Thursday, January 13, 2011

Two Tragic Families: Lincoln and Davis

       Not long ago, someone asked me what Lincoln and Davis had in common while serving as our Civil War presidents. I replied that they both lost sons during the war. Someone standing nearby asked in which battles did they die. I had to explain that neither died in combat because neither child was old enough to fight.
       Besides the tragic loss of a son during the war, both families understood the tragedy of losing children. Only one of Lincoln’s sons lived beyond the age of eighteen. Davis had only one child to live to see her fifties. 
       Davis lost his first wife after only three months of marriage to malaria. Sarah Knox Taylor was only twenty-one when she died. Lincoln was in love with a girl named Ann Rutledge in 1831 and there is evidence the two planned to marry. In 1835, Ann contracted typhoid fever and died. During thunderstorms, Lincoln would be seen collapsing upon her grave and people began to worry for his sanity.


Robert Todd Lincoln

       Lincoln’s oldest son was named Robert Todd Lincoln. He lived to the age of 82. He wasn’t very close to his mother or father and unlike his brothers, he’s not buried with the rest of the family in Springfield, Illinois. He rests today in Arlington Cemetery. 
       

Edward Baker Lincoln

       The Lincoln’s second son was named Edward Baker “Eddie” Lincoln. He died in 1850 at the age of four. His death was listed as consumption, but many today believe he died of thyroid cancer. 


William Wallace Lincoln

       They’re third child was named William Wallace “Willie” Lincoln. Willie was Lincoln’s favorite, although many considered him a mama’s boy. Willie was intelligent and likable. During the Civil War, drinking water was taken straight from the Potomac River to the White House. Ironically, the Potomac River also served as the city’s septic tank. Willie and his younger brother Tad both caught typhoid fever from drinking feces contaminated water. Tad would survive the disease. Willie lingered a few weeks before succumbing. Lincoln was devastated. Twice, Lincoln had Willie disinterred so he could view his little boys body. Mary Lincoln probably suffered a nervous breakdown from the boys death. 


Thomas Lincoln

       Thomas Lincoln was three years younger than Willie. Lincoln nicknamed him “Tad” because he was born with such a large head. Tad was closer to his father due to the fact he had a learning disability and had a severe speech impediment. Some have suggested the boy may have been mildly retarded as he didn’t learn to read or dress himself until he was twelve years old. Tad would only outlive his father by six years, dying at the age of eighteen from tuberculosis.
       Life wasn’t very kind to the Davis household either. Samuel Emory Davis, the first born of Jefferson and Varina would die in 1854 at the age of two from measles. 
       

Margaret Howell Davis

       Margaret Howell Davis was born next and she lived to be 53 years old. She was the longest living child of Jefferson Davis. The cause of her death has never been established.
       

Jeff Davis, Jr.

       The third child, Jefferson Davis, Jr., was born in 1857. The boy was care free and entertaining. Davis and his wife had a difficult time with the boy. Jeff, Sr., had him taken out of the Virginia Military Institute because he fully expected him to be expelled. Margaret’s husband managed to get him a job as a bank clerk in Memphis, Tennessee. He would die there in a yellow fever epidemic at the age of twenty-one.
       The fourth child was Joseph Evan Davis was born in 1857 and this was the child that the Davis family lost during the war. He was only four years old when playing on the east portico of the White House of the Confederacy, he slipped and fell fifteen feet onto the concrete below. His skull was fractured near the forehead and he died a few moments later. Varina and Jefferson were heartbroken. Joseph was Jefferson’s favorite because he was very intelligent. Rumors abounded that Jeff, Jr., had pushed him, but nothing was ever proven. The children of Richmond raised forty dollars to buy a headstone to Joseph. Davis had the portico removed.
       

William Howell Davis

       They’re fifth child was named William Howell Davis, born in 1861. He would die of diphtheria at only ten years old. They’re last child was named Varina Anne “Winnie” Davis. She would live to adulthood, dying at age 34 of malaria having never married. She is famously known as the “Daughter of the Confederacy”. 


Varina Anne Davis

       It would be difficult to imagine losing a child, but these two families tragically outlived most of their children. It must have been horrible for both of them.


