Reveille in Washington

by Margaret Leech

  FESSENDEN, WILLIAM PITT 1806–1869 In the forties, he became nationally known as a lawyer and anti-slavery congressman, and took his seat as senator from Maine in 1854. He was recognized as one of the ablest members of the Republican party, and in 1861 was made chairman of the important Finance Committee. On Chase’s resignation in 1864, he reluctantly consented to accept the position of Secretary of the Treasury, but early in 1865 withdrew to reenter the Senate, and was replaced in the Cabinet by Hugh McCulloch. Fessenden again became chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and also headed the powerful Joint Committee on Reconstruction. He disapproved of Johnson’s conduct and policies, but placed integrity before party loyalty, and voted against the President’s impeachment.

  FLOYD, JOHN BUCHANAN 1806–1863 Buchanan’s Virginian War Secretary administered the affairs of his department with great incompetence. He was accused of having participated in the abstraction of funds from the Department of the Interior, but was exonerated of responsibility by a committee of the House. It was charged by Republicans that Floyd used his office to aid the cause of secession, dispersing the Army, and transferring arms from Northern to Southern arsenals. After the secession of Virginia, Floyd was made a brigadier in the Confederate army, and was in command of Fort Donelson at the time of Grant’s assault. He withdrew his brigade, and left the surrender of the fort to be made by the Kentuckian, Simon Buckner, who had known Grant well at West Point and in the Army. Floyd was censured by Jefferson Davis, and relieved of his command.

  FORD, JOHN T. 1829–1894 After being confined for thirty-nine days in the Old Capitol, he was released for lack of evidence of any complicity in Lincoln’s assassination. For the rest of his life he was active in the theatre and other business enterprises, as well as in philanthropic work. He produced the popular operetta, Pinafore, in Philadelphia in 1879, and was unique among American managers in sending royalties to Gilbert and Sullivan. In the season of 1879–1880, when Gilbert and Sullivan visited the United States with the D’Oyly Carte Opera Company, they engaged Ford as their manager, and he leased the Fifth Avenue Theatre for the production of The Pirates of Penzance. His management was so satisfactory that Gilbert and Sullivan gave him the exclusive rights to their productions in America. In compensation for the seizure of Ford’s Theatre in Washington, the Government paid John T. Ford $100,000. The building was a scene of another tragedy in 1893, when the front wall collapsed, killing twenty-eight Government workers who were employed there.

  FRANKLIN, WILLIAM BUEL 1823–1903 Born York, Pa.; West Point, '43. He was graduated at the head of the class of which Grant was an undistinguished member, and served as a staff officer in Mexico. Franklin was a topographical engineer, but in 1861 showed ability as a commander in the field, and was made a major-general of volunteers in July, 1862, commanding the Sixth Corps from the time of its formation on the Peninsula. He fought at South Mountain and Antietam, and commanded the left grand division of the Army of the Potomac at Fredericksburg. The censure which he received from Burnside after this last battle increased a prejudice already awakened by Franklin’s close friendship with McClellan and by his slowness in advancing to Pope’s assistance at the time of Second Bull Run. After awaiting orders for several months, Franklin, in August, 1863, was sent to Louisiana and placed in command of the Nineteenth Corps. His last active service was his participation in the ill-fated Red River expedition of 1864. He was wounded at Sabine Cross Roads, and granted leave of absence. On July 11, while traveling on the Philadelphia and Baltimore Railroad, Franklin was taken prisoner by a detachment of Early’s forces, but succeeded in making his escape the next night. He resigned from the Army in 1866, and became vice-president of the Colt fire arms company at Hartford, Conn.

