILLIAM JOSEPH (October 12, 1815-November 6, 1873), Confederate soldier, was born at "Rural Felicity," the Hardee estate, Camden County, Georgia, a son of John and Sarah (Ellis) Hardee. He was descended from Anthony Hardy of Pembroke, Wales, who came to America in 1695 and settled in North Carolina. His grandfather, John, had been a Revolutionary soldier and later captain of a Continental galley on the Georgia coast. He moved to Georgia after the war, the state having made him a grant of 1,360 acres of land. William's father had also· seen military service, having been a major of cavalry in the War of 1812. In 1838 William graduated from the United States Military Academy and was assigned as a second lieutenant to the 2nd Dragoons. He was promoted to a first lieutenancy in 1839 and to a captaincy in 1844. In 1840 Hardee was sent on a military commission to Europe to study cavalry operations. Returning, he was assigned to duty as tactical officer at Fort Jesup, Louisiana. In the war with Mexico he participated in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battles of Contreras and Molino del Rey, and the capture of the city of Mexico. Twice promoted for meritorious service, he emerged from this war as a lieutenant-colonel. In 1855 he published Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics, known as "Hardee's Tactics," which was adopted as a textbook for the army. In the same year he was attached as senior major to the 2nd Cavalry, of which Albert Sidney Johnston was colonel, Robert E. Lee, lieutenant-colonel, and George H. Thomas, Jr., junior major. In the following year Hardee became lieutenant-colonel and was assigned as commandant of cadets at West Point.

Hardee was on leave in Georgia when on January 19, 1861, the state seceded from the Union. Two days later he resigned his commission in the United States army and was commissioned colonel, and in June, Brigadier-general, in the Confederate army. Assigned to a command in Arkansas, he organized the original Arkansas Brigade, afterwards known as "Hardee's Brigade." In the fall of 1861, now a major-general, he was transferred, with mo st of his command, to Kentucky. Hardee had no service in the Virginia campaigns where fame was most surely to be won. He was identified throughout the war with the western army, later known as the Army of Tennessee. He participated in the battles of Shiloh and Perryville, commanded the left wing at Murfreesboro, fought at Missionary Ridge, and played a leading role in the long contest against Sherman between Dalton and Atlanta. Meanwhile, in October 1862, he had been made a lieutenant-general. After the fall of Atlanta (September 1864), he was placed in command of the military department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Without adequate forces he made an ineffectual attempt to stem the tide of Sherman's advance through Georgia to Savannah. On the 18th of December Hardee evacuated Savannah, withdrawing across the river into South Carolina, and Sherman occupied the city. After a month in Savannah, Sherman also moved over the river, heading towards Charleston. Hardee, receiving no reinforcements, evacuated Charleston and led his small force into North Carolina, where a junction was made with the Army of Tennessee, again under the command of Joseph E. Johnston. Shortly after Hardee rejoined Johnston, the surrender at Appomattox occurred. High tribute was paid Hardee's military ability by his superior officers and by the Federal commanders. In his Narrative of Military Operations (1874), Joseph E. Johnston spoke of the "skill and vigor that Hardee never failed to exhibit in battle" (pp. 156-57), and referred to his personal gallantry in leading a certain notable charge at Bentonville. E. A. Pollard, in his Lee and his Lieutenants (1867), said of him : "His courage was of that order which inspires courage in others. An accompli shed horseman, of commanding stature, and striking martial mien, his bearing in action was impressive and inspiring. To this was added, coolness that never failed; presence of mind never disturbed; and an intellect that rose, like his he art, in the tumult and dangers of battle" (p. 829). General Thomas of the Federal army is quoted by Sherman in his Memoirs (1875) as greatly admiring Hardee's handling of his four divisions in the battle of Cassville, May 1864 (II, 40). Sherman himself referred to him as a "competent soldier" (II, 195).

In January 1863, Hardee married Mary T. Lewis, of Greensboro, Alabama. To this union one daughter was born. A t the conclusion of the war Hardee settled down on a farm in Alabama which came to him through his wife (Snow , post, p. 492) . He died in Wytheville, Virginia, and is buried in Selma, Alabama.

