Cullen Andrews Battle: A Man of Duty

Only known wartime photograph of Battle taken after August of 1863

       Cullen Andrews Battle was born in Powelton, Georgia in 1829. The son of a doctor, he moved with his family to Eufaula, Alabama at the age of seven. He graduated from the University of Alabama and studied law under John Gill Shorter. Shorter would become the governor of Alabama during the Civil War. Battle would become a lawyer and because of his eloquent speech would enter politics. He was a close friend of William Lowndes Yancey and became a strong secessionist. 

       When the war began, Battle became major of the 3rd Alabama Infantry. the regiment was sent to Virginia. Before seeing any action, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel of the unit. The regiment's colonel Tennent Lomax was killed at Seven Pines. Battle was slightly wounded in the same engagement, but was promoted to colonel. He led the 3rd Alabama at South Mountain and Sharpsburg. He was slightly wounded at both places, entering a hospital for only one day following Sharpsburg. His old law mentor, Governor Shorter had been campaigning hard behind the scenes for Battle's promotion. Shorter stated that Battle's gallantry was notorious within the army. 

       He would see only limited action during the Chancellorsville Campaign. In April of 1863, his horse reared and fell with him into a ditch injuring him severely. Two days later, while jumping another ditch, his back was wrenched badly on horseback. He was riding in an ambulance during the Chancellorsville Campaign. He performed well at Gettysburg, despite the fact that he was part of Edward O'Neal's disjointed assault. O'Neal was passed over for brigadier general and Battle was promoted on August 20, 1863. He would be absent November and December of that year with chronic bronchitis. 

       During the Overland Campaign, he led his brigade capably, but his best service would come in the Shenandoah Campaign of 1864 under Lieutenant General Jubal Early. He fought hard at Winchester and again at Cedar Creek. At the later battle, he was shot in the left knee, causing serious injury to the kneecap. Although the leg would be saved, he would get around on crutches for years. He would not recover in time to return to the war. 

       Following the war, he would again practice law, then move to North Carolina and edit a newspaper. He also became mayor of New Bern, North Carolina. He would die in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1905 of sepsis. He was 75 years old. He rests today in Virginia's second largest cemetery, Blandford Cemetery, Petersburg, Virginia. Battle was called a man of duty. His memoirs were published called Third Alabama: The Civil War Memoirs of Brigadier General Cullen Andrews Battle, CSA.

Grave of Cullen Andrews Battle

Henry Alexander Wise: It's the sound I want

Brigadier General Henry A. Wise

       One of the more interesting personalities in the Confederate Army was Henry Alexander Wise. He is often portrayed as a political general for that is just what he was, but he had some moments where he appeared to have some potential. I often tell a story about him that is quite comical and will include it at the end of the blog. 

       Henry Wise was born on December 3, 1806 in Drummondtown, Virginia. He graduated from Washington College (not to be confused with present day Washington and Lee College) in Pennsylvania. He became a lawyer and an outspoken supporter of states rights. An excellent public speaker, he soon became a congressman and then governor of Virginia. He was the governor during John Brown's raid and execution. Following the war, he would be taunted by Federal soldiers for allowing Brown to be executed. 

A young Henry Wise

       He did a lot to pull Virginia from the United States and into the Confederacy. He immediately offered to help the Confederate Army despite not having any military experience. His popularity meant Davis had little choice but to make him an officer. Davis appointed him a brigadier general on June 5, 1861. His brigade was sent to the mountains of Western Virginia and placed under Brigadier General John B. Floyd. This would prove to be a mistake because he and Floyd were old political enemies and would never get along. 
       Wise had a temper when he felt he was dishonored. Even the arrival of General Robert E. Lee couldn't force Wise to get along with Floyd. He repeatedly asked Davis for a transfer and received the transfer in September to Richmond without his brigade. He would be assigned to a district command in North Carolina. Soon after arriving, Wise realized that the area was under threat by Federal General Ambrose Burnside. He began feuding with his commander Benjamin Huger. Begging for reinforcements, Wise went to Richmond to appeal directly to Davis for troops without permission to leave his command. He was sent back to North Carolina without troops and on February 8, 1862, Roanoke Island fell to Burnside as he had predicted. Wise was exonerated for the loss.

Another Wartime photograph of Henry Wise. Though he is in his mid-fifties here he appears much older.

       Robert E. Lee would give Wise command of a brigade upon his return to Richmond. His brigade would see little action and people nicknamed his command "the Life Insurance Company." This frustrated Wise and he thirsted for action. His brigade was sent to South Carolina in the fall of 1863, but saw little action there. His brigade would return to Petersburg, Virginia in the spring of 1864. He was part of a failed attack near Port Walthall and became unpopular for criticizing his superiors although he received a good deal of blame for the failure. 

       When Grant's army approached Petersburg in June of 1864, Wise had his best day of the war. His defense was stubborn and helped save the town. In an effort to secure praise in the Richmond newspapers for his brigade's performance, he offended Major General Bushrod Johnson and was soon relieved of command. He would regain command in January of 1865. He cut his way through the trap at Saylor's Creek and was praised for his performance there by Robert E. Lee. Ironically, he would be given command of Bushrod Johnson's division for his performance. 