  FRÉMONT, JOHN CHARLES 1813–1890 Born Savannah, Georgia; mathematician and surveyor; 1838, appointed second lieutenant of topographical engineers. Through the influence of his father-in-law, Senator Thomas H. Benton of Missouri, Fremont was entrusted with important explorations of the regions between the Mississippi and the Pacific. His romantic and hazardous expeditions won him the admiring nickname of the Pathfinder. He took a prominent and somewhat dubious part in the conquest of California in 1846, eventually being tried by court-martial for disobedience of orders, and sentenced to dismissal. His sentence was remitted by President Polk, but Fremont resigned from the Army. He served a short term as one of the first United States Senators from California. His opposition to slavery and his personal popularity made him the first Presidential candidate of the Republicans. In 1861, his administration of the Department of the West proved to be so extravagant, ostentatious and inept that Lincoln was obliged to remove him. His appointment to the Mountain Department was a gesture of conciliation to the anti-slavery faction. He was ordered to co-operate against Stonewall Jackson during the Valley raid of May, 1862, but showed no military ability, and was defeated at Cross Keys. Shortly after, he retired from active service, and was little heard of, save for the passing attention he attracted in 1864 as Presidential candidate of a group of Republican radicals. A career of railroading in the West led to bankruptcy and a damaged reputation. In 1878, he was appointed governor of the territory of Arizona. Early in 1890, he was restored to the rank of major-general in the Army.

  FRENCH, BENJAMIN BAKER 1800–1870 He was born in Chester, N. H., and was called major because of his early service in the State militia. His first marriage, an elopement which was kept secret for six months, was performed outdoors on a snowy, moonlight night. In 1833, French went to Washington as assistant clerk of the House, and was made clerk in 1845. He was interested in the Magnetic Telegraph Company, and served for three years as its president. Pierce appointed him Commissioner of Public Buildings in 1853. French had meantime built himself a house on East Capitol Street, on part of the site of the present Congressional Library, and took much pleasure in his grounds and gardens. He was active in Masonic circles and in Washington civic affairs, serving on the Common Council and as president of the Board of Aldermen. On the formation of the Republican party, French became one of its leading adherents in the capital. Lincoln made him Commissioner of Public Buildings in the autumn of 1861, and he remained in this position during two years of the Johnson administration. Left a widower in the spring of 1861, he consoled his loneliness by taking a young wife, Miss Mary Ellen Brady. He was the uncle of the sculptor, Daniel Chester French.

  GARFIELD, JAMES ABRAM 1831–1881 A teacher and lawyer, Garfield had already made his mark as an anti-slavery man in Ohio politics at the outbreak of war. He commanded a regiment in Kentucky during the first winter of the war, and was made a brigadier. He fought at Shiloh, and early in 1863 was assigned to the Army of the Cumberland, becoming Rosecrans’s chief of staff. His bravery and initiative at Chickamauga won him the rank of major-general. He had been elected congressman from Ohio, and in December, 1863, gave up a promising military career to support the administration. During Johnson’s term, he joined in the Republican opposition to the President’s reconstruction policies. By 1877, Garfield was the leader of the Republicans, then in a minority in the House. Early in 1880, he was elected senator, but received the Republican nomination for the Presidency a few months later. Four months after his inauguration in March, 1881, he was shot in the Washington station by Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed office seeker. He lingered for more than ten weeks before he died.

  GILLMORE, QUINCY ADAMS 1825–1888 Born Ohio; West Point, '49. Gillmore was graduated at the head of his class, and was one of the most brilliant engineers in the Army. With the rank of captain in 1861, he was chief engineer of the Port Royal expedition, and commanded the force which invested Fort Pulaski, Ga., in April, 1862. His success in breaching the masonry fortifications with rifled cannon brought him wide fame as an artillerist. During the second half of 1863, Gillmore, promoted to major-general, commanded the Department of the South. His skillful operations around Charleston, S. C., were partially successful in reducing the defenses of the city, and won him the brevets
of brigadier and major-general in the regular Army. Early in 1864, he was transferred to the Army of the James. Ben Butler, easily provoked against West Point officers, brought charges of disobedience and military incapacity against Gillmore, removed him from command and ordered his arrest. Gillmore was, however, relieved from arrest by Grant. While aiding in the defense of Washington during Early’s raid, he was severely injured by a fall from his horse. In 1865, he again commanded the Department of the South. He served on many boards and commissions, acting as president of the Mississippi River Commission in 1879. He was the author of authoritative treatises on engineering.