[Sketch by Hardee's chief of staff, later his son-in-law, T. B. Roy, in W. J. Northen, Men of Mark in Georgia, volume VIII (1911);

T. B. Roy , "General Hardee and the Military Operations around Atlanta," Southern History Society Papers, volume VIII (1880);

War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army) ;

G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U. S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891);

Confed. Military History, volume I (1899);

W. P . Snow, Lee and his Generals (1867); American Ancestry volume V (1890);

Selma Times, November 7, 1873: date of birth from A. D. Candler and C. A. Evans, Georgia (1906). ]

R.P. B- s.


HOOD, JOHN BELL (June 1, 1831-August 30, 1879), Confederate soldier, third son and fifth child of Dr. John W. and Theodocia (French) Hood, was born at Owingsville, Bath County, Kentucky Against the wishes of his father, who desired him to study medicine, he entered West Point in 1849 and was graduated, after an undistinguished career as a cadet, forty-fourth in a class of fifty-two that included Sheridan, McPherson, and Schofield. After brief garrison duty at Fort Columbus, New York, he served two years in California as second lieutenant in the 4th Infantry and was then transferred to Texas, to join the 2nd Cavalry, which was then under the care of its lieutenant-colonel, Robert E. Lee. wounded in a scouting expedition against marauding Indians in July 1857, Hood was partially incapacitated for two years.

In April 1861 he resigned his commission, joined the Confederate army, and was sent, as first lieutenant, to Yorktown, Virginia, where General John B. Magruder put him in charge of the cavalry attached to his forces. By rapid promotion Hood became brigadier-general on March 2, 1862, and took command of the "Texas Brigade." These troops, whom he personally led into action at Gaines's Mill, broke the Federal line on June 27, 1862, and won high reputation, which they confirmed by hard, successful fighting at Second Manassas and Sharpsburg (Antietam). Following the Maryland campaign, Hood was promoted major-general, October 11, 1862, partly at the instance of "Stonewall" Jackson, and his troops became the first division of Longstreet's corps. At Gettysburg, Hood pleaded to be allowed to attempt to turn Round Top, but was ordered to attack up the Emmitsburg road, where he was badly wounded in the arm on the afternoon of July 2. Before he had fully recovered, he rejoined his men, en route to Georgia, and at Chickamauga he distinguished himself while directing Longstreet's corps and three divisions of the Army of Tennessee. Another wound, which necessitated the amputation of his right leg, deprived him of further part in the campaign.

Hood was made lieutenant-general on February 1, 1864, to date from the battle of Chickamauga. Crippled as he was, he went to Dalton, Georgia, a few days later to take command of one of the corps of the army under Joseph E. Johnston. This was the turning-point of his career. Trained to the offensive, he had now to fight under a general who held to the defensive. Successful previously in all his operations, in every battle thereafter he met defeat. Johnston's continued withdrawals from in front of Sherman, coupled with President Davis' distrust of that officer's ability, induced the President to remove Johnston on July 17, 1864, and to put Hood in his place, in the conviction that Hood's experience and inclination would lead him to take the offensive. Hood, with the temporary rank of general, tried to prevail upon Davis to defer the order for Johnston's removal until the impending battle for Atlanta was over, but when Davis refused and Johnston left army headquarters, Hood struck promptly against Sherman on July 20 and 22. Failing to drive back his adversary, he had to submit to a siege in Atlanta, whence he was forced to retire on September 1, after a battle at Jonesboro made it cl ear that Sherman would soon envelop him. Knowing that he could not successfully resist Sherman with inferior forces on the plains of Georgia, Hood waited only long enough to insure the safe removal of the 34,000 Federal prisoners at Andersonville. Then he turned toward Sherman's extended line of communications in the hope that he might cause his opponent to divide his army and to dispatch a force into the mountains where Hood hoped he could attack to advantage. Sherman, however, was strong enough to detach Thomas and Schofield, with a larger force than Hood possessed, while the remainder of the Federal army was being rested preparatory to the march to the sea, which Hood did not anticipate. Rains, the slow arrival of supplies, and the impaired morale of his army kept Hood from striking as early as he had planned. After October 16, when his corps commanders told him the army was in no condition to fight, Hood moved into Tennessee, abandoned the campaign against Sherman, and, amid the misgivings of Davis and of Beauregard, who had been given general supervision of his operations, launched operations against Thomas and Schofield, in the belief that he could defeat them, recruit his army, and move to reenforce Lee in Virginia. The successive heavy defeats at Franklin, on November 30, and at Nashville, December 15-16, ended this dream. Assuming full responsibility for the failure of his plan, Hood asked to be relieved and on January 23, 1865, said farewell to his troops. He was on his way to the Trans-Mississippi department, with orders to collect troops for the reënforcement of Lee, when the capitulation of the last Confederate army led him to ride into Natchez, Mississippi, and surrender on May 31, 1865. Going into Texas, which he h ad regarded as his adopted state even before he had command of Texas troops, he was able to make good business connections and soon set himself up as a factor and commission merchant in New Orleans. In 1868 he married Anna Marie Hennen and seemed in a fair way to a fortune, but unwise ventures soon reduced him to poverty. On August 24, 1879, his wife died, presumably of yellow fever. Hood and several of his family were stricken shortly afterwards, and he and his eldest daughter died on August 30, 1879. He left ten children, among them twins, three weeks old. He was buried in New Orleans. In physique, Hood was commanding and dignified, with ample ability to inspire soldiers. As a commander, he undoubtedly deserved the reputation he won in Virginia as a "fighting general," an admirable leader of a brigade or a division in action; but if he possessed the higher military qualities, they were marred by an irrepressible rashness. "Hood is a bold fighter," Lee wrote Davis when the president asked his opinion on the substitution of Hood for Johnston, "I am doubtful as to other qualities necessary."

