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Bloodlines
and Battlelines in the White House
Presidents, their families and the Civil War by Sgt. Timothy Hollamby, Hardy's Brigade Medical Section PART II
In
Defense of the Union
The Adamses of Massachusetts
John Adams
was a true founding father of our nation and second President of the
United States [1979-1801]. He was the first president to father a
president; his son, John Quincy Adams [1815-1829] would serve as sixth
President and would live to see Massachusetts abolitionist fervor take
root in the country in the years before the Civil War. After his
presidential term of office, he served in the House of Representatives
and successfully argued the case of the slave ship Amistad
before the Supreme Court in 1841. Twenty years later,
Adams' youngest son, Charles Francis Adams (1807-1886) was appointed a
third generation U.S. ambassador to Britain by Abraham Lincoln.
He was instrumental in keeping Britain neutral during the Civil War
even though there was widespread support for aiding the Confederacy in
that country. In 1871, he headed a commission which won a $15
million dollar indemnity from Britain to settle damage claims due to
their aid to aid the Confederacy. In 1872 Adams unsuccessfully
ran for the presidential nomination against Grant, but lost to Horace
Greeley. He died in 1886.
Martin Van Buren (1837-1841)
Van
Buren was the eighth president during the Amistad affair and
his second of four sons, John, (1810-1886) was a prominent lawyer and
ardent abolitionist who would live to see the Union's victory in the
Civil War.
Millard Fillmore (1850-1853)
The
thirteenth President, was a New York native like Van Buren; after his
presidency, he retired to Buffalo, New York. In Buffalo in 1861,
he formed the Union Continentals, a home guard unit composed mostly of
men over 45 years in age. They saw troops off at the train
station, marched in patriotic parades and took part in military
funerals during the war.
Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926)
Abraham and
Mary Lincoln had only one son live to maturity. Robert was a
Harvard graduate and commissioned a captain on General Grant's staff in
the closing weeks of the war. After his father's death, he
studied law, was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1867 and served in the
cabinets of Presidents Garfield [1881] and Arthur [1881-1885] as
Secretary of War. He was appointed Secretary to Britain under
Benjamin Harrison [1889-1893] and served as president of the Pullman
company for fourteen years.
Note: in my
humble opinion, every conceivable aspect of the Lincoln Presidency has
been covered and researched by individuals much more knowledgeable than
I. For the purpose of this article, I chose to focus on family
members of the Presidents as they relate to the Civil War.
Andrew Johnson (1865-1869)
Our
seventeenth President, Andrew Johnson had five children, three sons and
two daughters. His oldest son and second child, Dr.
Charles Johnson (1830-1863), was a Union loyalist although he and all
of the Johnson family were natives of Tennessee. He served with
the Middle Tennessee Union Infantry as an assistant surgeon.
While recruiting Tennessee boys for the Union Army, he was the focus of
a Confederate manhunt. He died after being thrown from his horse
in 1863. Robert Johnson (1834-1869) was a lawyer who served in
the Tennessee legislature. He was a Colonel of the First
Tennessee Union Cavalry. He served as his father's private
secretary after the war and died at the age of 35. Mary
Johnson (1832-1883), Johnson's youngest daughter, married Colonel
Daniel Stover of the Fourth Tennessee Union Infantry.
The Five Ohio Union Men
During the
next thirty years, the White House was dominated by five former Union
officers from Ohio. The first of these was the eighteenth
President Ulysses Grant [1869-1877] who would serve two scandal ridden
terms as president. Elected on the strength of his battlefield
leadership, he was not a successful politician. His only other
family connection to the Civil War was that his oldest son,
Frederick Dent Grant (1850-1912) was wounded in the leg when he
accompanied his father at Vicksburg. Frederick went on to follow
in his father's footsteps and graduate from West Point in 1871 and rose
to lieutenant colonel under General Philip Sheridan. He served in
a variety of government posts as well as following Theodore Roosevelt
as New York City police commissioner and re-entered the army as a
brigadier general in the Spanish-American War. He then served in
Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines.
