The Fateful Lightning

by Jeff Shaara

  Their feud only increases when Johnston tells a newspaper reporter of his suspicions that Davis absconded with nearly two million dollars of the gold from the Confederate treasury, an accusation that infuriates Davis and most of the South.

  Johnston moves from Savannah to Richmond in 1876, and considers a run for politics. To his own surprise, he is elected to Congress, but serves only a single term, finds political life as boring as he found the railroad.

  His wife, Lydia, dies in 1887, after forty-one years of marriage. Johnston is devastated by her death, and for the remainder of his life, he will not speak her name.

  He serves, ironically, as pallbearer at the funerals of Ulysses Grant and George McClellan, and, in 1891, he serves as honorary pallbearer for William T. Sherman. But the brutal February weather causes Johnston to be taken ill, and he dies the following month. He is eighty-four. He is buried beside his wife at Green Mount Cemetery, in Baltimore, Maryland.

  It is another of the “what-ifs” of the Civil War that Robert E. Lee ascended to command of the Army of Northern Virginia as a direct result of Johnston’s being wounded at the Battle of Seven Pines, on the Virginia peninsula, in the summer of 1862. The death of Albert Sydney Johnston (no relation) two months prior at Shiloh thus took from the reins of the Confederate army two of their highest-ranking and most respected generals. Though Lee certainly excelled in the role, the question will always remain, had Joe Johnston not been wounded, would Lee have ever been given high command? And, of course, given his bitter relationship with his president, what would Johnston have done with it?

  JOSEPH WHEELER

  In April 1865, “Fighting Joe” attempts to evade capture, and, riding with only fourteen men, he embarks on a journey westward, where he hopes to join with Kirby Smith in continuing the war. But he is captured at Conyers Station, Georgia, near Atlanta.

  Imprisoned at Fort Delaware, Wheeler suffers horribly, along with so many other Southern soldiers, until his release in July 1865. He returns to his home in Augusta, Georgia, where he marries Daniella Jones Sherrod. In 1866 they move to New Orleans, where Wheeler is employed as a merchant. He moves to Lawrence County, Alabama, in 1870, attempts to practice law, and settles as well into life as a gentleman farmer. He invests in what had been the Memphis & Charleston Railroad, long destroyed by Federal troops. But the railroad sees new life, and by 1880, Wheeler’s investments bring him prosperity.

  Drawn to politics, he runs for the House of Representatives in 1880 on a platform alien to many Southerners, that of moving past the war, with an eye only on the future, and fruitful business relationships with the North. Wheeler is elected over a man whose views are radically opposite, a sign of the times. Wheeler serves seven terms, but, even as he ages, he becomes a vocal advocate of military action against Spain, advocating a free Cuba. In 1898, the controversy erupts into the Spanish-American War. Despite opposition from his own family, Wheeler volunteers to fight, saying “if a fish had been out of water for thirty-three years, and suddenly came in sight of a great pond, he’d wiggle a little, at any rate.” Because of his friendly relationship with President William McKinley, who seems uninterested in Wheeler’s loyalties during the Civil War, Wheeler is named Major General of Volunteers, and his command includes a group of cavalrymen later known as Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders.

  A year later, while in failing health, Wheeler sails to the Philippines and joins in the fighting there, but his capacity for strong-backed service is at an end. He returns home in 1900, anticipating a return to Congress. President McKinley instead appoints him to command of the Military Department of the Lakes, with his post in Chicago. But Wheeler retires within a year and settles in Brooklyn, New York. He dies in January 1906, at age sixty-nine, and is one of the very few Confederate officers buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

  JAMES SEELEY

  Seeley surrenders alongside General Wade Hampton at Durham’s Station, North Carolina. Angered by the efforts of his nominal commander, Joe Wheeler, to continue the war any way possible, Seeley ignores Wheeler’s hopes of recruiting cavalry fighters, and instead begins the arduous return journey to his home and young wife, Katie, in Memphis. He arrives in July 1865. His father, a prosperous banker, has somehow survived the war with his prosperity intact, which Seeley believes is only from collusion with the Federal powers occupying Memphis. But reality settles in and Seeley accepts the end of the war for what it is.