[Hood 's memoirs, written in 1878-79, were posthumously published for the benefit of his orphans, under the title, Advance and Retreat: Personal Experiences in the United States and Confederate States Armies (1880). The sternest criticism of him appears in Joseph E. Johnston's Narrative of Military Operations (1874). T. R. Hay's Hood's Tennessee Campaign (1929) is a modern study. Lee 's· opinion of Hood, quoted in the text, appears on p. 282 of Lee's Dispatches (1915), ed. by D. S. Freeman. Hood's reports on his principal operations will be found in War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army ), I series XI (part 2), 568ff.; XII (part 2), 604ff. ; XIX (part 1), 922ff.; XXXVIII (part 3), 628ff., 76off.; XXXIX (part 1), 8orff.; XLV (part 1), 652ff. Apparently Hood, because of wounds , filed no reports on Gettysburg or on Chickamauga. See also G. W. Cullum, Biographical Register, Officers and Graduates U. S . Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891); Memoirs of General Wm. T. Sherman (2 vols ., 1875); M. J . Wright, General Officers of the Confed. Army (19II); manuscript records of U. S. Military Academy; Mary B. Chesnut, A Diary From Dixie (1905); Confed. Military History (1899), volume I; D. W. Sanders, "Hood's Tennessee Campaign ," Southern Bivouac, November 1884-September 1885; Southern History Society Papers volume IX (1881) ; Mrs. C. M. Winkler, Life and Character of General John B. Hood (1885); Ida R. Hood, "In Memory of General J. B. Hood," Daily Picayune (New Orleans), September 4, 1904; Eleventh Annual Report Association Graduates U.S. Military Academy (1880 ); New Orleans Times August 31, 1879. Genealogical data have been supplied by Miss Marcella Chiles, deputy clerk of Montgomery County, Kentucky, and by Mrs. Leah Hood Reese of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky]

D . S. F.


JOHNSTON, ALBERT SIDNEY (February 2, 1803-April 6, 1862), soldier, youngest son of Dr. John and Abigail (Harris) Johnston, was born at Washington, Mason County, Kentucky. His grandfather, Archibald Johnston of Salisbury, Connecticut, was a captain in a New York regiment during the Revolution. Johnston studied under private tutors, and attended school in western Virginia and at Transylvania University, excelling in mathematics and Latin. His half-brother, Josiah, had him appointed to the United States Military Academy in 1822. There he was universally liked. He won mathematical honors and, as a first-classman, was corps adjutant. Upon graduation, he was brevetted second lieutenant, 2nd U.S. Infantry; and during 1826 he served at Sackett's Harbor, New York. He was later commissioned second lieutenant and joined the 6th Infantry at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri, June 1, 1827. As regimental adjutant he participated in the Black Hawk War. On January 20, 1829, he married Henrietta Preston. They had three children, one of whom died in infancy. Because of his wife's illness, Johnston resigned his commission, April 24, 1834. After her death, August 12, 1835, he tried farming near St. Louis but soon gave it up, went to Texas, and enlisted as a private in the Texan army. Over six feet tall, straight as an arrow, broad-shouldered, with massive chest, square jaws, and piercing eyes that bespoke his determination, he suited this frontier.