Rutherford B. Hayes (1877-1881)
The
nineteenth President Rutherford B. Hayes, served in the 23rd Ohio,
rising from major to Major General. Hayes took part in over
50 engagements, took several wounds, one serious, and had horses shot
out from under him four times. He fought at Antietam, South
Mountain, the Shenandoah and Cedar Creek, just to name a few of the
engagements.
James Garfield (1881)
James
Garfield our twentieth President was the third consecutive Ohioan
to become President. Garfield served in the Union Army from
August 1861 to December 1863. He rose from
Lieutenant Colonel to Major General in the 42nd Ohio. He
fought at Middle Creek, Shiloh and after a bout of camp fever, saw
action at Chickamauga in September 1863. Ordered to ride under
enemy fire to relay crucial information from flank to flank, Garfield
completed his mission even when his horse was wounded. General
William Rosencrans said of his Chief of Staff Garfield, "I feel much
indebted to him for both counsel and assistance in the administration
of this army...He possesses the instinct and energy of a great
commander." Garfield left the army as a major general to take his
seat in Congress in December 1863. He was elected President and
was assassinated by Charles Guiteau in July 1881.
Benjamin Harrison (1889-1893)
Benjamin Harrison, the twenty-third President, was another who showed
great courage under fire in the Civil War. Harrison joined the
17th Indiana as a second lieutenant and distinguished himself at Peach
Tree Creek in July 1864 and throughout the Atlanta Campaign.
General Joseph Hooker recommended Harrison for promotion to brigadier
general citing his foresight, fighting spirit and discipline.
William McKinley (1897-1901)
Our
twenty-fifth President William McKinley would round out the five
presidents from Ohio who served in the Civil War. McKinley joined
the army at 18 and served with the 23rd Ohio Volunteers from June 1861
to July 1865 rising from private to brevet major. He saw action
at Carnifex Ferry, Clarks Hollow and Princeton, West Virginia, South
Mountain and Antietam. Promoted to second lieutenant for valor at
Antietam, he was posted as a staff officer for Colonel Rutherford B.
Hayes. He fought with distinction in several other battles and
served as a staff officer to Generals Winfield S. Hancock and George
Crook. Rutherford B. Hayes said of McKinley. "Young as he was, we
soon found that in the business of a soldier, requiring much executive
ability, young McKinley showed unusual and unsurpassed capacity,
especially for a boy of his age. When battles were fought or
service was to be performed in warlike things, he always filled his
place."
Chester Arthur (1881-1885)
Chester
Arthur the twenty-first president served in the New York State militia
from February 1858 to December 1862. He rose from brigade judge
advocate to quartermaster general. His chief duties dealt with
equipping troops and transporting munitions. He was quite capable
and efficient at this duty by all accounts and became known as a man
who could say,"No" without giving offense.
Grover Cleveland (1885-1889)
Grover
Cleveland was the twenty-second [1885-1889] and the twenty-fourth
[1893-1897] president. Grover Cleveland served two terms as
President, one before and then the one after the Benjamin Harrison
administration. He was the only president to serve two
non-consecutive terms. Born in New Jersey and then admitted to
the bar in Buffalo, New York in 1859, he was drafted in 1863 but
purchased a substitute for $150, a Polish immigrant George
Brinske, to serve in his place. This practice was the basic cause
of the devastating New York draft riots of 1863 which led to the
coining of the phrase "Rich Man's War, Poor Man's Fight."
By Tim Hollamby
I would like to thank William A.
Degregorio for his excellent reference book on the presidents The
Complete Book of the U.S. Presidents which served as the
primary source for this article. I also referred to Secret
Lives of the U.S. Presidents by Cormac O'Brien. Special
thanks to my wonderful wife Carole for assistance in editing and typing
this article. Tim Hollamby
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