The Civil War Careers of Post-Civil War Presidents (Lecture)

Welcome everyone to Gettysburg National Military Park glad you see y'all made out of the snow-covered driveways good to see y'all here today my name is Dan Vermilya I'm a park ranger at Antietam National Battlefield but today I'm up here with you folks at Gettysburg for our midwinter lecture series this year I've been in the Park Service for five years now most of them at Antietam but I have worked here at Gettysburg here and there over the last few years very nice to be with you today our topic today it's something a little bit different we are talking about the post-civil war careers of the post-civil war presidents and I think it's important for me up front to be very clear about what we're going to be talking about today and what we're not going to be talking about today of course today is George Washington's birthday so happy birthday to George Washington it seems that in American history presidents are often pushed aside to the realm of trivia I think most people encounter different presidents especially some of the presidents we're going to talk about today in my instance when I'm in the Antietam bookstore and I see the ruler that's got all the presidents on it in order kind of almost like a hey can you list all the presidents and and know the trivia about them and I think sometimes we forget that they're not just faces on gold coins issued they are actual actual people actual people who serve this country so today we're going to look at a few of these men and a few of these presidents as they were during the Civil War soldiers and veterans of the war this talk is not an examination of the presidencies of these men it's not on reconstruction rather it's a Civil War talk with a reconstruction twist we are focus focus almost exclusively on the Civil War years seeing how the war shaped the next generation of leaders and the United States it is the goal this talk to provide a glimpse of the Civil War careers of four men who went on to lead the United States as president Rutherford B Hayes James Garfield Benjamin Harrison and William McKinley Wars in American history have typically produced the next generation of American leadership in the case of the presidency many of held military service but few were actually shaped by combat during their military service each of these men experienced combat during the Civil War saw death knew what it was to be on the battlefield during immense bloodshed their service during the war shaped them as men and as future leaders just as the war transformed the nation it transformed its citizens and soldiers turning lawyers educators college presidents professors and business men into congressmen governor's senators and presidents so what we're gonna do is I know there's technically five of these guys who saw combat during the war and went on to become president of course we have right up top ulysses s grant unfortunately if you're a big grant aficionado we will not be talking about grant today grant could have his entire lecture series just on him for an entire winter after all his face is on the fifty dollar bill so I've been told I don't actually have one so the four I'm glad you liked that one the four we're going to be talking about if of course as I said Rutherford B Hayes James Garfield Benjamin Harrison and William akin Lee the idea for this talk came walk right now I'm working on a book project on James Garfield during the Civil War and every time I mention that to someone they always say wow that's really interesting I know nothing about his Civil War career and it always expands out I don't really know much about the Civil War career of these other guys who went on to become president so that's how the idea for this program came about looking at the Civil War careers of some of these guys so what we're going to do is we're going to cycle through and look at their Civil War careers and first off we're going to talk about two of them together because they each served in the same regiment and along the way I have some really nifty photographs of them taking their oath of office to remind ourselves that while their most famous for taking this oath they did have a career before then it's also important to know if I can just go back here one all five of these guys including grant in this part all five were actually from Ohio grant and Harrison eventually moved elsewhere of these five grant was the only West Point graduate for all came from civilian life only grant saw two full terms in the white house none of the other four lived through eight years of the presidency in fact two of these men were assassinated so let's start with number 19 Rutherford B Hayes this is a photograph of Hayes and his wife Lucy in 1852 the year they were married when the Civil War began Rutherford Hayes was a 38 year old attorney living near Cincinnati he was married with three kids is a graduate of Kenyon College and Harvard Law School and at the beginning the war he felt very strongly about the reasons for which he was about to be fighting and the reasons why this nation was going to war to with itself in January of 1861 he wrote disunion and civil war are at hand and yet I fear disunion and war less than compromise in April once the first shots had been fired in Charleston Harbor he wrote to his uncle we are all for war the few dissidents have to run like Quarter Horses for cover even mrs. Hayes was very much on the bandwagon in support of the Union cause of his wife he wrote Lucy enjoys the war fever and wishes she had been in Fort Sumter with a garrison of women Hayes was among the many many who before they even entered military service began drilling on their own forming militia units militia companies he was appointed a major in the 23rd Ohio early on he wrote around the same time to a friend of his living in Texas people forget self the virtues of Magna midde T encouraged patriotism etc are called into life people are more generous more sympathetic better than when engaged in the more selfish pursuits of peace may there be as much of this the better side of war enjoyed on both sides and as little of the horrors of war suffered as possible and may we soon have an honorable and enduring peace and I think it's important to point out that some of these sentiments that you're going to hear these guys expressing in 1861 are not unique to these men a lot of the other lectures