  GOLDSBOROUGH, LOUIS MALESHERBES 1805–1877 His father, a Marylander, was chief clerk of the Navy Department, and the boy was given a midshipman’s warrant at the age of seven. He took part in the Mexican War. From 1853 to 1857, he was superintendent of the Naval Academy, and at the outbreak of civil war, with the rank of captain, commanded the Brazil Squadron. Although he was overage, he continued on active duty and commanded the fleet which co-operated with the Burnside expedition in the spring of 1862. Goldsborough’s squadron was ordered to assist McClellan during the Peninsula campaign, and held the Merrimac in check. It was, however, one of McClellan’s main grievances that the navy did not co-operate in the capture of Yorktown. After the destruction of the Merrimac, the James River flotilla attempted to take Richmond, but was repulsed at Drewry’s Bluff, May 15, 1862. Goldsborough was promoted rear-admiral in July, but as he had been much criticized in the press, and the James River flotilla had been made an independent command, he was relieved at his own request in the autumn. He did administrative work in Washington, and had a brief military career in the defenses during Early’s raid. In 1865, he took command of the European Squadron, and was again on duty in the capital from 1868 until his retirement in 1873.

  GRANT, ULYSSES SIMPSON 1822–1885 Born Ohio; West Point, '43. After the war, the Union showered the commander-in-chief with gifts and honors. In 1866, he was promoted by act of Congress to the rank of full general. Grant was without political experience or perspicacity. He had only once in his life cast a vote—for Buchanan in 1856. Both the Democratic and Republican parties began to court his favor. President Johnson, believing Grant his friend, appointed him Secretary of War ad interim, after suspending Stanton in the summer of 1867. Grant promptly left the War Department when the Senate refused to concur in Stanton’s removal, and was accused of bad faith by the President. In the resultant controversy, Grant was evasive and lacking in candor. It was his first embroilment in politics, in which he now became identified with the radical Republican faction. Grant forgot the advice of his friend, Sherman, to which he had willingly listened in 1864: “For God’s sake, and for your country’s sake, come out of Washington.” In 1868, he was elected President on the Republican ticket by an overwhelming majority, and in 1872 was re-elected. His two administrations presented the picture of a limited, bewildered and foolishly trusting man, caught in a maelstrom of political complexities and corruption. His great popularity declined, as the country wearied of the scandalous dishonesty in Washington and in the carpetbagger regime in the South. At the end of his second term, Grant made a world tour, and was received with high honors in Europe. In 1880, an attempt to re-nominate him for the Presidency was defeated by the popular prejudice against third terms. The following year he moved to New York, and became a partner in a banking house. He trusted his interests to unreliable associates, and lost all his property with the bankruptcy of the business in 1884. Penniless and suffering from cancer of the throat, Grant wrote his Personal Memoirs in order to provide for his family. He labored courageously on the work during the increasing agony of his illness, completing it only four days before his death at Mount McGregor near Saratoga.

  GREENHOW, ROBERT 1800–1854 The distinguished Virginian who married Rose O’Neal studied medicine in New York and Paris. He was an excellent linguist, and in 1828 he was appointed translator at the State Department. He went in 1850 to California, where he became a law agent for the U.S. land commission. Greenhow is remembered for his scholarly History of Oregon and California, based on original sources in Spanish, French and English.

  GREENHOW, ROSE O’NEAL 18 ?–1864 After being escorted to the South, Mrs. Greenhow stayed for a time in Richmond, and paid a visit to Beauregard at Charleston. She then sailed on a blockade-runner for France, where she was received with great respect and had a private audience with Napoleon III. Having placed little Rose in a convent in Paris, she enjoyed a social triumph in London and was presented to Queen Victoria. Her book, My Imprisonment, attracted much favorable attention. It was said that she was betrothed to a peer and planned to make her permanent home in England. In August, 1864, she sailed on a trip to the Confederacy on the steamer, Condor, which ran the blockade off Wilmington, N. C., on the night of September 30. In the darkness, the Condor hit a bar, and stuck fast. Fearful of the Federal ships, Mrs. Greenhow and two Confederate agents asked to be set ashore. As their boat was lowered into the surf, it was overturned by a wave. Mrs. Greenhow, weighted down by a bag of gold sovereigns which she had fastened around her waist, was drowned. Her body was washed ashore next day, and buried in Wilmington with the honors of war. Little Rose became an actress, and later married and settled in California.

