RoadTrippin' With Theo Timby-- Part 2: Oak Hill Cemetery, Washington, D.C.

Continuing with Roadtrippin Through History with Theodore Timby.  His body was removed from Evergreen(s) Cemetery in New York City and moved to this cemetery in the nation's capital.

These people, as in the last post, are not necessarily involved in the Civil War.  They're just people I've heard of or thatn I found interesting reading some about them.

**  DEAN ACHESON: (1893-1971)  Presidential cabinet secretary.  Secretary of State.

**  JOSEPH K. BARNES:  (1817-1883)    Union Surgeon General.  On the morning after Lincoln was assassinated, he attended  the death bed and oversaw the autopsy.  Also served as surgeon for the dying President  James Garfield after he was mortally wounded by an assassin.

**  HORACE CAPRON:  (1804-1885)  One of the oldest field officers in Union Army.    His son, Horace Capron, Jr. was a Medal of Honor recipient and killed in action.

**  SALMON CHASE:  (1808-1873)  U.S. Senator, Ohio governor, Lincoln Presidential cabinet secretary

**  WILLIE LINCOLN:  (1850-1862)  Third child of President Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln.  Reburied in Springfield, Illinois with his father.

--Old B-R'er

William Beverly Sinclair, CSN-- Part 2: Service in Confederate Navy

From "Register of Officers in Confederate States Navy 1861-1865."

SINCLAIR, WILLIAM B.

Born in Virginia.  Appointed from Virginia.  Formerly surgeon U.S. Navy.

Surgeon, June 10, 1861.

Surgeon, October 23, 1862, to rank from March 26, 1861.

Died in Baltimore, September 27, 1895.

Served from the C.S.R.S.   United States, 1861.   (C.S.R.S. probably stands for Confederate States Receiving Ship.)

Naval rendezvous, Richmond, 1861-1864.  (A rendezvous is where men would enlist in the navy.)

Paroled at  Dover Mines, Virginia, May 3, 1865.

--Old B-Runner

Robley Evans, USN, Sees a Surgeon After Fort Fisher: 'I Mean to Begin Shooting'

From Life Explores "The Civil War in the Front Lines:  From Fort Sumter to Appomattox."  One of hose magazine/books you see so often these days in the magazine section of stores.

In 1865, 18-year-old Robley Evans, a Northern seaman, was shot through both knees at the Battle of Fort Fisher while making a ground assault with a brigade of naval volunteers.

Days later, the young ensign found himself in a federal military hospital facing a drunken surgeon who insisted Evans undergo a double amputation of his legs.

After being told he had no choice, the young sailor reached under his pillow and produced a loaded Colt revolver, :I told him that there were six loads in it," Evans recalled, " and that if he or anyone else entered my door with anything that looked like a case of instruments, I mean to begin shooting."

Evans kept his legs and later recovered.  His case was unique.

Most soldiers who faced amputation died soon afterward.  The state of medical care during the war was enough to make wounded men like Evans resort to desperate measures.

--Old B-Runner

A Rebel Captured the Last Slave Ship for the Union-- Part 2: Captured the Slaver Nightingale and Military Family

Continued from April 13, 2021 post.

Details about Lt. John Guthrie's action against the slave ship off Kabenda, Africa, are sketchy, but it is known that the overall mission was a complete success.  The slaver Nightingale and her cargo of 900 slaves were captured.

After the slaves were released in Liberia, the Saratoga, with her prize Nightingale in tow, headed back for the United States.

No doubt that Guthrie dreamed of  certain promotion in the U.S. Navy as one of its rising stars.  In fact, since early childhood in Washington, North Carolina, Guthrie had been raised in a family with a rich military tradition.  His great grandfather and two great uncles had served in the American Revolution.  John Wilburn Guthrie, his grandfather,  was a surgeon in the War of 1812.

His father, Dr.  J.W. Guthrie, was also a well-respected U.S. Army surgeon who had talked John into  leaving Chapel Hill (University of North Carolina)  for an appointment to West Point.  After only a year there, he switched to the U.S. Navy and entered as a midshipman in 1834.

--Old B-Runner

Were B.W. and John J. Guthrie, Jr., the Sons of John H. Guthrie? How About Joseph A. Guthrie?

Still looking for definitive proof.  I am of the opinion that John, Jr. and B.W.  Guthrie were the sons of Guthrie, Sr., but want more proof.

I went to the complete list of U.S. Navy officers 1799 to 1900 and did not find John Jr. or B,W.'s name, so they did not follow their dad into the U.S. Navy.

There was one other Guthrie, however, Joseph A. Guthrie.  He became an assistant surgeon on 27 January 1892  and a passed assistant surgeon on 27 January 1895.  In 1913, he was listed as a retired surgeon, U.S. Navy, living in Portsmouth, Virginia.

This is where John Julius Gutrhrie was buried, so that might make him a relative.

In 1921, Eleanor Raymond Guthrie, daughter of Joseph A. Guthrie, was married in Portsmouth, Va.