that we've had the experiences of common veterans coming back to these battlefields and veterans after the war it's important to remember that these guys are having in some ways very familiar experiences as other Civil War soldiers in May of 1861 along those lines Hayes wrote I would prefer to go into it if I knew I was to die or be killed in the course of it than to live through and after the war without taking any part of it that is certainly a sentiment shared by many soldiers on each side and of course another member of the 23rd Ohio one who in a slightly lower rank than Rutherford Hayes was our 25th president William McKinley the only non bearded one in this group so that makes him a little bit unique and this is I think kind of a cool photograph he got Grover Cleveland there on his way out and William McKinley on his way in well he was much younger than Rutherford Hayes this is actually a picture of McKinley from when he was 15 years old he was 18 when the Civil War began from middle-class family strong interest in education literature and the Bible he was a very pious young man his mother thought he would grow up to be a minister he briefly attended Allegheny College and Meadville Pennsylvania but he had to withdraw because of illness shortly after beginning he worked actually as a teacher and some local schools in the area just before the Civil War and when the war began he along with his cousin William McKinley Osborne not that that's confusing two of them named William McKinley his cousin also 18 years old they joined the Poland Guards they're from Poland Ohio near Youngstown and they listed in June 1861 as Company II of the 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry his cousin wrote of the decision that the two of them made that it was quote in cold blood and not through the enthusiasm of the moment which would make it seem like they're not really all that passionate in the belief in this cause McKinley himself said I came to a deliberate conclusion and have never been sorry for him after the war though McKinley said of his decision to enlist we enlisted in the army with no expectation of promotion not for the paltry pittance of pay not for fame or popular applause we entered the army moved by the highest and purest motives of patriotism that no harm might befall the Republic and in 18 years old McKinley was 6 foot 1 and weighed 125 pounds so a very tall guy the 23rd Ohio this is the recreation of the 23rd Ohio battle flag this is an image of the actual flag from the Ohio Historical Society this is one of the more famed regiments I would say to come from the state of Ohio during the Civil War I should just say kind of a disclaimer I'm a little bit biased I am from Ohio so it's one reason why I'm partial with all these guys it's a regiment largely from Northeast Ohio also where I'm from what a lot of officers of this regiment were from the Cincinnati area it was one of the groups of regiments early on that one of the first regiments to have officers appointed its colonel was William Rosecrans a name we'll hear later on in the program the lieutenant colonel was Stanley Matthews a Cincinnati attorney who would one day be a u.s. senator and Supreme Court justice and Rutherford Hayes was a major in this regiment early on he wrote to his wife Lucy of his first impressions of army life you know how I love you how I love the family and all but loosely I am much happier in this business than I could be fretting away in the old office near the courthouse it is living I don't know how many would think of the trials and tribulations of army service during the Civil War in 1861 is living but Rutherford Hayes was very much a fan of it and early on Hayes made a very strong impression on the regiment there's a story that when the regiment received their first batch of rifles they were an older model not as as good as many of the men would have liked and Hayes went to the men and said that it wasn't necessarily the caliber of the muskets that was going to make them good soldiers but their attitude and their patriotism and their devotion of the country and he gave a very moving speech and McKinley said of Hayes from that moment on our confidence in him never wavered here we have pictures of two of the notable officers William Rosecrans here and we'll talk about him a little bit later on and Stanley Matthews the first lieutenant colonel of the regiment who when he was appointed a justice the United States Supreme Court was actually appointed by another man we're going to talk about today James Garfield Garfield's only Supreme Court appointment during his tragically short presidency the first service of the 23rd Ohio was in western Virginia unfortunately because we're covering so much ground we can't do a detailed month-by-month account of the service for these men but they gained some experience in western virginia fighting and some of the relatively small especially compared to gettysburg battles but it did help these men to become better soldiers in 1862 that's when these men see their first major major combat of the war here is a young private William McKinley and he was promoted in 1862 very early on to the role that he would become famous for during the Civil War that of a commissary sergeant in December of 1861 the acting or the regular communist-era sergeant for the 23rd Ohio fell sick so William McKinley began serving as the commissary sergeant on an acting basis and after several months everybody liked him so much they said he was doing such a good job that he was given the position of course was a very difficult job not an easy task a typical day's work would involve sometimes over 1,100 loaves of bread four barrels of potatoes 800 pounds of pork 150 pounds of coffee 240 pounds of sugar all this applying the men of the 23rd Ohio and during the early months of 1862 the men are operating under Brigadier General Jacob Cox in western Virginia part of the Kanawha division should become very very famous in August of 1862 Cox's command was sent to Washington DC where they would take part in one of the grand one of the most important campaigns of the American Civil War the Maryland campaign or the Antietam campaign now this command is reached in Washington DC just after the massive Confederate victory at Manassas second Manassas and late August and the Kanawha division it was thrown in with the Union Army the potomac that was rebuilt so quickly