Marker for Joseph Davis, paid for by the children of Richmond











Monday, January 10, 2011

Benjamin Hardin Helm and wife: The Lincoln Connection


Confederate General Ben Hardin Helm

       Benjamin Hardin Helm, called Ben, was born in Kentucky in 1831. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1851, finishing ninth out of forty-two cadets. His high class ranking managed to obtain him a commission in the cavalry. After six months of service he was forced to resign his commission because of poor health and returned to Kentucky where he became an attorney. He eventually was elected to the Kentucky State Legislature. 
       In 1856, Helm married Emilie Todd, the half-sister of Mary Todd, who became Mary Todd, wife of Abraham Lincoln. Emilie was eighteen years younger than Mary Todd Lincoln and was just a child when the two married. For the rest of his life, Abraham Lincoln referred to Emilie as “Little Sister”. 
       

Emilie Todd

       Helm was an officer in the Kentucky militia when the Civil War began. He was commissioned colonel of the 1st Kentucky Cavalry Regiment after refusing an offer to be made a major in the United States Army by his brother-in-law Abraham Lincoln. 
       Ben Helm was promoted to brigadier general just before the Battle of Shiloh, although he missed that engagement. At the Battle of Baton Rouge he was severely wounded when his horse reared and fell backward onto him, shattering his left leg. His wife’s brother Aleck was killed in the same action. The entire affair occurred because of troops blundering around in the darkness, nervous and too ready to open fire, expecting the enemy to be everywhere. 


Wartime photo of Benjamin Helm

       He spent the next three months recovering from his wound. After Roger Hanson was killed at Murfreesboro, Helm received command of the “Orphan Brigade” of Kentucky infantry. Helm believed in drill, but was a more approachable man than Hanson had been. Thus, his men loved him and no other commander of the brigade was ever loved as much as Ben Helm. 
       At the Battle of Chickamauga he lead the brigade in a disjointed attack. Three separate charges were made and during the last charge Helm was hit in the left side by rifle fire. His brigade had lost 500 of the 1400 men engaged and were forced to fall back. He was carried to the rear and the wound was inspected by a surgeon. Helm asked the doctor, “Is there any hope?”
       The surgeon replied, “My dear General, there is no hope!”


Monument marking the site where Helm received his fatal wound

       He lay there for several hours waiting for the inevitable. After dark, he heard cheering coming from the front. When he asked what it meant, he was told the Confederate Army had carried the day. Helm repeated to himself over and over again, “Victory!” They were his last words. 
       

Benjamin Helm, Lincoln's favorite brother-in-law

       Benjamin Hardin Helm was buried in Atlanta, Georgia, but twenty years after the war was over his remains were removed to Kentucky. He rests today in the Helm Family Cemetery, Elizabethtown, Kentucky. 
       

Military marker with Helm's last words


Helm's original marker

       After Lincoln heard of Helm’s death, Illinois Senator David Davis wrote: “I never saw Lincoln more moved than when he learned of the death of his young brother-in-law Ben Hardin Helm, only thirty-two years old, at Chickamauga. I called to see him…finding him in the greatest grief so I closed the door and left him alone.”
       Lincoln invited Helm’s widow Emilie to the White House to spend the winter. The trip was very peaceful, there was no fighting or blaming the other over the sides each had taken. Emilie’s daughter Katie and Mary’s son Tad often argued over who was president. Tad insisted that his father was the president and Katie insisted it was Jefferson Davis. 
       On another occasion New York Senator Ira Harris was visiting the White House and entered a room with Emilie and Mary sitting together. Harris stared at Emilie and said, “Well, we have whipped the rebels at Chattanooga and I hear, madam, that the scoundrels ran like scared rabbits.”
       Emilie immediately replied, “It was the example, Senator Harris, that you set them at Bull Run and Manassas.”
       The senator realized that he had met his match, so he turned on Mary Lincoln, asking, “Why isn’t Robert (the Lincoln’s oldest son) in the army? He is old enough and strong enough to serve his country. He should have gone to the front some time ago.”
       Mary turned the tables on him at once, saying, “It is my fault. He is desperate to join up, but I told him an educated man can serve his country with more intelligent purpose than an ignoramus.”
       She was basically calling Harris an ignoramus and this infuriated him even more. 
       “I have only one son and he is fighting for his country,” Harris then turned to Emilie and said, “and Madam, if I had twenty sons they should all be fighting the rebels.”
       “And if I had twenty sons, Senator Harris, they should all be opposing yours,” Emilie replied. 
       Senator Harris realized when he had been bested and immediately left the room. General Sickles, a fellow citizen of New York and friend of the senator witnessed the entire scene. He went straight to President Lincoln and told him to get that rebel out of the White House. Lincoln told Sickles that he and his wife would choose their guests without any input from others. 
       Abraham Lincoln pardoned Emilie and allowed her to return to Kentucky. She then sent a request to send clothing to freezing Confederate prisoners at Camp Douglas Prison in Chicago. Lincoln thought this was a disloyal act and ordered that she be arrested if she was indeed aiding the Confederacy. She would never speak to her brother-in-law or sister Mary again.
       Emilie Todd would survive her husband by sixty-six years, dying at the age of 93 in 1930 of a heart attack. Just before her death, her daughter found her burning her diary and asked why she would do such a thing. Emilie replied, “There is just too much bitterness in it.” 