  He goes to work with his father, becomes manager and eventually president of the Memphis Farmers Bank. He and Katie have four children.

  He again befriends his first commander, Nathan Bedford Forrest, but with the latter one of Memphis’s more notable slave traders, Forrest’s fortunes pale in comparison, and their friendship does not move past the occasional recounting of their military adventures. When Forrest attempts to counter the policies of Reconstruction by participating in the formation of an organization to empower the South’s disenfranchised white men, what becomes known as the Ku Klux Klan, Seeley takes no part, understanding that the future lies with positive banking and commercial relationships with the North. Thus Seeley willingly pledges a loyalty oath to the United States, which paves the way for the increasing financial strength of his bank, and his own fortune.

  Rarely active in Confederate reunions, Seeley seems quick to accept the South’s defeat as the only possible outcome, and rarely will discuss his own experiences as a cavalryman.

  He dies in 1909, at age sixty-seven. Katie survives until 1928.

  WADE HAMPTON

  Hampton surrenders alongside Joe Johnston at Durham’s Station, North Carolina. As the staffs and other officers mingle outside the Bennett house in April 1865, Hampton makes a reputation for himself by a distinctly unfriendly stance, as though unwilling to associate himself with any Federal officer. Yet, with the war decided, Hampton becomes one of the more active figures in the South in promoting a reconciliation with the Federal government. But Reconstruction sours his point of view, and Hampton reacts to the abuses of Northern opportunists by angrily denouncing Northern policies. Alongside former Confederate general Jubal Early, Hampton embraces and promotes the more mythical status of Confederate commanders, particularly Robert E. Lee. Thus does Hampton become one of the principal voices of the “Lost Cause” mythology, as an apologist for Confederate wrongs, justifying the Southern way of life.

  Always active in politics, he runs for and is elected governor of South Carolina in 1877, and is elected to the United States Senate two years later, serving two terms. In 1893 he is named United States Commissioner of Railroads, a post he holds for five years. He retires from public life in 1897, and dies in 1902, at the age of eighty-four.

  THOSE WHO WORE BLUE

  FRANKLIN

  Purchasing his way aboard a steamer, Franklin leaves the camp of the 113th Ohio and makes the journey back to Savannah. Within weeks, he and Clara are married by his friend, the Baptist preacher Garrison Frazier.

  Franklin attempts to interview with Georgia’s former governor, and Franklin’s former master, Howell Cobb, primarily to discover the welfare of Franklin’s aged father. But Cobb still holds tightly to the principles he supported during the war, most especially slavery, and only provides Franklin with the information that Henry is deceased. Convinced by Clara that his former master’s reluctance to acknowledge any of his abuses is a blessing in disguise, ensuring that Franklin will never seek further employment from Cobb, Franklin instead accepts the opportunity of a parcel of land offered him by the Freedmen’s Bureau, and he and Clara settle south of Savannah. But Franklin’s innate curiosity makes for restlessness, and he cannot settle for life on a farm, even one that he owns. In 1868, with their two young children in tow, he and Clara move north, arriving in Washington City, where he witnesses the inauguration of Ulysses Grant as president. He accepts a job with a printing firm, but he is drawn by tales of life in other exotic cities, and so, in 1875, he and Clara move to New York City, settling in Harlem.

  He se
eks and finds a job at the Lenox Library, discovering the world of the written word, which he embraces with a level of enthusiasm that seriously impresses his colleagues. In 1895, the New York Public Library is founded, absorbing New York’s smaller libraries, and Franklin accepts a position as assistant to the librarian, a position he holds until his retirement in 1917. But he and Clara do not enjoy a lengthy period of retirement. Clara becomes a victim of the influenza epidemic of 1918, and dies. Franklin continues a listless existence, visited frequently by his children and grandchildren, until his death in 1928. His family’s best estimate is that he is eighty-two years old. He and Clara are buried in Harlem.