General Rusk, commander of the army of Texas, appointed him adjutant-general, August 5, 1836, and, as senior brigadier-general, he assumed command of the army, January 31, 1837. This appointment aroused the jealousy of Felix Huston, who challenged Johnston to a duel and seriously wounded him. Appointed on December 22, 1838, as secretary of war for the Republic of Texas, he helped to free the Texan borders from Indian raids. Incidentally, his vigor against the Cherokees incurred General Sam Houston's displeasure. He resigned March 1, 1840, returned for a time to Kentucky, and, on October 3, 1843, married Eliza Griffin, his first wife's cousin. Two of their children lived to maturity. He bought "China Grove" in Brazoria County, Texas, which caused him considerable financial distress. When the Mexican War started he was commissioned colonel, 1st Texas Rifle Volunteers, and served at Monterey under General Butler as inspector general. The next three years he farmed at "China Grove." On December 2, 1849, he was commissioned paymaster, United States Army, and was detailed along the dangerous Texan frontier, where he served until appointed colonel of the 2nd Cavalry; he assumed command of the Department of Texas on April 2, 1856. From 1858 to 1860, as brevet brigadier-general, he served in Utah, quelling a threatened Mormon uprising without resorting to force.

He sailed from New York, December 21, 1860, for San Francisco, took command of the Department of the Pacific, and for three months creditably executed his duties. When Texas seceded he resigned his commission, April. 10, 1861, but continued in command until his successor, General Sumner, arrived, April 25, 1861. Johnston's unimpeachable character was not comprehended in some quarters and a rumor had spread that he was plotting to deliver California to the Confederacy. When he heard this falsehood, Johnston was thoroughly enraged. He harbored no desire to incite civil strife, instead he sought seclusion at Los Angeles. Tardily realizing its error, the Federal government asked Johnston to reconsider, offering him command second only to Scott, but he refused.

Weary of the surveillance he was subjected to, Johnston committed his family to his brother-in-law, Dr. John S. Griffin, and, joining Alonso Ridley's company, journeyed overland, back to the South. He had had no communication or understanding with Confederate leaders prior to making this move. Joining Jefferson Davis in Richmond, he was appointed general in the Confederate army, and assigned to command the Western Department. He seized Bowling Green, Kentucky, called for troops, and began to form and drill an army. His greatest difficulty then, and afterward, was in securing enough troops; invariably his enemy outnumbered him, two to one. At Mill Spring, January 19, 1862, through disobedience to his orders, part of Johnston's command was defeated by General Thomas. In rapid succession, other units lost Fort Henry, February 6, 1862, and, on February 16, 1862, Fort Donelson. Johnston now temporarily withdrew to the vicinity of Nashville. When Buell captured that city, February 25, 1862, Johnston retreated to Murfreesborough, and thence to Corinth. After the loss of Henry and Donelson, Davis was implored to replace Johnston. He replied: "If Sidney Johnston is not a general, I have none" (Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, I, 550).

By March 25, 1862, concentrations at Corinth were complete. Johnston planned to defeat Grant before Buell could join him. The Federals at Shiloh Church, near Pittsburg Landing, held a strong natural position with a numerically superior force. On April 3, 1862, Johnston moved from Corinth, and on Sunday, April 6, he struck. With Bragg, Hardee, Polk, and Breckinridge as corps commanders, Johnston drove everything before him, turning first one position then a nother, until the Federals, with both flank s turned and center broken, were driven back to the Tennessee River in complete rout. In his moment of triumph, Johnston was struck, an artery being severed in his leg, and he bled to death. With him went one of the greatest hopes of the Confederacy. Jefferson Davis spoke for the South when he said: "It may safely be asserted th at our loss is irreparable and that among the shining hosts of the great and good who now cluster about the banner of our country," there exists no purer spirit, no more heroic soul, than that of the illustrious man whose death I join you in lamenting" Journal of the Congress of the Confederate States of America, II, 1904, p. 136). His body was carried to New Orleans and temporarily entombed. In January 1867, Texas claimed him and his remains were carried to Austin for burial. Stops were made at Galveston and Houston where his friends, prevented by General Sheridan's order from honoring him with a military funeral procession, showed their devotion to his memory by silently following his body as it was carried through the streets.