Emilie in old age

       She rests today in Lexington Cemetery, Lexington, Kentucky with other members of the Todd family. One wonders why she wasn’t buried beside her husband who she loved so dearly.


Grave of Emilie Todd Helm





Sunday, January 9, 2011

An Ohio General Loses His Coat


Joshua Woodrow Sill

       Joshua Woodrow Sill was born in 1831 in Chillicothe, Ohio. His father was an attorney who obtained the young Sill and appointment to West Point. He was quite an academic student, managing to finish third in a class of 52 cadets. Because of his high rank, he was able to earn an assignment in the ordnance department and was stationed in New York. Later, he was assigned an instructor at the United States Military Academy. 
       Just as the Civil War was breaking out, he resigned his commission to become a college professor. When the South opened fire on Fort Sumter, Sill resigned his position and offered his services to the state of Ohio. He was commissioned colonel of the 33rd Ohio Infantry Regiment. 
       He saw little action before being promoted to brigadier general in Phil Sheridan’s division. He and Sheridan became best friends during the time he commanded the brigade. His first major engagement was at the Battle of Stones’ River, called the Battle of Murfreesboro by the Confederate troops. 


Philip Sheridan

       The day before the battle opened, Sheridan called a conference with his brigade commanders. When the conference ended, Sill mistakenly put on Sheridan’s coat and Sheridan put on Sill’s coat. Thus during the battle of the next day, both men were wearing the others coat. 
       The Confederates struck Sheridan’s part of the battle line about 7:15 the next morning. The Southern troops charged right up to the muzzles of the Federal guns before breaking. Sill’s men in turn charged the retreating Confederate troops. Sill charged forward with his men and fell dead, a bullet passing through his upper lip and lodging somewhere in his brain. He was wearing Sheridan’s coat at the time of his death.
       The Confederate troops were extremely proud of having killed Joshua Sill. He had allegedly committed numerous acts of cruelty on the women, children and old men behind Federal lines just days before the battle. Confederate General Braxton Bragg stated that Sill’s body was captured and decently buried in the town of Murfreesboro which was more than the man deserved. 
       According to Federal soldiers, Joshua Sill was loved, admired, and respected more than any other officer in the army. Sheridan later named a fort in Oklahoma after Joshua Sill. Fort Sill is still the largest Artillery depot in the world. 


Monument to Sill located at Fort Sill in Oklahoma

       Joshua Sill was later removed from Murfreesboro and today rests in Grandview Cemetery, Chillicothe, Ohio. He was thirty-one years old. 


Joshua Sill's gravesite


Friday, January 7, 2011

Boy Hero Of The Confederacy


Sam Davis

       Samuel Davis was born in 1842 near Smyrna, Tennessee. At age nineteen he left home to attend the Nashville Military Academy which was only about twelve miles from his home. When the Civil War began, he joined Company I, 1st Tennessee Infantry. He saw action near Cheat Mountain in Virginia under General Robert E. Lee.
       His regiment was sent back to Tennessee. Davis was slightly wounded at the Battle of Shiloh and wounded more seriously at Perryville. After recovering he joined a cavalry company called Coleman’s Scouts. This small group of soldiers operated behind enemy lines around Nashville and provided information to Confederate General Braxton Bragg. These men always wore their military uniforms which distinguished them from spies. The Federal army considered these men such a nuisance that they refused to treat them as soldiers. Federal General Granville Dodge ordered his men to kill all the scouts they could find. 