in a moment of such crisis by George McClellan it formed a part of the Union ninth Corps and this is the only time I should note that any of these four men are going to be involved with the Army the Potomac it's one of the interesting patterns for their service Hayes wrote of George McClellan a man who is everybody's favorite Civil War general McClellan is loved not thinking him a first-class commander uh yet and view of this feeling think him the best man now available to lead this army well the 23rd Ohio and clowns men marched forward into battle and their major tests came first at South Mountain on September 14th 1862 Cox's division including the 23rd Ohio was engaged in very heavy combat against D H Hill on the morning of September 14 I should say if you've ever been in this part of the state of Maryland if you've ever drove the old National Road alternate 40 up through South Mountain you'll realize that this is not very easy terrain these men were attacking at here but during the fight there on the morning of the 14th Hayes was severely wounded in the arm as he wrote of the experience our men halted a defense near the edge of the woods and kept up a brisk fire upon the enemy who were sheltering themselves behind stone walls and fences near the top of the hill beyond a cornfield in front of our position just as I gave the command to charge I felt a stunning blow and found a musket ball had struck my left arm just above the elbow fearing that an artery might be cut I asked a soldier near me to tie my handkerchief above the wound I felt weak faint and sick at the stomach I lay down and was pretty comfortable well while he was laying down he actually struck up a conversation with a wounded Confederate and he gave the man Hayes gave the man a message to give to his family if he should come succumb to his wound soon after this Hayes was taken to a hospital or to a family's home in Middleton Maryland and the campaign would continue on without him he would not see combat several days later although William McKinley would a little place called Antietam Creek in Sharpsburg Maryland of course I'm sure many of you know this familiar structure this famous structure I'd say this is one of the most famous structures of the American Civil War it's the Burnside Bridge at Antietam and this is where the Union ninth Corps was positioned on September 17th 1862 they had the task of getting across Antietam Creek to attack the right flank of the Army of Northern Virginia and the men were up very early that morning it took them several hours to seize this crucial crossing point over the Antietam in the early afternoon hours of the 17th the 9th corps was across the creek and they began moving uphill against the Confederates but the men were famous they were very tired in McKinley sought and need for his services he brought some of the stragglers together who had made their way to the back and he actually put them to work a commissary sergeant a young man only 19 years old he put them to work bringing forward supplies across the creek up to the men on the front line bringing them food and coffee now to us today this doesn't really seem like all that remarkable he's bringing forward food to the men on the front lines but think of the human experience of war you're exhausted you're tired you're probably scared man have been killed the 23rd Ohio lost very heavily at South Mountain just a few days before and bringing forward food and supplies under those circumstances was very much appreciated by the men at of the command of the 23rd Ohio Major James calmly a major was commanding the regiment at this battle said of McKinley he showed ability and energy of the 1st class and not only keeping us fully supplied with rations throughout the fight but in having them fully prepared for eating we had plenty when everybody else was short he delivered them to us under fire in two instances with perfect method and coolness I feel greatly indebted to McKinley no promotion could be made which would give more general satisfaction well McKinley was indeed promoted after the Battle of Antietam dr. Joseph Webb the regimental surgeon and also the brother-in-law of Rutherford Hayes wrote to the lieutenant colonel of the 23rd at that point Rutherford Hayes our young friend McKinley commissary Sgt Sargent would be pleased with a promotion it would not object to your recommendation for it well that promotion did go through now one might think getting promoted this experience of bringing forward supplies to men under fire that would be pretty memorable but according to William McKinley his greatest memory of the Maryland campaign came after the Battle of Antietam came in the first four days of October 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln journeyed to visit the army the Potomac and reviewed the troops and McKinley wrote that seeing the president in the field the most lasting memory that he had of his service in the Antietam campaign of course two years after McKinley's death in October of 1903 the state of Ohio erected this monument him to him on this battlefield a lot of folks ask why he gets such a big Monument well of course when you're president you get big monuments they paid about three times as much for this monument as they did for the regimental markers on the field at Antietam and it marks his service to his country and of course the 23rd Ohio lost about 200 men in the span of three days between South Mountain and Antietam after Antietam the 23rd Ohio service with the army the Potomac came to a close they returned to Western Virginia where they would stay for 1863 Hayes was now in command of the regiment and in January of 63 he was notified that he was now in command of the entire brigade under which the 23rd Ohio was serving they didn't do too much by our Gettysburg standards if you will in 1863 they're not fighting in any of these major campaigns perhaps the most notable service that year was when John Hunt Morgan and his Raiders entered into the state of Ohio Hayes in the 23rd Ohio were part of the Union response that pushed the Confederates back and actually captured several hundred of the Confederate Raiders into the state indeed the next notable service for the 23rd Ohio came in 1864 in the Shenandoah Valley first under the command of George crook the commander of the division the 23rd Ohio was in at this time Hayes came to appreciate George crook very much in fact