[Wm. P. Johnston, The Life of General Albert Sidney Johnston (1878), and The Johnston’s of Salisbury (1897); sketch by Frank Schaller in his translation of Marmont's The Spirit of Military Institutions (Columbia, South Carolina, 1864);

War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army);

F. B. Heitman, History Register of the U. S. Army (1890);

G. W. Cullum, B Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U . S. Military Academy (3rd ed., 1891);

Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1887-88) ;

Confed. Military History (1899), I, 642-44; Southern History Society Papers, September 1878, June 1883;

Quart. of the Texas State History Association, April 1907.)

C. C. B.


JOHNSTON, JOSEPH EGGLESTON (February 3, 1807-March21, 1891), Confederate soldier, was born at "Cherry Grove," Prince Edward County, Virginia. His father, Peter Johnston [q.v.] , who was descended from a Scottish family which emigrated to Virginia in 1727, served in the Revolution under Light Horse Harry Lee and later became a distinguished jurist; his mother, Mary, was a daughter of Colonel Valentine Wood of Goochland County, Virginia, and a niece of Patrick Henry. Johnston's boyhood was spent near Abingdon, Virginia. He received his early education at the Abingdon Academy, which his father had helped to found. In 1825 he became a cadet at the Military Academy at West Point. Although he had weak eyes, he made a reputation in history, French, and astronomy. In 1829 he graduated No. 13 in a class of forty-six.

Appointed a second lieutenant, 4th Artillery, he resigned after eight years' service to become a civil engineer. In this capacity he joined Powell's expedition to Florida, which was routed by Indians, January 15, 1838. Johnston took charge of the rear guard, and although twice wounded in the forehead he conducted the retreat so skilfully that he was recommissioned as first lieutenant, Topographical Engineers. On July 10, 1845, he married Lydia McLane, daughter of Louis McLane [q.v.] of Maryland. Promoted captain in 1846, he joined Scott's expedition to Mexico. In 1847 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of Voltigeurs, and was twice wounded near Cerro Gordo. He led an assaulting column at Chapultepec, where he was wounded three times. At the end of the war he reverted to his old rank of captain, Topographical Engineers. In 1855, he became lieutenant-colonel, 1st Cavalry, and in 1860, quartermaster-general and brigadier-general.

Upon the secession of Virginia from the Union, Johnston resigned from the United States Army, April 22, 1861. Going immediately to Richmond to offer his services to his native state, he was at once appointed a major-general of Virginia, and in May, brigadier-general, Confederate States Army, and assigned to Harper's Ferry. Here, with troops disabled by measles and mumps and lacking in arms, munitions, and transportation; he found himself confronted by a Federal force under Patterson, superior to his in strength.

When Beauregard's army near Bull Run was threatened by an advancing hostile force, Johnston quietly withdrew without attracting Patterson's attention, and by rail and marching joined Beauregard, arriving, himself, on July 20. He approved Beauregard's plans. The next day the battle of Manassas (Bull Run) was fought. At the beginning, Johnston was at the right of the line, pursuant to an intention to attack from that flank, but the Federals turned the Confederate left, and Johnston hastened thither, just in time to rally the first detachments which had been driven back. He showed excellent leadership in restoring the position, rearranging his troops, and organizing a counter-attack which drove the enemy back in a rout. He was then assigned to command in northern Virginia. In July he received a commission ·as general, Confederate States Army, which he accepted under protest because it placed him fourth in rank instead of at the head of the list of generals. President Davis, irritated, took no action on the protest, and the bad feeling thus begun between these two men lasted throughout the war.