  His oldest son, whom Clara names Sherman, serves in the all-Negro 10th Cavalry Regiment in the mid-1890s, the former “Buffalo Soldiers,” made famous not only by their segregation from the rest of the army, but by their commander, John J. Pershing. It is here that Pershing receives the moniker “Black Jack.”

  As Franklin sought employment in the cities of the North, it became even more imperative that he present himself with a first and last name. After 1870, he was known to all as Abraham Lincoln Franklin.

  OLIVER O. HOWARD

  Immediately after the war, Howard is instrumental in assisting to assimilate newly freed slaves into American political and social culture, serving as the first commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau. In 1867, his work contributes to the founding of Howard University, in Washington, D.C., where he serves as president for the institution’s first six years.

  In 1874 he returns to military service, is named commander of the Department of the Columbia, and is stationed at Fort Vancouver, in Washington Territory, where he leads the government’s campaign against the Nez Percé Indians, which results in the capture of Chief Joseph. He returns to the East and in 1881 serves as superintendent of the United States Military Academy for two years. Returning to the field, he commands the Department of the Platte, and the Military Division of the Pacific. In 1888, he returns east once more, assumes command of the Department of the East, at Governor’s Island, New York, until his retirement in 1894.

  He is awarded the Medal of Honor in 1893 for his actions at the Battle of Fair Oaks, on the Virginia peninsula.

  Though Howard is faulted for his Eleventh Corps’s collapse at both Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, his service to his nation both in and out of the service elevates his reputation as one of the most accomplished officers from the Civil War, and long after.

  He dies in 1909, at age seventy-eight, and is buried in Burlington, Vermont.

  HENRY SLOCUM

  Slocum resigns from the army in the fall of 1865, becomes active in Democratic Party politics. He runs unsuccessfully for secretary of state for New York, and for a time returns to the practice of law. Finally elected to Congress in 1869, Slocum serves two terms, but fails to win reelection and returns to his law practice in Syracuse, New York.

  Active in civic affairs, Slocum is appointed to head New York City’s Department of City Works, and is instrumental in the approval for construction of the Brooklyn Bridge.

  He returns to politics, and in 1882 is elected to Congress for a third term.

  Always active in the concerns for aging and disabled veterans, Slocum heads the New York State Soldiers and Sailors Home in Bath, New York, and actively participates in the commission overseeing the construction and placement of the monuments on the battlefield at Gettysburg.

  He dies in 1894, at age sixty-six, and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery, in Brooklyn, New York.

  HENRY HITCHCOCK

  Sherman’s most educated adjutant resigns from the army in June 1865, and after a four-month journey through Europe, he returns to his law practice in St. Louis, Missouri. A fierce devotee of the law, he founds the St. Louis Law School in 1867, serves as its president until 1881. In 1878, he is a cofounder of the American Bar Association, and serves as that body’s president in 1889.

  Hitchcock’s memoirs and collections of letters are assembled and published in 1927, long after his death. The accounts are a deeply revealing examination of Hitchcock’s own concerns with and reservations about the campaigns of his commander, and especially his personal evolution as Hitchcock becomes more accepting of military realities. By the end of his service to Sherman, and in the years beyond, Hitchcock is an ardent supporter of Sherman’s tactics, and is unfailing in his loyalty and devotion to Sherman and his career, writing, “To the casual observer, Sherman’s quick and nervous manner, the flash of his eagle eye, the brusque command, might give token of hasty conclusions, of disregard of detail, of eager and impatient habits of thought. There could be no greater error. The atmosphere of his mind was lucidity itself. What he saw was pictured there, once for all.”

  He dies in 1902, at age seventy-two. Upon his death, Washington University in St. Louis salutes Hitchcock with this resolution: “His inimitable charm of conversation, his literary attainments, his broad grasp of political information, his profound learning and marked success in his own profession, and his zealous support of every educational interest, all found their origin in his undivided devotion to common welfare.”

