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.

Civil War Oddities #74

Mrs. Robert Anderson was aghast when she learned that her husband and his men, who had taken refuge in Fort Sumter, were likely to be starved into submission.

During the Mexican War she had come to have great confidence in Sgt. Peter Hart, who later left the U.S. Army in order to join the police force of New York City. At Mrs. Anderson’s persuasion, Hart quit his job and accompanied her to Charleston. There he manages to get permission to join the civil work force inside Fort Sumter.

One of the most dramatic incidents for defenders of the fort came when a hail of Confederate hot shot set fire to wooden barracks. At the height of danger it was the sergeant-turned-policeman who took the lead in extinguishing the fire that threatened to engulf the installation.

Peter Hart nails the flag to the temporary flagstaff. 

Civil War Oddities #73

Although many amputees and cripples gave up, others did not. Had all commanders minus the use of as leg or an arm been brought together, they’d have been numerous enough to form their own brigade.

Union Brig. General Egbert B. Brown took a direct hit in the shoulder at Springfield, Missouri, in January 1863. For the duration of the war he had only one usable arm, but he sometimes commanded cavalry forces.

Civil War Oddities #72

Union Brig. General Davis Tillson suffered a pre-war injury that led to amputation of a foot. Hobbling from battery to battery, he commanded artillery that defended both Cincinnati and Knoxville.

At least three well-known Confederates could sympathize with Tillson. Vice-President Alexander H. Stephens suffered all his life from a severe case of clubfoot. Col. Roger W. Hanson had “an especially peculiar gait” as a result of taking a bullet in his leg during a pre-war duel. Brig. General Henry H. Walker lost a foot as a result if a wound at Spotsylvania.

Civil War Oddities #71

Francis R. Nicholls was a Confederate double amputee who wouldn’t give up. During the first battle of Winchester he lost an arm, and at Chancellorsville a Federal shell caused him to lose a foot. Assigned to post duty for a period, the brigadier became head of conscription in the Trans-Mississippi Department. Returning to Louisiana and admitting that he was “only the broken remnant of the man who marched off to fight the Yankees,” he served two terms as governor before becoming head of the state supreme court.