When McClellan in March 1862 moved his army to Fort Monroe, Johnston was fully informed, and closely calculated McClellan's strength by counting transports as they steamed down the Potomac. He promptly transferred the bulk of his army to the Peninsula, east of Richmond. His authority was extended to include all of the new theatre of operations. After a personal examination of the lines about Yorktown, he recommended that they be abandoned and the army concentrated near Richmond. On the advice of Lee, President Davis directed that there be no withdrawal. Johnston temporarily complied with this order, but prepared to retreat, and did so on May 4, when McClellan was ready to assault with strong forces. Pursued, Johnston was forced to have his rear guard fight all day on May 5, near Williamsburg, to enable his army to march away. The rear guard successfully carried out its mission, and there was no further interruption in the march to Richmond. For a time, Johnston remained passive, although urged by Lee, and the Richmond press, to attack. From May 28 to 30, discussions were held at Johnston's headquarters and it was decided to attack early on May 31. No written minutes were made, and subsequent events indicate that various generals prese nt believed that their individual opinions had been approved by Johnston. The battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oak s ) began May 31. Owing to useless marches by subordinates, the attack started, not at dawn, as planned, but after noon, and then with but a fraction of the troops which should have participated. Johnston was not with the force assigned to make the main attack, and he was not able to influence its action. Present on a flank, he was twice wounded toward the end of the battle. Though some success was gained it was local, and not decisive. Johnston insisted that his being wounded prevented a full accomplishment of his plans, but this is problematical. As he did secure so me results, his explanation was, at the time, accepted, and his reputation increased as a result of this battle. His plan was excellent, but it miscarried owing to faulty issuing of orders and failure to supervise their execution.

In November 1862 he had sufficiently recovered from his wounds to report for duty and was assigned to command the Confederate forces consisting of the armies of Bragg in Tennessee and Pemberton in Mississippi. He soon requested relief, complaining that his authority was only nominal, that all he could do was to transfer troop s from one army to another, that both armies were outnumbered by the enemy opposing them and never had any troops available to transfer; moreover, he contended, such a movement would require a month, much too long to meet an emergency. President Davis stated that there was nothing in Johnston's orders to limit his action, and that there had been no such intention. The orders bear out this statement, which has not been disputed. Johnston, however, disliked to interfere with army commanders and failed to give them orders.

No crisis occurred until May I, 1863, when Grant crossed into Mississippi to attack Vicksburg. Pemberton wired asking for reënforcements. Johnston wired back orders to unite all forces to beat Grant. Johnston's private correspondence at this date indicates that he was not in good condition, physically or mentally. He took no further action until ordered by President Davis to proceed to Mississippi and assume chief command. He obeyed promptly, but arrived at Jackson, Mississippi, on May 13, too late to save the situation. He found Grant between himself and Pemberton. He had with him only a weak force, and sent word to Pemberton to come up on the rear of Grant at once, but Pemberton disobeyed the order, and Johnston was never able to join him. When Pemberton was defeated and fell back into Vicksburg, Johnston on May 17 directed the evacuation of that city, its garrison to march northeast to join him. Pemberton could have obeyed, but he failed to do so, and lost his army. Johnston should have relieved Pemberton and himself assumed command. He had been instructed to do so, but he maintained with some truth that he was unable to ride a horse long enough to go around Grant's army to reach Pemberton. Still he could have relieved Pemberton, and substituted some other general who would have obeyed orders. President Davis severely condemned Johnston for not concentrating troops in time to save Vicksburg.

In December 1863 Johnston was assigned to the Army of the Tennessee, then facing Chattanooga, with instructions to reorganize it and assume the offensive. He did effectively reorganize the army, but when suggestions were made that he attack, he showed irritation and refused on the ground of insufficient forces. He desired to be attacked in u prepared position, with a view to counter-attacking when the enemy was exhausted. In May 1864 the Federals advanced, and Johnston awaited them, all ready in line of battle. Unfortunately for his plan, however, the Federal general, Sherman, was too wise to waste troops in assaulting, and marched around the Confederates, forcing Johnston back in order to preserve his communications. Sherman only once departed from these tactics when on June 27 he attacked at Kenesaw Mountain. Badly beaten, he resumed his turning movements, and Johnston gradually fell back, until in July he was just in front of Atlanta. On July· 17, he was relieved from command, on the stated J ground that he had failed to arrest the advance of the enemy. In this, his most famous campaign, he was outnumbered, and that fact indeed was his excuse for never assuming the! offensive. He saved his army intact for future use. The experience of · his successor, John Bell Hood [q.v.], who later lost the major part of the army in unsuccessful attacks, seemed to justify Johnston's actions, but Johnston's strategy never would have stopped Sherman, who was delayed not so much by his opponent as by the necessity of repairing the railroad in his rear.