Sam Davis boyhood home

       Sam went home to visit his family in 1863 and on the return trip to join his command was captured by Federal forces under Dodge. He wore his uniform which should have given him a prisoner of war status. Davis was also carrying mail directed to the Army of Tennessee. Dodge charged him with carrying mail to persons in arms against the Federal government and of being a spy. Sam pled guilty to the first charge, but denied being a spy as he was captured in uniform. Of course, he was found guilty on both counts and sentenced to be hanged. 


Sam's boot cut open by Federal troops to find the papers he carried

       He was offered a chance to save his life if he would give information about Coleman’s Scouts. He refused, saying, “I would rather die than betray a friend or be false to duty. If I had a thousand lives to live, I would give them all rather than betray a friend.”
       Before his execution, he wrote to his mother: “Dear mother. O how painful it is to write you! I have got to die to-morrow --- to be hanged by the Federals. Mother, do not grieve for me. I must bid you good-bye forevermore. Mother, I do not fear to die. Give my love to all.” And to his father, he wrote: "Father, you can send after my remains if you want to do so. They will be at Pulaski, Tenn. I will leave some things with the hotel keeper for you."
       

Sam Davis Memorial on his hanging site

       He rode to the hanging site sitting atop his coffin in an army wagon. The Federal soldiers escorting Sam, begged him to cooperate so they wouldn’t have to see him hanged. Arriving atop the hill just outside of town, a noose was placed around his neck. It was his twenty-first birthday. The officer in command of the hanging had trouble performing the awful task because Sam looked so young. Sam told the man, “Officer, I did my duty. Now you do yours.”
       The Boy Hero of the Confederacy rests today behind his boyhood home in Smyrna, Tennessee. In a future blog I will tell the sad story of his cousin, also a member of Coleman's Scouts.


Stone marking the exact spot where he was executed


Sam Davis grave


A close up of his tombstone





Thursday, January 6, 2011

A Vision Across The Miles


Confederate Brigadier General States Rights Gist

       Confederate Brigadier General States Rights Gist was standing on Winstead Hill just south of the town of Franklin on November 30, 1864. He was busy trying to convince his servant Wiley to saddle his horse “Joe Johnston” for the coming charge because his other horse “Kitty“ was broken down. Wiley tried his best to persuade Gist not to ride this particular horse, saying, “Marse States, you ain’t got no business riding Joe. Joe ain’t got no sense when the bullets come around.”
       Gist had no choice because “Kitty” was stumbling as she walked. He replied, “He’ll just have to get used to the bullets.”
       Gist also realized the danger the frontal assault would present. He told his servant, “Wiley, you take charge of my money, my watch and ring. I might get tripped up this evening. Use what money you need, and if anything happens, take the watch and ring to my wife.”
       

Photo of Gist in the South Carolina Militia

       At that same moment almost four hundred miles away, General Gist’s brother Nathaniel lay of his deathbed with a fever. Their sister Sarah sat next to the bed attempting to make him as comfortable as possible. Nathaniel Gist had gotten typhoid fever while bringing the body of a dead relative from the front lines home for burial. 
       Nathaniel appeared to be getting delirious from his high fever. He stared at the ceiling as if he were seeing something happening far away. Suddenly, he announced, “Sarah, States has been killed in battle this afternoon.”
       Everyone present in the room became unnerved by the announcement. There was no reason to believe States Gist had even been in a battle, much less killed. He’d made it through three years of war with only a few minor wounds. Sarah attempted to calm Nathaniel. She was sure it was only the fever. 
       She said, “No, States is all right, your only dreaming.”
       Nathaniel refused to be comforted. He continued in his delirium, determined that his younger brother was dead. Finally, he announced, “I know that States is dead.”
       Back in Tennessee, States Rights Gist was leading his brigade of South  Carolina troops forward in one of the bloodiest assaults in the history of this country. Gist’s horse “Joe” was shot through the neck and began to plunge so wildly that the general was forced to dismount. 
       States then charged forward on foot leading his men. As they approached the Federal line, Gist was hit in the thigh by rifle fire. He refused to leave the field and was determined to share the fate of his men. As they reached the Federal breastworks, Gist was hit in the chest, a bullet passing through his left lung. He was in intense pain and as he was carried from the field, his last words were to one of his staff officers, “Lieutenant Trenholm, take me home to my wife.” 
       