  GRIMES, JAMES WILSON 1816–1872 In 1854, he became governor of Iowa, aligning himself with the opposition to slavery, and soon taking a stand on behalf of the new Republican party. He first took his seat in the United States Senate in 1859. He was chairman of the committee on the District of Columbia, and served on a number of other committees, including that on Naval Affairs, of which he became chairman in 1864. During Johnson’s impeachment trial, Grimes was one of seven Republican senators who had the courage to vote “Not guilty.” As a result of the strain, he suffered a stroke of paralysis, and was carried into the Senate Chamber to cast the ballot which brought on his head an avalanche of abuse, even in his home city of Burlington. He returned to Congress in the winter of 1868, but his failing health forced him to go abroad, and the following year he resigned.

  GWIN, WILLIAM McKENDREE 1805–1885 His term as a pro-slavery senator from California expired in March, 1861. Soon after, while on board a vessel in the Bay of Panama, he was arrested on charges of disloyalty. In 1863, he went to Paris, where he interested Napoleon III in a plan for establishing a settlement for Southerners in Mexico, but he was unsuccessful in enlisting the co-operation of Maximilian. After a second visit to Mexico in 1865, Gwin was arrested when he attempted to re-enter the United States, and was imprisoned for eight months. After his release, he went to New York, where he died in obscurity.

  HALLECK, HENRY WAGER 1815–1872 Born Oneida County, N. Y.; West Point, '39; lecturer and writer on military science. He served capably as an engineer and administrator on the Pacific Coast during the Mexican War; and resigned in 1854, with the rank of captain, to become a successful lawyer, mine director and railroad president in San Francisco. His works on international law proved his high attainments as a jurist. On Scott’s recommendation, he was made major-general in 1861, and in November was placed at the head of the Department of the West. His command was marked by administrative ability, conservatism on the slavery question and, early in 1862, by the victories of his subordinate generals. In March of that year, Halleck’s authority was greatly extended by the addition of the Departments of Kansas and Ohio to his command, thereafter known as the Department of the Mississippi. The only campaign in which he took active part was the advance on Corinth. He moved with exaggerated caution, and permitted Beauregard’s forces to escape. As general-in-chief (July, 1862-March, 1864) he devoted himself to military minutiae. Shortly after Lee’s surrender, Halleck was transferred from the post of national chief of staff to the command of the Division of the James, with headquarters at Richmond. He angered Sherman by issuing orders prejudicial to the latter general, after the Government’s rejection of his first terms to Johnston. Halleck later commanded on the Pacific a
nd in the South.

  HAMMOND, WILLIAM ALEXANDER 1828–1900 Born Annapolis, Maryland; graduated University of the City of New York, 1848; assistant Army surgeon, 1849. After ten years at frontier stations, he resigned to teach at the University of Maryland; but re-entered the service as assistant surgeon in 1861. Suspended as Surgeon General in 1863 and charged with irregularities in the award of contracts, Hammond appealed to the President to be restored to his position or tried by court-martial. After a session of many months, a military court found him guilty in the summer of 1864, and sentenced him to dismissal. His means had been exhausted by the expense of the trial, and only the financial help of medical friends enabled him to move from Washington. Hammond soon established himself as a leading physician in New York City, and was a pioneer in the practice and teaching of neurology, holding the professorship of nervous and mental diseases at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, and subsequently at the University of the City of New York. In 1878, his case was reviewed, the verdict of the court-martial was reversed, and he was honorably retired. In addition to numerous medical articles, Hammond was the author of several novels. The Son of Perdition, a fictional treatment of Judas Iscariot, published when he was seventy years old, attained considerable popularity.