From An Old Albany Family

Union Brigadier General Henry Bell Van Rensselaer a New York State Representative and Congressman, died March 23^rd 1864.

Henry Bell Van Rensselaer was born May 14^th 1810 at the family manor in Albany, New York, the son of Stephen and Margaret (Schuyler) Van Rensselaer III.  He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1831.  He served in the 5^th United States Infantry until January 27^th 1832, when he resigned his commission.  Van Rensselaer then settled near Ogdensburg, New York to be a gentleman farmer and serve as the military aide to New York State Governor William H Seward.  Running as a Whig, he was elected to Congress, serving from 1841 to 1843.

When the Civil War started Van Rensselaer rejoined the military, with the rank of Colonel, he was appointed to Chief of Staff for Union General Winfield Scott.  He served as the Union Inspector General from November 1861 until his death.  Van Rensselaer died March 23^rd 1863 in Cincinnati, Ohio.  He is buried in the Grace Episcopal Churchyard in Jamaica, Queens, New York.

Providing Information

One of the first orders that Union Major General Joseph Hooker made after becoming the commander of the Army of the Potomac was on February 11^th 1863, creating the Bureau of Military Information.

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, run by Allan Pinkerton assumed responsibility for President Abraham Lincoln’s safety in 1861.  Pinkerton also provided intelligence for Union General George B McClellan.  General Winfield Scott hired Lafayette C Baker a detective for information.  Lincoln himself paid a publisher; William A Lloyd to infiltrate the Confederacy and provide information.  In all these cases though, these men were civilians.

When Union Major General Joseph Hooker became the commander of the Army of the Potomac, he ordered his deputy provost marshal Colonel George H Sharpe to create an intelligence unit.  Sharpe received assistance from John C Babcock; a former Pinkerton employee and they established the Bureau of Military Information [the BMI] on February 11^th 1863.

The BMI had about 70 field agents during the, 10 of whom were killed during the war.  These and additional agents preformed interrogations, scanned confederate newspapers and captured documents for information that could be helpful to the Union war effort.  Union General Ulysses S Grant kept BMI staff in his headquarters, so he would have the most recent information.

The BMI ceased to be once the Civil War came to an end in 1865. 

From Bangor To Washington

Union President Abraham Lincoln extended the reach of the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus on October 14^th 1861.

Near the beginning of the Civil War Union President Abraham Lincoln ordered a suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus in Maryland and parts of the Midwestern states.  This was in response to the arrest by Union troops in Maryland of secessionist John Merryman, whom Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B Taney ordered released under a writ of habeas corpus.  Lincoln and the military ignored the ruling.

On October 14^th 1861 Lincoln expanded the suspension with this written order:

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL WINFIELD SCOTT:

The military line of the United States for the suppression of the insurrection may be extended so far as Bangor, in Maine. You and any officer acting under your authority are hereby authorized to suspend the writ of habeas corpus in any place between that place and the city of Washington.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.

A Block Of The Coast

President Abraham Lincoln declared a blockade April 19th 1861, a part of Union General Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan.


The Union Navy maintained a blockade along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the Confederate States between 1861 and 1865. President Abraham Lincoln put the blockade into effect on April 19th 1861. The blockade was part of plan designed by Union General Winfield Scott known as the Anaconda Plan. The blockade included the closure of 3,500 miles of coast line and 12 ports within the Confederacy. The blockade was supposed to keep the Confederacy from getting supplies and arms. Ships, mostly new, and high speed known as blockade runners tried to evade the blockade, they ran between the Confederate ports and the neutral ports of Bahamas, Bermuda, Cuba, Havana, and Nassau. The Union Navy commissioned 500 ships. These Union ships captured or destroyed around 1,500 blockade runners during the war. The blockade cut Confederate cotton exports by 95% during this time.

What To Do With Texas

Union General David E Twiggs surrendered Texas on February 18th 1861.

The Texas Secession Convention made a decision to withdraw from the United States on February 1st 1861. At that point the United States’ Department of Texas had twenty military posts strung out through the state. These posts held about 2,100 soldiers. Union General David E Twiggs was the commander of the Department of Texas. Twiggs understanding the anti-Union feeling in Texas, wrote to his commander General Winfield Scott on December 13th 1860 looking for instructions as to what to do in the event of secession, and was told only not to wage war. Twiggs wrote again on December 27th 1860, and then again about a week latter, "Texas will certainly go out of the Union the latter part of this month. I respectfully ask instructions as to what disposition will be made of troops now in this department... arrangements should be made at once..." After still not getting instructions Twiggs wrote the adjutant general on January 20th 1861, telling him that since the government did not wish him to wage war against Texas, he would surrender all government property if the Governor of Texas demanded it.