Janie Gist

       He died at a field hospital at 8:30 p.m. His servant Wiley heard that Gist had been wounded and went in search of him. He asked a local lady if he could bury Gist in her yard and she was only too happy to provide a place for the great man. His wife, Janie Gist had his body brought back to South Carolina in 1866 and he rests there today in Trinity Episcopal Church Cemetery, Columbia, South Carolina. 
       Nathaniel survived his brother by only nine days. He rests in Fair Forest Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Jonesville, South Carolina. How he could possibly know his brother was dying in battle is a mystery. Perhaps when one is that close to death, he can sense things about those he loves so much.



Grave of States Rights Gist

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Clay Allison: Civil War Soldier Turned Gunfighter


A young Clay Allison

       Robert Clay Allison was born in 1840 in Waynesboro, Tennessee. Like Jesse James, Allison’s father was also a minister, but died when he was only five years old. At some point in his childhood he received a blow to the head that left a depression in his skull. This may explain why he suffered from wild mood swings and a very short temper that only got worse the older he became. 
       He was described as tall with an perfect posture and dark complexioned. He appeared to be a gentleman until one of his mood swings struck. Allison was also noted to have no fear of any man. 
       Although Clay Allison was born with a club foot, it didn’t prevent him from joining the Confederate army when the Civil War began. He enlisted in the Tennessee Light Artillery. Several times he threatened to kill his superior officers for not pursuing retreating enemy troops. 
       His commanding officers were probably looking for an excuse to get rid Clay, because he was medically discharged from the artillery for “emotional or physical excitement of a mixed character, partly epileptic and partly maniacal.” When Clay drank, this condition only became worse.
       Nine months after being discharged, Clay Allison enlisted in the 9th Tennessee Cavalry. He managed to serve the rest of the war without being discharged for his condition. He soon became a scout for General Nathan Bedford Forrest and grew his mustache and beard in the same manner. He would keep this look for the rest of his life. 


Allison in his Bedford Forrest style beard and mustache

       When Forrest surrendered his command at the end of the war, Allison wasn’t treated as a prisoner of war, but charged as a spy by the Federal army. He was then sentenced to be shot. The night before his scheduled execution, he killed his guard and escaped. 
       He returned to Waynesboro, Tennessee and joined the Ku Klux Klan. When a Union soldier arrived to seize the Allison’s property, he shot and killed the man. The Allison family then moved to Texas where he became a rancher. 
       It is believed he killed a neighbor with a bowie knife in a quarrel over the use of a waterhole. When a man named Charles Kennedy was arrested for robbery, Clay broke into the jail, tied a rope around the mans neck and dragged him behind his horse until he was dead. He then cut Kennedy’s head off and carried it to the St. James Hotel where he placed it on a post. 
       

St. James Hotel where Allison carried Kennedy's head

       In 1871, in an attempt to steal government mules, he accidentally shot himself in the foot. Chunk Colbert, a gunfighter with six kills came looking for Clay. He bragged that Clay Allison would be his seventh kill. Colbert found Clay and together they went to dinner. After eating, Colbert drew his gun beneath the table and fired. The bullet struck the table and deflected away from Clay. Clay then drew his pistol and shot Colbert in the head. When asked why he had accepted a meal with Colbert, Clay replied, “Because I didn’t want to send a man to hell on an empty stomach.”


Clay Allison after shooting himself in the foot

       Colbert’s friend Charles Cooper went missing two weeks after the murder and many blamed Allison, but no evidence was ever found to support this claim. 
       Franklin Tolby, a minister and friend of Clay Allison was found shot in the back during the Colfax War and Allison decided to settle the matter himself. He then led a lynch mob that hung a Mexican named Cruz Vega that he believed was guilty of killing the minister. Vega was hanged, but told that his uncle  Francisco "Pancho" Griego was actually behind the murder. 
       Later that day, Francisco Griego arrived at a saloon where Allison was drinking. He attempted to draw his pistol, but Allison was too fast for him and shot twice killing him instantly. 
       In 1876, Allison killed a deputy sheriff who had shot his brother John while trying to disarm the two men at a local dance. His brother would recover and both men would be released because the shooting was thought to have been in self defense. 
       

Clay Allison two years before his death

       This would be the last killing by Allison. He would soon move to Missouri and bragged that he had killed fifteen men. In 1887, he fell from his wagon and the wheels rolled across his neck nearly decapitating him. He was forty-seven years old. He rests today in Pecos Cemetery, Pecos, Texas. He is famous for once remarking, “I never killed a man that didn’t need killing.”