he named his fourth son after George crook and they're involved in much of the up and down back and forth across the Shenandoah throughout the summer of 1864 and of course in the month of August this man took command of the force in the Shenandoah that is of course Phil Sheridan by this time McKinley had rose to the rank of captain on the staff of George crook and he would help come to have a very prominent role in the Battle of Cedar Creek in October of 1864 this is one of the more famous images from the war it's the famous scene of general Phil Sheridan riding to rally his demoralized troops at Cedar Creek to push back Jubal Early's assault well when General Phil Sheridan was riding forward he encountered a captain by the name of William McKinley and Sheridan actually wrote of this incident in his memoirs and when they were passing through the town of a new town he encountered McKinley who rode ahead and told stragglers that Sheridan was returning and McKinley was a part of Sheridan's famous ride to push back in federal forces at the Battle of Cedar Creek a Union victory in October of 1864 and one of the grand campaigns of the Civil War the fighting at Cedar Creek was the last major action for the 23rd Ohio though the regiment would serve into 1865 by the fall of 1864 Rutherford Hayes rising so prominently through the ranks had been nominated to serve in Congress as a representative and he was actually elected to Congress in the fall of 1864 so he was elected from the army to the House of Representatives and for the 23rd Ohio as I said they have a very distinguished record throughout the war they spent a lot of time in western Virginia but they are fighting at major battles in the Shenandoah Valley and of course in the Antietam campaign in September of 1862 and I actually came across a very good article on this regiment by T Harry Williams and Stephen Ambrose and I thought part of this summarized the experience of the 23rd Ohio and indeed the experience of Hayes and McKinley the world the 23rd Ohio was neither Romantic nor glorious but it was necessary this regimen and others like it held areas Lincoln had to have if the north were to win the war the role the 23rd was called upon to play was important and the men of Ohio carried it out with skill valor and pride outstanding men emerged from the regimen and in later years they were always ready to recall their association with it on the day he left Ohio in 1877 to take up residence in the White House Rutherford B Hayes told his fellow citizens a little less than 16 years ago I marched with 1,000 men to the south to do what we could to restore the Union of the states and to re-establish the authority of the constant and that work we were eminently successful they were indeed more successful than perhaps they suspected and we'll leave Hayes and McKinley behind for now we'll come back to them at the end to talk about our next man up here James Abram Garfield Mae and I have a particular interest in I grew up about 20 minutes away from Garfield's home in Mentor Ohio which is now a national park service sites an awesome sight if you ever have the chance to visit there James Garfield is a fascinating figure here the second shortest presidency in American history second only to William Henry Harrison at the time the war began Garfield was a 29 year old state senator in Columbus and the fact that he had even made it this far in life was absolutely remarkable this was a guy who was born in 1831 and his father died when he was two so his mother raised their children on their own in the wooded wilderness outside of Cleveland Ohio the age of 16 Garfield left home to work on the canals in Ohio he had wanted to be a sailor and the canal job was the best he could do at the time he wasn't very pleased with it so he came back home and he turned to education he began going to small school houses he attended school at the Western Reserve eclectic Institute a school that he rose to become the president of by the late 1850s he had an extremely tenacious work ethic a very very inspiring man in that regard and he's elected to the Ohio Senate as a 29 year old at the time the war begins and he just like Hayes was a very strong believer in the causes for which the Union Army was going to fight in early in 1861 he wrote with the secession crisis burgeoning he wrote all that is left for us as a state or as a company of northern states is to aim and prepare to defend ourselves in the federal government I believe the doom of slavery is drawing near let war come and if these predictions of the doom of slavery in 1861 aren't enough also in April of 1861 Garfield wrote that he would rather see a million men die in battle than to see the nation break apart and Lavery continued very few at that time we're talking about those times those types of casualties the Garfield was one of them he wanted an appointment for quite a while he worked hard on behalf of Ohio Governor pictured here William Dennison trying to get the state ready for the war effort while Hayes was appointed a major in the 23rd Oh Garfield had to wait a little bit longer he had dozens of letters coming to him as a state politician asking for help for these various officers and getting their own appointments ultimately he secured a spot with the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry and his first action occurred in a region that is so remote that even in the world of the Civil War community today most people I talked to have never heard of this campaign raise your hand if you've heard of the Sandy Valley campaign in early 1862 okay this is what we call an interpretive moment the Sandy Valley campaign is very remote it's in the wintertime these roads are like many of our driveways were this morning they are impassable and James Garfield is a young colonel leading a brigade of untested troops against this guy here Humphrey Marshall who was the u.s. minister to China before the American Civil War he's a West Point graduate and he had served in the Mexican War I don't think he has very much of an advantage going up against him but in the span of just about a month Garfield is able to move down this river here the Big Sandy and engage Martha Marshall in battle and he has a pretty remarkable campaign Garfield defeats Humphrey Marshall at the Battle of Middle Creek on January 10th of 1862 it's one of the smallest least known about battles but it was actually pretty