--Old B-Runner

The Other George F. Winslow (Not the One on the USS Marblehead)-- Part 1

As I said before, when I was writing about the action of the USS Marblehead in the Stono River in South Carolina at the Battle of Legareville on Christmas Day 1863, I came across the name of a Union officer named George F. Winslow, who received recognition for his actions that day from his commanding officer, Richard Worsam Meade III.

I decided to find out if I could find out any more about this man.  Especially since that last name, Winslow, is well known in Civil War narratives because of an officer named John Winslow, who commanded the USS Kearsarge in its famous fight with the CSS Alabama off Cherbourg, France.  Could this Winslow be related?

(Well, then also there was that Richard Worsam Meade III, with that famous last name.  I wonder?)

Let's find out.

The first thing I found was that there were two Union Naval officers named George F. Winslow.  That kind of complicated things.  

However, one was also a surgeon who had a long career in the service.  This one, however, was never listed as being on the USS Marblehead.

Famous Last Names All Over the Place.  --Old B-Runner

George F. Winslow of the USS Marblehead-- Part 1: There Were Two George F. Winslows in the Union Navy

I wrote about this officer in my Battle of Legareville-- Part 3 post.  With the last name of Winslow, I was wondering if he  might be some relation to John Ancrum Winslow who commanded the USS Kearsarge in is fight with the CSS Alabama, so had to look him up.

I only found one mention of him in the U.S. Navy Officers 1798 to 1900

There were two Civil War-era George F. Winslows listed a naval officers.

The second one was:

Acting Asst. Surgeon 26 July 1862

Asst. Surgeon  28 May 1864

Passed Asst. Surgeon  14 June 1867

Surgeon  2 April 1875

Medical Inspector   21 August 1893

Medical Director  23 January 1898

This one was probably not the one from the USS Marblehead.

He has a carte de visit online at the Library of Congress taken while an assistant surgeon.

It says he was son of Captain Giles H. Winslow.  Served on steamer Morse 1863 and Osceola in 1864.  The USS Osceola took part in the attacks on Fort Fisher.

So, I Might Just Have a Fort Fisher Connection.  --Old B-Runner

Confederate Naval Officers: George A. Foote

From the Naval War Records:  Officers in the Confederate States Navy, 1898.

Born in North Carolina,  Appointed from North Carolina.

Assistant Surgeon for war March 11, 1862

Assistant Surgeon for War January 7, 1864

Assistant Surgeon Provisional Navy June 2, 1864

Served on the CSS Raleigh 1863-64

Served CSS Albemarle 1864

--Old B-Runner

Other Civil War Items Discovered in SC and Elsewhere Recently

From the same source as previous post.

Last year, two Civil War shells were found in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian at Folly Beach, near Charleston.

A Civil War-era grave was found  in a Kansas forest that is linked to  the infamous Quantrill's Raid.

In 2019, a cannonball was found lodged in  a walnut tree  at a historic house in Independence, Missouri.

Earlier in the year, archaeologists in Delaware located the gravestone  of a Civil War soldier that may provide a vital clue in recovering a long-lost black cemetery.

In 2018, the remains of two Civil War soldiers was discovered in a surgeon's burial pit at Manassas National Battlefield Park in Virginia.

In 2018, a vacationer  on a North Carolina beach captured drone footage of a Civil War-era shipwreck.

In 2017, forensic linguists  said they had likely unraveled the mystery surrounding a letter long-believed to have been written by President Abraham Lincoln.

In 2015, the remains of a Confederate warship, the CSS Georgia, were raised from the Savannah River in Georgia.

The following year, the wreck of a iron-hulled Civil War-era steamer  was discovered off the coast of North Carolina.  This ship, tentatively identified as the blockade runner Agnes E. Fry, was discovered off Oak Island.

Always Great When Lost Is Found.  --Old B-Runner

Booth's Body Transferred Back to Washington for Autopsy-- Part 2

As word spread of the assassin's body being on board the USS Montauk, the scene aboard the ship and nearby river bank  took on a circus-like atmosphere as hundreds of  curiosity seekers jostled for a glimpse of Booth's remains.

Aboard the Montauk, an inquest was held, and the corpse, already in the initial stages of decomposition, was carefully examined.  Friends and acquaintances of Booth were summoned to identify the body.   Dr. John Frederick May, a surgeon who had removed a cyst from Booth's neck in 1863, quickly recognized and identified the unusual scar left by the operation.

The federal government was determined to keep Booth's remains out of reach of both those  who wished to desecrate them and those who wished to sanctify him as a martyr.

That night, under cover of darkness, the body was taken by rowboat  to nearby Greenleaf's Point, where it was wrapped in an army blanket, placed in a wooden gun box and secretly buried in the basement of the Washington Arsenal.  It remained there until 1869, when the Booth family was finally granted permission to rebury John Wilkes in an unmarked grave in the shadow of  his father's impressive obelisk in Baltimore's Green Mount Cemetery.