On February 23, 1865, Johnston was reassigned to the Army of the Tennessee. During March and April he fought several engagements in North Carolina. On April 13, at a conference at Greensboro, North Carolina, he proposed to President Davis that he, Johnston, should address a letter to Sherman asking for peace. Davis finally consented, and on April 18, Sherman and Johnston signed an armistice, by which the Confederate armies were to be disbanded and civil government reestablished. Johnston's troops at once commenced to desert, and when on April 24 he was advised that the Federal government had disapproved the armistice, he was in no position to fight. Ordered by President Davis to move south to continue the war, he refused, and surrendered his command to Sherman on April 26.

With the coming of peace, he established himself in Savannah, Georgia, engaging in the insurance business. In 1877 he moved to Richmond, and in 1878 was elected a member of Congress, where he served one term. He then settled in Washington, D. C. In 1885 he was appointed commissioner of railroads. He published his Narrative of Military Operations in 1874; wrote an article, "My Negotiations with General Sherman," for the North American Review (August 1886); and contributed "Responsibilities of First Bull Run," "Manassas to Seven Pines," "Jefferson Davis and the Mississippi Campaign," arid "Opposing Sherman's Advance to Atlanta" to Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. He died at his residence in Washington.

Johnston's reputation rests on the fact that he suffered no defeat throughout the war. He disliked risks. The only important attack he undertook was that at Seven Pines, and that was badly managed. In all his other campaigns he avoided the aggressive. He failed to accept the point of view of his government, and was at odds with its leader. He constantly foresaw difficulties, and was pessimistic. His one chance of beating Sherman in 1864 was by daring and rapid action, but for this type of warfare he was not suited.

[The main source for Johnston's campaigns is War of the Rebellion: Official Records (Army), 1 series II (Manassas); XI, parts 1-3 (Peninsula); XXIII, parts 1, 2, and XXIV, parts 1-3 (Vicksburg) ; XXXVIII, parts 1-5 (Atlanta) ; XLVII, parts 1-3 . (North Carolina).

Johnston's Narrative of Military Operations is accurate, obviously written from copies of original reports, and shows the author's side of disputed actions.

R. M. Hughes, General Johnston (1893) follows the Narrative very closely.

Joseph Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomatox (1896);

Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Govt. (1881);

E. P. Alexander, Military Memoirs of a Confederate (1907);

R. M. Johnston, Bull Run (1913), all contain important material. Interesting personal correspondence is in Journal Military Service Inst. of the U. S., May-June 1912.

See also: Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (4 volumes, 1887-88);

B. T. Johnson, A Memoir of the Life and Public Service of Jos. E. Johnston (1891);

G. W. Cullum. Biographical Register Officers and Graduates U. S. Military Academy (3rd ed ., 1891);

E. A. Pollard, Lee and His Lieutenants (1867);

So. History Society Papers, volumes XVIII (1890), XIX (1891);

Confederate Military History (1899), I , 644-49;

J. D. Cox, in the Nation (New York), March 26, 1891; Washington Post, March 22, 1891.]

C. H. L---a.

J.F.J.


SMITH, GUSTAVUS WOODSON (March 1822-June 24, 1896), civil and military engineer, Confederate officer, was born in Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky, the son of Byrd and Sarah Hatcher (Woodson) Smith. His grandfather, John Smith, had emigrated to Kentucky from Virginia with Daniel Boone. On the maternal side he was a descendant of John Woodson who came to America before 1679. He entered the United States Military Academy from Virginia and was graduated in 1842 as a second lieutenant, Corps of Engineers. He was assigned to duty at New London, Connecticut, where he served two years as an assistant engineer on the construction of fortifications, ·and was then ordered to West Point as an instructor in civil and military engineering. On October 3, 1844, he was married to Lucretia Bassett, the daughter of Captain Abner Bassett, of New London, Connecticut. They had no children. Upon the outbreak of the Mexican War, he was detailed to assist Captain Alexander J. Swift to recruit and train the sole company of engineers in the army. Shortly after reaching Mexico, Captain Swift was invalided and the command devolved upon Smith. The engineer soldiers were employed in converting the infamous mule paths of northern Mexico into passable roads until March 1847, when they joined Scott's expedition at Vera Cruz. Smith was cited fo; distinguished services at Vera Cruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, and Mexico City, and was brevetted, successively, first lieutenant, captain, and major, the last brevet being disapproved by the war department. Upon the conclusion of peace he returned to West Point as assistant professor of engineering.