Another uniformed wartime photograph of Wise

       Wise would surrender the division at Appomattox with the rest of Lee's Army. Following the war, he would practice law in Richmond. He never asked for a pardon. He died of tuberculosis on September 12, 1876 at the age of 69. He rests today in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia, the "Arlington of the Confederacy." The war was especially hard on General Wise. He had nineteen relatives serve in the war. Of these, ten were wounded and two were killed. Among the killed was his son. It was reported that he looked sick during the war, his body thin, eyes sunken, but these losses had brought him closer to God. It was reported that he had extreme faith in Jesus his savior, but he does curse sometimes. 

Jerry and I at the grave of Henry Wise

       Now for the comical story I promised you. Early in the war, Wise had no military experience whatsoever. His brigade was posted in a forest. He ordered up his artillery to fire on the enemy. When the commander of the artillery protested that his cannon's wouldn't have much effect because of the tree's, Wise replied, "Damn the effect, it's the sound I want!"

Henry Wise stands second from right in this photograph with seven other Confederate generals. Lee sits second from left. James Conner stands at far left. Next to Conner stands Martin Gary, next to him is John Magruder, to the right is Robert Lilley, next to him is Pierre Beauregard, between Beauregard and Wise is Alexander Lawton. 

The Ultimate Civil Wargasm Part V

Jerry and myself inspecting the entrance to the Crater mine

       Before I begin this blog, I would like to correct a mistake I made in the last one. I mentioned that Brigadier General Samuel Garland was buried in Hollywood Cemetery. In fact, we visited the grave of General Garland in Lynchburg as you will see in this part of the story. The general buried in Richmond is Brigadier General William Edwin Starke who was killed at Antietam two days after General Garland died. 

       We arrived in Petersburg with plenty of time to visit the national battlefield there. The place is neat and one of the few major battlegrounds that I had yet to visit. I have several books on the Battle of the Crater and had been looking forward to this trip for years. Confederate Brigadier General Edward Porter Alexander visited Elliott's Salient and reported to General Lee that he believed the Federal's were mining there to explode the position and break through Confederate lines. A visiting British engineer laughed at Alexander and informed him there had never been a mine dug that far in history and that it was impossible. Alexander informed the British guest that these were Pennsylvania miners and they could accomplish such a feat, and they did. 

The Crater (for scale, that is me standing on the other side)

        Colonel Pleasants, who engineered the mine requested 12,000 pounds of powder, but General Meade only allowed the use of 8,000 pounds. Out of just over 300 South Carolina troops stationed in the small fort, 278 were killed when the explosion occurred. The Federal's charged the crater, yet the walls were almost 30 feet high and there was nowhere to go. Confederate soldiers converged on the scene and gathered around the top of the crater. It was like shooting fish in a barrel. One Confederate referred to it as a turkey shoot. The Battle of the Crater was a giant failure. The only results were 3,798 Union casualties and 1,491 Confederate. On our trip, I wanted to go down into the mine, but after visiting Shy's Hill last summer and getting eaten alive by chiggers, I decided it just wasn't worth it. Maybe I'll go back some day in the winter. 

       We left the battlefield and visited Blandford Cemetery to get three more generals. One problem, we forgot about General Cullen Andrews Battle of Alabama. I'm ashamed to admit that today. How does one forget a general from his own home state. (It had been a long trip is my excuse and I'm sticking with it.) To be honest, upon arrival, I thought this is gonna be easy. Blandford is a small church built in 1735 and is very deceiving. It looks like an extremely small cemetery until you pass the church. You can look across the field for almost a mile and there seem to be thousands of graves. It appears to be three times bigger than Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond. I said, "We're gonna be here a while." 

Mel in Blandford Cemetery with our Museum of the Confederacy stickers all over her back. It's a good thing she is a good sport.

       Melanie quickly located Brigadier General David Addison Weisiger which made me feel much better. We then located the grave of Major General William Mahone, the hero of the Battle of the Crater. The Confederacy could have fallen much earlier had it not been for the quick work of Mahone and his division.

       The next morning, we left Petersburg and headed toward Appomattox. We arrived and toured the new Museum of the Confederacy there and headed on over to Appomattox National Park. We got out of the car and started up the hill toward the courthouse. Melanie immediately passed us all. (According to her, she can only walk up hill if she walks at a very fast pace.) As she sped by me, Jerry said, "Look at that. Looks just like a Missouri saddle horse headed up the road."

       "Shut up," Melanie replied, "you like to ride it."

       It was the first time I saw Mel get the best of the Ole Man.

       Appomattox is a very sad place. To think of what all those brave boys went through for four long weary years and then be forced to march in and surrender is tormenting to us Southerners. Poor Jerry got choked up at Appomattox thinking of what occurred there. Jerry and I normally cut up all the time and this was one of those times when neither of us found any humor in the moment. 

The McLean House at Appomattox

       We left the sadness at Appomattox and headed to Lynchburg where we got the graves of Jubal Early, James Dearing, Robert Rodes, and of course Brigadier General Samuel Garland. We then headed home. It was the ultimate Civil Wargasm. Jerry still says he thinks about that trip daily and can't wait for the next one. I tell him I can't promise it will be that good next time. I have asked my wife several times and am asking her again just now. "What are the odds of me finding someone as interested and loves the Confederacy and its soldiers as much as I do in my own home town?" That is how I feel about my best "Civil War buddy" Jerry Smith. I truly hope you enjoyed the trip ole buddy.