significant at the time it made headlines and all the major newspapers and by pushing this Confederate force out of far eastern Kentucky where this is taking place just around the border with Virginia at the time Garfield was able to elevate his name and his stature significantly at that point in the war this was the campaign that got Garfield his rank as a brigadier general he was awarded this rank just after the Sandy Valley campaign and though you know of this campaign today at the time the state legislature of Kentucky considered it on par with Mill Springs and Forte's Henry and Donaldson in fact they issued a proclamation thanking the Union Army and these union officers for pushing Confederates out of this crucial border state and in this proclamation the two names surrounding that of James Garfield are those of George Thomas and ulysses s grant so this is the campaign that takes a young state senator from Ohio and puts him in the same sentence as ulysses s grant the man who would become a general or Lieutenant General the Union Army by the end of the war so this really raises Garfield's stature this leads to his next stepping stone if you will a brigade command under Don Carlos Buell's army of the Ohio that was sent towards Shiloh in April of 1862 to reinforce grants expedition up the Tennessee River into the state of Tennessee at Shiloh Garfield did not see heavy action he was a part of the Union Army that arrived just in time for the fighting on April 7th his brigade was committed late in the day on April 7th 1862 they came in on the afternoon just as Confederates were beginning to fall back but the experience certainly had an impact on James Garfield he wrote many letters home describing and he wrote to his wife on the whole this is know about no doubt the bloodiest battle ever fought on this continent in which has been mingled on our side both the worst and the best of generalship the most noble bravery and the most contemptible cowardice describing the battlefield he wrote such a scene as this 30 square miles presents beggars all attempts at description if I live to meet you again I will attempt to tell something of its horrors God has been good to me and I am yet spared this is one of the War Department tablets at Shiloh National Military Park that lists the service of James Garfield in the summer of 62 Garfield was affected by illness he went on sick leave for several months and by September he was in Washington DC as a young Republican from Ohio he was much sought after in the federal capital in fact he stayed and resided with none other then salmon chased the secretary the treasury member of Lincoln's cabinet and under chases tutelage Garfield was involved in some of the less shall we say less than savory political aspects of the war and by that I mean the image here this is one of my favorite images of the war it's a sketch of the Fitz John Porter court-martial Fitz John Porter was a close associate of George McClellan and after the Antietam campaign he was put up on charges of defying orders at second Manassas under the command of John Pope and being a friend of McClellan's Porter was an enemy of the Republicans in Washington meaning that he was an enemy of James Garfield and many of the people on this court-martial were those who certainly didn't have many reasons to like Porter Porter was ultimately convicted of his charges by this court-martial and the process of it you know it's very it's very controversial today many say that this is one of the dark spots on Garfield's civil war career although he firmly believed that Porter was guilty of defying orders at second Manassas the issue was that he was ordered to attack on the second day of the battle not knowing that James Longstreet's force was in his front Porter realized this and did not make his attack as Pope had ordered him to do Pope was furious about this afterwards and brought him up on charges and one of the officers who was shall we say kind of on the opposite end of the spectrum from Porter was Irvin McDowell he was in the other camp the camp of Garfield in the Republicans and Garfield was very close with Irvin McDowell and he vindicated Irvin McDowell in fact he named one of his kids after Irvin McDowell so he was no friend of Porter's and he was very much against him in this court-martial years later he wrote of it no public act with which I have ever been connected was ever more clear to me than the righteousness of the finding of that court Porter had been arrested in November of 1862 was found guilty on January 10th of 1863 and dismissed from the Army on January 21st of 1863 though that verdict was later reversed years later after his service on this court-martial Garfield was sent onward to a new post a new command that with the army of the Cumberland this man pictured here William rosecrans we mention his name earlier as the first colonel of the 23rd Ohio well he rose quickly through the ranks of the Union Army and in late 1862 he took command of the army of the Cumberland this major force operating in Tennessee and at the Battle of Stones River his chief of staff Julius garish had his head taken off by cannonball meaning that rosecrans was in need of a new staff officer and in January of 63 just as this need was present Garfield arrived on the scene Garfield arrived expecting a brigade or division command instead he ended up staying up late several nights talking into the wee hours in the morning about matters of religion with rosecrans Garfield himself was a disciple of Christ rosecrans was a Roman Catholic but the two of them found actually that they got along quite well Garfield wrote of him he is the most Spanish looking man I know and though he swears fiercely he is a Jesuit of the highest style of Roman piety he carries a cross attached to his watch seal I find him a man of very decided in muscular thoughts and with a rare frederick like quality of having his mind made up on every important question for sharp clear sense ready decisive judgment and bold self-reliant action he is certainly a very admirable and hence an effective general Garfield was made Rosecrans chief of staff in February of 1863 and for the next several months after this the army the cumberland Rosecrans and garfield they were involved in gathering supplies and preparing to move onward for their next campaign the next campaign occurred in June of 1863 about the same time that there were