He resigned on December 18, 1854, to join, it is said, the Cuban filibustering expedition of John Anthony Quitman [q.v.]. This expedition proved still-born, and Smith accepted a treasury department appointment to supervise the repair s to the mint and the construction of the marine hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. A year later he became associated with the engineering firm of Cooper and Hewitt in New York City, and served them as chief engineer of the Trenton Iron Works. He was appointed street commissioner for New York City in 1858, served until 1861, and soon achieved prominence in the council s of the Democratic party. He served on a board to revise the program of instruction at West Point in 1860. He participated in the Pine Street meeting of citizens of New York to devise measures to avert civil war, and favored the Crittenden Compromise. In the late summer of 1861, having been stricken with paralysis in April, he set out for Hot Springs, Arkansas, upon the advice of his physician. At Lexington, Kentucky, he learned that his arrest as a disloyal person had been ordered from Washington. This determined him to join the Confederacy, and he proceeded at once to Richmond, where he was appointed, September 19, 1861, a major-general in the provisional army.

He commanded one wing of the Army of the Potomac until the conclusion of the Peninsular Campaign. After General Johnston was wounded during the battle of Seven Pines on May 31, 1862, he commanded as senior officer until General Lee's arrival on June 1. On June 2, he suffered another attack of paralysis. His relief by Lee caused the renewal of a quarrel with President Davis, which had originated over the appointment of his aide-de-camp the previous year. In August 1862 he was placed in command of the sector from the right of Lee's theatre of operations on the Rappahannock to the Cape Fear River, with headquarters in Richmond. He acted as secretary of war from November 17 to November 20. In consequence of the promotion of six officers over his head and presidential interference with details of his command, he resigned on February 17, 1863. He served a short time as a volunteer aide to Beauregard in Charleston, and then became superintendent of the Etowah Mining and Manufacturing Company in north Georgia. In June 1864, he accepted an appointment as major-general to command the 1st Division, Georgia Militia, which was attached to the Army of Tennessee. After the fall of Atlanta, his division was employed in observation of Sherman's army, falling back before it during the famous march to the sea. On December 30, 1864, he was assigned a sector in the defenses of the department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. He surrendered to the Wilson raiders at Macon, Georgia, in April 1865.

After the war, he gave testimony on  January 30, 1867, before the Congressional committee investigating the affairs of Southern railroads. He was employed as general manager of the Southwestern Iron Company at Chattanooga, Tennessee, from 1866 until 1870, when he was appointed as the first insurance commissioner of Kentucky. He held this office for five years, and then moved to New York City, where he resided until his death. He was the author of Notes on Life Insurance (1870), Confederate War Papers (1884), The Battle of Seven Pines (1891), Generals J.E. Johnston and G. T. Beauregard .... at Manassas (1892), and Company "A," Corps of Engineers, U. S. A., ... in the Mexican War (1896).

[H. M. Woods on, Historical Genealogy of the Woodsons (1915); G. W. Cullum. Biographical Register... U. S. Military Academy (1891); U.S. Army Register, 1839; C. S. Stewart in Annual Reunion, Association Graduates, U. S . Military Academy, 1897 (1897); C. M. Wilcox, History of the Mexican War (1892); War of the Rebellion : Official Records (Army), see index; M . J. Wright, General Officers of the Confederate Army (1911); Confederate Military History (1899), volume I; House Report No. 34, 39 Congress, 2 Session An obituary article in Appletons' Annual Cyclopedia, 1896 (1897), gives June 23 as the date of Smith's death. See, however the Augusta Chronicle, June 26, 1896.]

W. M. R., Jr.



Source: Dictionary of American Biography, Volumes I-X, Edited by Dumas Malone, New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1930.