Civil War Oddities #81

Reared near Baltimore, Hetty Cary was related to two of Virginia’s “fist families,” the Randolphs and the Jeffersons. War forced her to choose between leaving home and facing imprisonment on suspicion of harboring Confederate sympathies, so she settled in Richmond. Soon she was a leader among those working to provide clothing, food, and other necessities for soldiers.

After nearly four years of volunteer work, her activities caught the eye of thirty-two-year-old John Pegram, who sought and won her hand. On January 19, 1865, the refugee from Maryland and the Confederate brigadier general were married. Hetty enjoyed this relationship just three weeks; on February 5, 1865, the husband she found in the course of her war work was killed in the battle of Hatcher’s Run.

Civil War Oddities #80

As its name implies, the Mississippi River’s Island Number Ten was downstream from nine other islands. Located close to Columbus, Kentucky, it was fortified by Confederates who planned to close the river to Federal traffic. In a dramatic ship-to-shore operation, forces under Major General John Pope and Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote took over the island on April 8, 1862.

The victorious Union soldiers and sailors were dumbfounded to discover among their captives “a female invalid generally known as Harriet Redd.” Questioned, she admitted to having come to the military installation to be with her Confederate husband. Refusing a pass, Harriet said she preferred to remain with him, so she joined the men in an improvised prisoner-of-war camp.

A memorial statue was erected in 1979 to honor Harriet and her husband near Columbus, Kentucky.

Civil War Oddities #79

June 1862 saw Union Major General David D. Hunter embark on a special mission. Eager to free Southern slaves, he led a force against Secessionville, South Carolina. There he suffered so stunning a defeat that he suspended his military operation.

Upon returning to his base at Hilton Head, South Carolina by means of a military steamer, the thwarted abolitionist received a special kind of consolation: his wife was waiting for him at the pier of the one-time Confederate stronghold.

Civil War Oddities #78

Confederate Brig. General Nathan Bedford Forrest was not amused when he learned the identity of a civilian taken prisoner at Holly Springs, Mississippi, in December 1862. Because Forrest was barely able to scribble a few common words, no written records of his order has survived. His oral command probably was brief and to the point: “Pass that woman through the lines, and waste no time.”

His captive, Julia Grant, is believed to have been the only wife of a Union major general to be taken prisoner by a Confederate force.

Often accompanied by their youngest son, Jesse, Mrs. Grant was with her husband in numerous camps. When Grant settled down at City Point, Virginia, for the long siege of Petersburg, it was his wife who made sure that he frequently had “good home-cooked food.”

Civil War Oddities #77

Mrs. John C. Breckinridge, who was at the headquarters of her husband much of the time, owned a “a handsome silk dress.” She vividly remembered having worn it at a state dinner in Washington when her husband was vice-president of the United States. That dress, she decided after many months at the front, would make a spectacular flag.

Formally presented to the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment, the flag of a Confederate general’s wife was first exposed to gunfire at Hoover’s Gap, Tennessee, in June 1863. Color bearer Ben Yeargin died that day and both Wallace Evans and Johnny Fly were wounded by gunfire directed at the emblem they carried. Three more color bearers were wounded at Chickamagua.

Finally, at Jonesboro, Georgia, every member of the color guard responsible for “the Mrs. Breckinridge flag” was killed or wounded. Wounded men not taken prisoner soon saw their general’s wife headed toward them, her arms filled with lint and bandages.

Civil War Oddities #76

Largely recruited from the Irish in New York City, the eighty-eighth New York Regiment marched off to war under the leadership of Col. Thomas F, Meagher. Because his wife had gone to great pains to secure and to present a U.S. flag to the fighting men, this unit of ninety-day volunteers was popularly known as “Mrs. Meagher’s Own.”

Meagher later organized and led the famous Irish Brigade. Soon a brigadier general, he served with distinction at Seven Pines, the Seven Day, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville. Always fighting under his wife’s flag. Meagher tried to resign when told he could not recruit new members of his command. Republican leaders refused to accept the resignation of the Democratic brigadier and kept him close to his flag until May 1865.

Civil War Oddities #75

Fanny Ricketts, wife of U.S. Army Captain James B. Ricketts, was in or near the capital at the time of the first battle of Bull Run. When her husband didn’t return with his unit, she persuaded Lt. General Winfield Scott to give her a pass that permitted her to go through Union lines to the site of the conflict. However, when she reached a Confederate outpost, Scott’s pass became worthless and it seemed that she would have to turn back.

Remembering her husband’s friendship with J. E. B. Stuart, she managed to contact at Fairfax Court House the professional soldier now wearing the uniform of a confederate colonel. Stuart gave her a pass that enabled her to go to the Manassas battlefield, held by victorious Confederates. Four days after the battle she found her husband in an improvised field hospital at the Lewis house, from which she accompanied him to Richmond, the Confederate capital.

These adventures would have been more than enough for many wives, but Fanny’s saga was just beginning. When Federal officers were being selected as hostages for Confederates charged with piracy, Richmond’s Libby Prison held an insufficient number of colonels and majors co complete the lottery. Ricketts was selected as one of the junior officers who were threatened with execution in the event that their Confederate counterparts should hang.

Fanny remained in Richmond, made friends with prison guards in order to gain visiting privileges, and was with her husband almost daily until he was exchanged for Julius A. de Lagnel in January 1862.