some other things going on in the summer of 1863 late June and early July when he maneuvered south to push forces under Braxton Bragg and the Confederate Army of Tennessee into southern Tennessee and then into northern Georgia this is of course the Tullahoma campaign though it's not written about much today and it's not talked about much Abraham Lincoln himself described this campaign as the most splendid piece of strategy I know of through maneuver amidst heavy rains and with relatively low casualties rosecrans was able to push back a major Confederate Army at the same time as the Gettysburg and Vicksburg campaigns occurring only incurring only 569 Union casualties in the process now in June of 63 before this campaign began there was a major debate amongst the Union High Command of the army of the Cumberland whether or not they should push southward and Garfield was a major proponent of moving in fact he wrote a very long letter listing all the points why the Army should move and gave it to Rosecrans he believed himself he believed that he deserved very significant credit for the campaign writing to his wife in August there is so much of myself and a plan of this campaign that I must help realize my ideas I am doing it work here for which I shall never get a tithe of the credit that others will let it pass I am glad to help save the Republic also during that summer of 1863 with a lot of inaction by William Rosecrans Garfield was sending letters to Washington specifically to Sam and chase criticizing his commander almost behind his back after Bragg fell back into northern Georgia the stage was set for the second bloodiest battle of the American Civil War second only to Gettysburg that is of course the Battle of Chickamauga in September of 1863 on September 19th and 20th one of the bloodiest battles of the war was fought with over 34,000 combined casualties there were many soldiers and officers from the Gettysburg Campaign involved here as the Corps of James Longstreet and arrived in time to take part in this battle and on the last day of Chickamauga on September 20th Longstreet's Corps was crucial in a major breakthrough in the Union lines pushing through where the division of Thomas wood vacated a position after a very controversial order was issued by Rosecrans and at Chickamauga late in the day on September 20th much of the Union Army was falling back towards Chattanooga and here's a moment of great controversy of great fame involving the Civil War career of James Garfield as federal forces were falling back garfield retreated for a ways with his commander william Rosecrans and then at a certain point garfield stopped and went back to george thomas holding the field holding the left end of the Union line the famous rock of Chickamauga George Thomas for years controversy existed James Garfield himself said that rosecrans was defeated was demoralized was retreating back to Chattanooga and Garfield suggested that he needed to be the one to go make a connection with Thomas and let him know where the rest of the army was Rosecrans himself said later on that he ordered Garfield to go there because the work in Chattanooga was too complex and overwhelming for his young chief of staff it'sit's a controversy that historians still go back and forth on to this day but it was something that was publicized greatly in campaign biographies written about James Garfield during his 1880 campaign thinking all likelihood it was Garfield as the one who suggested that he'd go link up with George Thomas here is a image of Garfield during his famous ride from McClure's magazine in 1895 and this is a painting of Garfield's ride commissioned by the James a Garfield National Historic Site well soon after Chickamauga Garfield went back to Washington this time to take his seat in Congress he had a bollec 'td to the House of Representatives in 1862 and taking a seat late in 1863 his military career came to an end many would blame him for the removal of William Rosecrans after Chickamauga saying that Garfield did so he spoke poorly of Rosecrans in order to benefit his political career but for Garfield he always felt a fondness for his former commander from the Army the Cumberland and will move on to now Benjamin Harrison number 23 a man with many presidential connections in American history Benjamin Harrison was the grandson of William Henry Harrison and the great-grandson of Benjamin Harrison a signer of the Declaration of Independence he was a twenty-year a 28 year old attorney living in Indy Annapolis on the Civil War began born in Ohio he attended Miami University and settled in Indiana in the 1850s around the time this photograph was taken and Harrison is different from the other three men we've talked about thus far today he did not enlist in the Union Army in 1861 at the time he had a wife two kids another one on the way and he was supporting his brother John and his nephew Harry he was a practicing attorney in Indianapolis he had a lot going on and many were in his position a lot of men waited until 1862 to enlist in 1862 in the summer with many Union setbacks Abraham Lincoln put out a call for 300,000 new volunteers Harrison was called to the State Capitol and asked by the Indiana governor to serve and lead troops his response was if I can be of any service I will go and thus harrison was involved in the raising and recruiting of men for the 70th indiana volunteer infantry this regiment did not see all that much active service throughout 1862 or 1863 they were sent southward into Kentucky then into Tennessee and throughout these years they mostly were involved in guarding railroads the crucial railroads that Union armies were moving to move about different parts of the Confederacy the only action they had came when Confederate Raiders would attack these railroads and they'd have to go out and fend them off for a short time but Harrison was a much beloved by the men under his command and he drilled them well he taught them well and by 1864 when they would be involved in a grand campaign and major battle action they were ready for the task at hand Harrison's first major test of combat and that of his regiment the seventy of Indiana came in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864 they were placed under the command on the brigade of William Ward and the third division of Daniel Butterfield and the 20th corps under Sherman's command and as they move south into