About a thousand armed Texans surrounded Twiggs’ garrison at San Antonio on February 18th 1861. They forced Twiggs to surrender. The Texans allowed the Union soldiers to leave Texas with their arms. However the Confederate government of Texas took possession of $1.6 million dollars of United State property, this included 20 military installation, 1,900 muskets, 950 horses, 500 wagons, 400 pistols, 44 cannon, and 2 ammunition magazines. Because Twiggs surrendered his command in Texas, he was branded a traitor. President James Buchanan dismissed Twiggs from the Union Army on March 1st 1861. Ten weeks latter Twiggs excepted a commission in the Confederate Army as a Major General.

Old Reliable Resigns

Confederate General William Joseph Hardee resigned his United State Army commission on January 31st 1861.

William Joseph Hardee the son of Major John and Sarah [Ellis] Hardee, he was born October 12th 1815 at his families home in Camden County, Georgia. He attended the United State Military Academy at West Point, graduating 26 out of a class of 45 in 1838. Hardee was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 2nd United States Dragoons. The Army sent him to France in 1840 to study military tactics. During the Mexican - American War Hardee was serving under General Zachary Taylor when he was captured at Carricitos Ranch, Texas. After being exchanged on May 11th 1846 he served under General Winfield Scott and was wounded at La Rosia, Mexico in 1847. He wrote “Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics” [known as “Hardee’s Tactics”] in 1855. Hardee returned to West Point where he taught tactics and served from 1856 to 1860 as commandant of cadets.

When Georgia seceded from the United States, Hardee resigned his commission on January 31st 1861. He became at Colonel in the Confederate States Army on March 7th 1861, with command of Fort Morgan in Alabama. Hardee was made a Lieutenant General October 10th 1862. His assignment was to organize an Arkansas regiment. Do to his seeing that his men were well supplied, they nicked named him “Old Reliable”. Hardee was a Corps commander in General Albert Sidney Johnston’s Army of Mississippi during the Battle of Shiloh, where he was wounded. His Corps was defeated by Union Major General George Henry Thomas during their assault on Missionary Ridge as part of the Battle of Chickamauga. Hardee was in the Battle of Bentonville in March 1865, where his only son 16 year old William was mortally wounded. Hardee surrendered to Union General William Tecumseh Sherman at Durham Station April 26th 1865.

Following the war Hardee went back to his wife’s plantation in Alabama. He latter moved to Selma, Alabama where Hardee worked in insurance and warehousing. He would become the president of the Selma and Meridian railroad, and co-author the book “The Irish in America” in 1868. Hardee took sick while with his family on vacation in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and died November 6th 1873 in Wytherville, Virginia. He is buried in the Live Oak Cemetery in Selma, Alabama.

A New York Confederate

Archibald Gracie III part of the wealthy New York state family of that name, and a Confederate Brigadier General died December 2nd 1864.


Archibald Gracie III was born December 1st 1832 in New York. After a local education, Gracie spent five years in Germany studying at University of Heidelberg. He returned to the United State with an appointment to West Point. Gracie graduated from the military academy in 1854. His first assignment as a Second Lieutenant was to escort Governor Isaac Stevens to the Walla Walla Council in 1855. He married the niece of General Winfield Scott, Josephine Mayo on November 19th 1856. Gracie resigned from the military in 1857, he went to work Barings Bank of Mobile, a family joined business. While living in Mobile Alabama Gracie became a member and Captain of the Washington Light Infantry.

When the Civil War started and Alabama seceded, Gracie joined the Confederate Army. In June 1861 he became the Major of the 11th Alabama Regiment, leading a small company of sharpshooters. He received several promotions for his conduct during battle and leadership skills, and was a Brigadier General by the end of 1862. Gracie’s command served under General James Longstreet at the Battle of Bean’s Station, where he was wounded in the arm. After recovering he went back to lead his men. Beginning in July 1864 Gracie was serving in Petersburg Virginia as part of the Siege of Petersburg.

Gracie received a message on his birthday December 1st 1864 that his second child had been born. He planned a short leave to go home and see her. On December 2nd 1864, he was looking at the Union lines when an artillery shell exploded near him, breaking his neck and killing him. He is buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in New York City.

One Of Four Generals

An Officer in the United States Cavalry William Selby Harney died May 9th 1889.


William Selby Harney was born August 27th 1800 in Haysboro Davidson Tennessee. While visiting his brother Dr Benjamin F Harney who was an Army Surgeon in Baton Rouge Louisiana in 1817 met some high military officers. Harney was so impressed by these men that he worked to get a commission to Second Lieutenant through President James Monroe. He began his military carrer in the 1st Unites States Infantry under Andrew Jackson. He saw action in the Seminole and Blackhawk Wars. With an appointment to Colonel with command of the 2nd Dragoons he was a member of General Winfield Scott’s Army at the Battle of Cerro Gordo during the Mexican American War. After this Harney found himself fighting Indians in the west, at the Battle of Ash Hollow and with a then Captain George E Pickett serving under him in the Dept of Oregon.