Confederate tombstone for Clay Allison





Sunday, January 2, 2011

Who is Richard Brooke Garnett


Long believed to be a photo of Richard Brooke Garnett

       Richard Brooke Garnett came from a famous Virginia family. His cousin Robert Selden Garnett was the first Confederate general to die in the Civil War. Like his cousin Robert, Richard attended West Point and was serving in the United States Army when the war began. When Virginia seceded from the Union, he immediately resigned his commission and entered Confederate service.
       He is now known as a hero because of his bravery at Gettysburg, but that wasn’t always the case. Being a Virginian, he rose to take command of the famed “Stonewall Brigade” and his career took a turn for the worse after the Battle of Kernstown. Jackson had received bad intelligence and attacked a Federal force twice the size of his own. Garnett’s brigade found itself being overwhelmed and running low on ammunition. In order to save his men, he ordered a retreat. 
       General Jackson was so infuriated by the action that he had Garnett arrested, accusing him of cowardice in the face of the enemy and neglect of duty. The entire episode is a black mark on the career of Stonewall Jackson. Garnett had undoubtedly done the right thing, but Jackson had accomplished his goal. None of his subordinates would ever retreat again without orders. (Ironically, Garnett didn’t hold a grudge against Jackson. He believed the entire incident was a huge misunderstanding and after Jackson was killed at Chancellorsville he served as a pallbearer in his funeral.)
       General Robert E. Lee released Garnett from arrest and placed him in command of George Pickett’s brigade of Virginians. All  General Garnett wanted was a chance to redeem his honor. In command of his new brigade, he saw minor action at Antietam, was held in reserve at Fredericksburg and missed Chancellorsville entirely. 
       Needless to say, Richard Garnett wasn’t a happy man when he arrived at Gettysburg. He had been kicked by a horse a few days earlier and was unable to walk. He was running a high fever, wearing a coat in the hot July sun because of chills. Lee ordered all officers to walk during “Pickett’s Charge” because of the target a man on horseback would make. Garnett couldn’t walk and refused to miss the battle for fear he would be called a coward again. 
       Richard Garnett would ride his large black horse “Red Eye” to just in front of the clump of trees. Garnett never pulled his sword, but cheered his men forward with the black felt hat he wore. At some point    he was hit by canister fire, some say in the waist. His blood covered horse was seen galloping toward the rear. 


Death site of Richard Garnett

       Richard Brooke Garnett was never seen again. Years later, his sword was found in a Baltimore pawn shop by Confederate General George Hume Steuart.


Garnett's sword

       The mystery of General Garnett only began with the finding of his sword. There is a picture long thought to be that of Richard Brooke Garnett, but many believe that picture is of his cousin Robert Selden Garnett who was killed at Corrick’s Ford. According to a family member Garnett was the opposite of his cousin, having blonde hair, blue eyes and no beard. This family member wrote this description in 1908 and many historians believe he never met Richard Garnett. Interestingly, the family of Richard Garnett identified the original photograph as that of the general at the time of the war. Why would they identify the original photograph as Richard if the photograph is indeed Robert. 


Robert Selden Garnett

       To further complicate the matter, many believe that a photograph labeled as Confederate Major General Franklin Gardner is actually a picture of Richard Garnett. The matter became even more complicated a couple of years ago when a photograph surfaced with Richard Garnett’s name on the back. It shows a blonde haired gentleman that looks nothing like Robert Selden Garnett. Another historian believes this photograph is actually Confederate congressman Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett of Virginia. 


Confederate General Franklin Gardner


Photograph labeled Franklin Gardner that many believe is that of Richard Garnett


Mystery Photograph with Richard Garnett's name on the back

       Prior to the Civil War, Garnett had a son by an Oglala Souix woman. They named the boy William “Billy” Garnett and there are several photographs of him in existence. Many historians try to take this photograph and compare them to the three photographs claimed by many to be Richard in order to figure out which is the famed general. 


Billy Garnett

       Garnett’s body was never found following the grand charge and many believe he was probably reinterred with the Confederate dead of Gettysburg in Hollywood Cemetery. The question still remains, which of these three are Richard Brooke Garnett or is it possible he never had a photograph taken that survived. We may never know. 


Monument in Hollywood Cemetery for Richard Brooke Garnett