Georgia they would encounter combat at many places the first place was the town of Resaca just inside the border on the night of May 13th the night before the battle of Resaca was fought Harrison wrote a letter home saying I must write you tonight as we look for a battle tomorrow and god only knows who shall come safely through that well Resaca took place on May 14th and 15th of 1864 the Atlanta Campaign was a series of flanking maneuvers and sharp fierce engagements being fought by these two armies early on it was a campaign of movement was Sherman continually trying to outmaneuver his opponent Confederate commander Joseph Johnston and at Resaca on the 14th and 15th these two armies squared off in the first major battle of the campaign disseminate Indiana played a major role in this fighting and Harrison's role there was much publicized this was a lithograph that was put forward of him leading his troops forward in battle during that campaign of course he would later on to go to achieve the title of general though he was still a colonel at this time after Resaca his name is in the newspapers in Indianapolis and Cincinnati his name is rising in state circles and politics after Resaca Johnston's army fell back the campaign became increasingly fierce increasingly more bitter Lew Wallace a famous Union veteran from Indiana wrote of Harrison and his men during this campaign from Resaca on they had scarcely a halt in the day or the night that was not marked by heavy fortification for in truth the commands all came as near living under fire the while as soldiers ever did not once but all of them of his regiment Harrison wrote to his wife I have got to love them for their bravery and for dangers we have shared together I have heard many similar expressions from the men toward me this is a famous sketch of Union soldiers at the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain in June of 1864 and in the operations around this crucial Confederate stronghold Harrison and his command were engaged and the campaign ground to a halt the stress is wearing on and on everyone Harrison wrote home at this time I should like to see a few thousand of the on to Atlantis civilians of the north charging such a line of works most of the tender skinned individuals of this class would require help to get into the works if they were empty after Kennesaw Mountain Confederates fell back towards the city of Atlanta and John Bell hood a veteran of Gettysburg took command of the Confederate Army of Tennessee and Harrison saw combat next to the Battle of Peachtree Creek on July 20th of 1864 a fellow brigade commander wrote of harrison at this engagement he said quote the personification of fiery valor with foil with voice and gesture urging on the furious charge we could see the divisions on our right and left giving way in apparent confusion a regiment was surprised on the right with their arms in the stat a battery was captured and on the left a host of huge it have scattered towards the rear but our advance seemed to give them encouragement they rallied and retook their lines I never saw on any battlefield dead and wounded in such numbers and so close together no man in the army that night stood higher than heroine Harrison excuse me stood higher than Harrison for heroism had he been a West pointer his promotion would have been ordered by telegraph with the fall of Atlanta in September of 1864 Harrison was sent home to Indiana for a short while to campaign for the state Republican ticket by the time he rejoined the army he was sent to Nashville where he was in charge of some soldiers during the Battle of Nashville in December of 1864 but his men did not see combat they were in reserve that day so Harrison didn't see much action in 62 and 63 but 64 was a very long year for him and by April of 1865 the war had drawn to a close for these men so where were they we've learned about where they were at the start of the war we learned what they did during the war but where were they in April of 1865 when this one future president was accepting the surrender of robert e lee well Garfield was a congressman a sitting member of the US House of Representatives and he was very active in campaigning and speaking on issues in fact he was in New York City on Polly business the night of Lincoln's assassination Hayes was still in the army though he was now a congressman elect and he Anna's command were in southwestern Virginia near Lynchburg he officially left the army in June of 1865 and was later brevet 'add a Major General of volunteers McKinley was the chief adjutant for Brigadier General Samuel sprigs Carroll near Winchester but the remnants of the 23rd Ohio McKinley noted that the news of the surrender of Lee was greeted with 200 guns firing he continued issue orderings issuing orders and was maintaining his duties and responsibilities he stayed in the army until August of 1865 when he returned home to Poland Ohio has a 22 year old major Harrison was given the rank of brevet Brigadier General in February of 1865 and he was training troops in the Carolinas in April of 1865 when the war came to a close so for these men was the end of the war the end of service pictured here is the grand review of the armies in Washington DC and at this review it's interesting to note that of the five men who went on to become president who saw combat during the war only McKinley was not at this Grant was on the stand with Andrew Johnson then President of the United States Garfield and Hayes were watching from the Congressional stand and Harrison was riding in the grand review with the men of the 17th Indiana so was at the end of their service the end of the war no not necessarily for these men they were still more to do from the battlefield to the White House Hayes and Garfield were already in Congress all these men had prominent positions in society but still decided to serve in the army during this trying time in American history they all had a background of law and politics all four of them Hayes Garfield Harrison McKinley we're either attorneys or admitted to the bar at some point before they became president of course as we noted earlier grant was the only West pointer and they served for reasons that were common of others and when we asked ourselves what was the impact of the Civil War of course on the grand scale we know about the impact of the war it kept the nation United it brought about the abolition