  LEWIS M. DAYTON

  Sherman’s chief adjutant general serves his commander from as far back as the Shiloh campaign in 1862. Dayton is promoted to colonel in summer 1865. After the war, Dayton settles in Cincinnati, remains active in veterans’ affairs, attending and organizing many reunions, almost always alongside Sherman.

  He dies in 1891, at age fifty-five.

  JAMES McCOY

  McCoy serves as adjutant to Sherman from the Battle of Shiloh, promoted to lieutenant colonel by order of the president after the war. McCoy continues to serve on Sherman’s staff until his death, in 1875, at age forty-eight. His funeral is attended by Sherman, along with all of Sherman’s remaining staff. McCoy is buried in his family’s plot at Greenlawn Cemetery, in Columbus, Ohio.

  HUGH JUDSON KILPATRICK

  Nicknamed “Kill Cavalry” for his impetuous and misguided assaults, which often result in casualty counts far worse for his own men, Kilpatrick nonetheless attracts respectful attention, and he pens two plays, which are thinly veiled references to his own heroism. He lectures frequently and is considered an entertaining, if not self-aggrandizing, speaker.

  Kilpatrick resigns from the army in December 1865 and attempts a career in politics. He is named minister to Chile by President Andrew Johnson and remains in that post until 1870, when his utter inability to perform with any level of diplomacy causes controversy with nearly everyone he serves. He nearly starts a war with Spain, forcing then-president Grant to remove Kilpatrick from the post.

  While in Chile, he marries Louisa Valdivieso, whose father is an influential Chilean political figure. They have two daughters, Julia and Laura. Laura’s lineage leads eventually to her granddaughter, the famed socialite Gloria Vanderbilt, and subsequently, Kilpatrick’s great-great-grandson, CNN anchorman Anderson Cooper.

  Angry at Grant, Kilpatrick changes party affiliations, and supports Horace Greeley in the 1872 election, which Greeley loses. Always seeking the opportunity to align himself with the winner, Kilpatrick changes parties again, and in 1876 supports a successful Rutherford B. Hayes, who succeeds in defeating the former Federal army commander Winfield Hancock. In 1881 his reward for loyalty to the Republican administration is a second appointment to Chile, but Kilpatrick’s health fails, and he dies shortly thereafter, in Santiago. He is forty-five.

  He is eventually interred at West Point.

  WILLIAM T. SHERMAN

  Perhaps no military leader in American history is as polarizing a figure. To many, he is the finest battlefield commander of the Civil War, and perhaps ranks above any other similar figure from American military history, including George Patton and Douglas MacArthur. But to others, notably those whose ancestry lies in the deep South, Sherman is often regarded as a savage and brutal martinet, whose disregard for human suffering and destruction of private property in his campaigns in Mississippi, Georgia,
and the Carolinas makes his very name a profanity.

  There is no definitive argument either way, though to this day, those arguments continue.

  In May 1865, the same month as his troops make their indelible impression upon the nation during the grand review, Sherman writes,

  I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting—its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands and fathers….Tis only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded or lacerated…that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation.

  In June 1865, Sherman accepts command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, which eventually includes all territory from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains. As such, he oversees the expansion of the West, and is charged with protecting the migration of white settlers, and extending the various railroad lines that make that settlement more feasible. He supervises various bloody conflicts with Indian tribes, though his greatest achievement with the Native Americans involves peaceful treaties, some of which assist Native Americans to regain their lost lands. Much of Sherman’s reputation for brutality comes from the actions of his subordinates, notably Phil Sheridan, who, as he had done throughout the Civil War, is a far more reckless and brutal adversary to anyone who stands in Sheridan’s way. Though Sherman supports Sheridan, he recognizes that the total war tactic both men had used during the war is not always the most appropriate when dealing with Indian tribes.

  In 1866, Sherman is promoted to lieutenant general, and in 1869, when Ulysses Grant is elected president, Sherman is named by Grant as commanding general of the United States Army, and promoted to full general (four stars).