Harney received a promotion to Brigadier General June 14th 1856 and was one of the only four generals serving in the regular army at the start of the Civil War [the other three being Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, and Brigadier Generals John E Wool and Edwin Vose Sumner]. He was in command of the Department of the West, stationed in St Louis Missouri at the out break of the Civil War. Although Missouri vowed neutrality at the beginning of the war, the “Camp Jackson Affair” where Union General Nathaniel Lyon captured some Missouri State Militia, and fired on a crowd, causing the Missouri General Assembly to authorize attacks on any Army North or South end the neutrality. Harney struck a deal with the Missouri State Guard and Governor Claiborne Jackson to remain neutral and finaly to swear allegiance to the Union. Harney was ordered to Washington DC April 1861 over the affair and was captured by Confederates at Harper’s Ferry Virginia on the way. The Confederates offered him a command, he refused it but found himself relieved of command when he reached Washington and was replaced by Lyon. Harney retired from military service in 1863.

Harney died May 9th 1889 in Orlando Florida. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Oldest Officer

Union General Edwin Vose Sumner died March 21st 1863, he was the oldest field commander on either side during the Civil War.

Edwin Vose Sumner was born January 30th 1797 in Boston, Massachusetts the son of Elisha and Nancy [Vose] Sumner. He got his education at Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts. After trying a career in retail in Tory, New York in 1819 he entered the United States Army. By January 25th 1825 he had been promoted to First Lieutenant.

Sumner served in the Black Hawk War and other Indian campaigns. In 1833 he was promoted again to Captain in command of Company B of the First United States Dragoons. In 1838 Sumner was instructing cavalry at the Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. During the Mexican American War received two brevet for bravery to the rank of Colonel. He would serve as the Military Governor of the New Mexico Territory from 1851 to 1853. Sumner was at Fort Leavenworth Kansas in 1856 during the time known as “Bleeding Kansas”. He was assigned by Lieutenant General Winfield Scott to accompany Abraham Lincoln in March 1861 from Springfield, Illinois to Washington, DC.

Sumner spent the first year of the Civil War as the commander of the Department of the Pacific in California, having been sent there to replace Albert Sidney Johnston. So Sumner saw no action in 1861. He was brought back east and on May 5th 1862 promoted to Major General and given command of one of the new Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He lead the II Corp through out the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles. After Major General Joseph Hooker was placed in command of the Army, Sumner was relieved at his own request and appointed to command the Department of Missouri.

Taking advantage of time off, he traveled to Syracuse, New York to visit with a daughter. While there Sumner had heart attacked and died March 21st 1863. He is buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Syracuse, New York in the Teall family plot.

A West Point Man To The End

Union General George Washington Cullum died February 28th 1892.


George Washington Cullum was born February 25th 1809 in New York City. He grew up in Meadville Pennsylvania, before entering West Point. Cullum graduated third in his class of forty-three in 1833. He became a member of the Corps of Engineers, where he supervised construction projects on the East Coast, including Fort Trumbull in New London Connecticut. Cullum taught engineering at West Point from 1848 to 1855.

At the beginning of the Civil War Cullum served as the aide-de-camp for General Winfield Scott. In November 1861 he was promoted to Brigadier General and transferred to the Department of Missouri as Chief Engineer. He was the chief engineer during the Siege of Corinth. Cullum was brevetted Major General and sent back to West Point were he served as the superintendent of the military academy until 1866.

Following the war Cullum stayed in the military, working on an assortment of engineering projects designed to strengthen the United State’s coastal defenses. He retired in January 1874 and moved back to New York City. Cullum died there from pneumonia February 28th 1892. He left money to West Point for the building of a Memorial Hall and the continuations of his “Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy.

Old Fuss and Feathers

Winfield Scott the over all commander of all Union troops at the start of the Civil War,  died on May 29th 1866.

Born June 13th 1786 near Petersburg Virginia, Winfield Scott attended William and Mary but did not graduate. He studied law for a short time, but gave that up and joined the army in 1808. Scott was a hero in the War of 1812. He fought in the Black Hawk War and was a commander of the United States forces during the Mexican War. Scott was nominated by the Whig party for President in 1852, but proved to be a poor candidate. He was known to the soldiers as “Old Fuss and Feathers” do to his love of military protocol and ceremony. Although he was southerner Scott strongly opposed secession.

By the beginning of the Civil War Scott weighed in at over 300 pound. He could no longer ride a horse and was suffering from gout. He knew that because of these health issues he would need a field commander and urged President Abraham Lincoln to place Robert E Lee in that position. Scott anticipated that it would be a long war, and developed his “Anaconda Plan” recommending a naval blockade while giving the Union time to train its troops. After the Union defeat at Ball’s Bluff on November 1st 1861, Lincoln accepted Scott’s offer to resign.

Scott traveled through Europe and wrote a two volume memoir in his retirement. He died at West Point, New York on May 29th 1866 and is buried there.