--Old B-Runner

Dr. Ezra Read, Surgeon and Abner Read's Brother

I have been writing about him in my Saw the Elephant: Civil War blog the last several days.

He was a very successful physician at Terre Haute, Indiana, before and after the war.  He took part in the Texas Revolution during the 1830s and treated captured Mexican leader and general Santa Anna.

During the Civil War he was the surgeon of the 21st Indiana Infantry and then the 11th Indiana Cavalry.

Click on My Blogs Saw the Elephant: Civil War to read about him.

--Old B-Runner

Bennett W. Green-- Part 12: In U.S. Navy Before the War

From U.S. Navy and Marine Corps Officers 1775-1900.

Like many Southern naval officers, Bennett Green resigned his U.S. Navy commission and offered his services to his new country after his state seceded.

Green, Bennett W.   Assistant surgeon, 21 August, 1859.  Dismissed May 1861.

Tendered resignation May 2, 1861.  Accepted or dismissed 18 May 1861.  Birth place:  Virginia  Appointed from Virginia, Citizen of Virginia.

Date of Confederate States Navy appointment 23 May 1861 as assistant surgeon.

--Old B-Runner

Bennett W. Green, CSN-- Part 3: Confederate Service

From Register of Officers of Confederate Navy.

GREEN, BENNETT WOOD

Born in Virginia,  Appointed from Virginia.

Formerly assistant surgeon U.S. Navy

In Confederate service:  Assistant Surgeon May 23, 1861, Passed Assistant Surgeon October 25, 1862, Passed Assistant Surgeon, Provisional Navy, June 2, 1864.

--Old B-Runner

Bennett Wood Green, CSN-- Part 1: Commission Taken By a Union Soldier

In my War of 1812 Not So Forgotten blog, I wrote about the 100th anniversary of Fort Eustis by Newport news, Virginia.  It was named for Abraham Eustis, a War of 1812 veteran and later first commander of Fort Monroe.

Fort Eustis was on the site of Confederate Fort Crawford, according to the article.  Fort Crawford was part of Confederate General John B. Magruder's Warwick Line to defend against McClellan's army in 1862.  I learned that the actual name of the Confederate fort was Fort Crafford.

One of the families that lived on Mulberry Island on the James River was the Green family.  Their son Bennett Wood Green became a surgeon in the Confederate Navy.  After the Confederates evacuated the Warwick line and Fort Crafford, abandoned homes were ransacked by Union soldiers.  One of them found Bennett Wood's commission in the Confederate Navy and took it as a souvenir.  However, it was returned to the family after the war.

Now, I need to find out about Bennett Green.

--Old B-R'er

Medical Cadets in the Civil War-- Part 2: Charles Rivers Ellet

Mounting war casualties overwhelmed Army surgeons and often found themselves taking on even greater responsibility.

On August 3, 1861, Congress approved the creation of the Medical Cadets, to consist of up to 50 medical school men ages 18-23 who had a liberal education and at least two years of medical school.

Charles Rivers Ellet was one of them and he wrote in June 1861, even before becoming a medical cadet, that he routinely followed physicians around while they were making their rounds in the Washington, D.C. Army Hospitals to see how they questioned and prescribed to their patients.

So, that Charles R. Ellet.  --Old B-R'er

Alexander M. DeBree, CSN-- Part 2: His Father and Brother Also Served Confederacy

From Confederate States Navy..

JOHN DEBREE-- (Father)   Born in New Jersey  Appointed to Navy from Virginia.  Formerly paymaster USN until June 10, 1861.  Paymaster CSN Oct. 23, 1862.  Chief of Bureau of Provisions and Clothing 1862-1864.

JOHN DEBREE, JR.--   (Brother)   Born Virginia.  Appointed from Virginia.  Assistant Surgeon for War July 18, 1862.  Assistant Surgeon May 1, 1863.  Assistant Surgeon Provisional Navy June 2, 1964.

Surgeon Naval defenses St. Marks, Florida from 1862-1863.  Naval Hospital, Richmond, Virginia in 1864.


I also came across a John DeBree who was acting purser U.S. Navy on December 15, 1817.  This may or may not have been the father.

--Old B-R'er

Morfit's Letter

While looking for more information on the CSS Oconee earlier this month, I came across this item of interest from the Schuyler Rumsey Philatelic Auctions site which was offering a letter addressed to Asst. Surgeon Chas. M. Morfit, CS Navy Portsmouth.

The auctioneers expected to get from between $300 and $400 for it.

Dr. Charles M. Morfit (1838-1925) received his medical degree from the University of Maryland. He became an assistant surgeon in the U.S. Navy in 1861, but resigned to join the Confederacy.

He served on the CSS Ivy, Arkansas, Stono, Albemarle, Oconee and Chicakamuga. He was captured and imprisoned at Old Capitol Prison and later Fort McHenry. I wonder if he was at Old Capitol when John Wilkes Booth was hanged?

--Old B-Runner