of slavery freedom for over 4 million people held in bondage but what did it do to the people of the nation what did it do for the next generation of American leaders it turned country lawyers state politicians and young students into military and civic leaders and for these men the end of the war was not the end of their service so what did they say about the impact of the war what did they say about their military service well Hayes after the war became a member of the US House of course as we noted he became a Governor of Ohio and he's elected the presidency in 1877 and he gave a speech in 1879 to a reunion of men of the 23rd Ohio it was given on September 17th 1879 the 17th anniversary of Antietam and in that speech he actually asked the question what was the impact of this war what did it do for the country and what he used to explain the impact of the war is something that I think everyone here is familiar with today he quoted the Gettysburg Address he said no statement of the true objects of the war more complete than this has ever been made it includes them all nationality Liberty equal rights and self-government these are the principles for which the Union soldier fought in which it was his aim to maintain and perpetuate they said that all of these men they said the war was a noble undertaking fought for higher ideals of freedom liberty and quality this is something that is found in the speeches of James Garfield who stayed in the House of Representatives all the way until 1880 when it became the Republican nominee for president of course his presidency was tragically short he was shot on July 2nd 1881 and he died on September 19th 1881 18 years to the day after the Battle of Chickamauga his president his presidency only lasted a few months certainly there were controversies regarding his his relationship with William rosecrans his conduct in the Fitz John Porter court-martial but for Garfield he was very proud of his or service but he noted that greater sacrifices had been made in October of 1879 he gave an address to a reunion of Andersonville Prison survivors where he said I have addressed a great many audiences but I never before stood in the presence of one that I felt so whole so wholly unworthy to speak to a man who came through the war without being shot or made a prisoner is almost out of place in such an assemblage as this and then he talked about why these men had reunions and I thought this was fitting given the context of the other lectures that have been in this series of veterans coming back to these battlefields he talked about why we need to commemorate these things he said animals fight but they don't have reunions to commemorate those fights reunions are meant to commemorate fights that are waged in pursuit of higher ideals of truth freedom and equality for Benjamin Harrison he felt very strongly that his service during the Civil War was a defining moment of his life he spoke of it quite often in a speech in September of 1888 a speech to the reunion of the 70th Indiana he wrote he said we are veterans and yet citizens pledged each according to his own conscience and thought to do that which will best promote the glory of our country and best conserve and set in our public measures those patriotic thoughts and purposes that took us into the war it is my wish today that every relation I occupy to the public or to a political party might be absolutely forgotten and that I might for this day among these comrades be thought of only as your comrade your own Colonel he's saying that in 1888 when he's the Republican nominee for president to a reunion of men from his command and what about William McKinley the odd man out when it came to facial hair of this crew what about William McKinley the 25th president his presidency was an end of an era in American history it was 40 years after the war it was the presidency his assassination of course led to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt which was a whole other epoch in American history starting to progress of movement in so many ways McKinley elected in 1896 reelected in 1900 shot in Buffalo New York on September 6th 1901 and he died on September 14th 1901 39 years to the day after the Battle of South Mountain so what about McKinley well he's the last these Civil War veterans to become president and he spoke strongly about the expansion of civil rights because of the Civil War he said that if African Americans were denied the right to a vote that the war quote would seem to have determined nothing to have settled nothing Donelson Antietam Vicksburg and Gettysburg accomplished nothing but the needless slaughter of brave men the surrender at Appomattox was but an idle ceremony he said that in 1885 years before he would become president so what did he say of it when he was president in May of 1980 the dedication of this monument at Antietam battlefield in May of nineteen hundred and his speech that day one would be hard-pressed to find references to equal rights and the expansion of freedom he said the past can never be undone the new day brings its shining Sun to our light our duty now I am glad to preside over a nation of nearly 80 million people more United than they ever have been he said the Valor of the one or the other the Valor of both referring to Union and Confederate forces is the common heritage of his all and I think this speech reflects kind of the the unspoken truth with the reconstruction presidents that these men were Civil War veterans and they believed strongly in the Union cause but the particular tragedy of their stories and the tragedy that I tried to find a way to deal with in this talk somehow and ultimately this speech is the best way I could address it is they presided over a country that saw after the war the failure to fulfill the promises of freedom and equality for millions of people and that's something that we also have to know when considering the reconstruction years but nonetheless the service of these men was remarkable in many ways they were men who saw the country in its time of need and stepped forward and this is the picture of a statue outside the State House in Columbus Ohio featuring Grant Sheridan Sherman Garfield Hays Stanton and chase seven leaders from Ohio during the war now three of the men on this monument went on to become president Harrison at this time this is put there in 1894 he's from Indiana so he's left out and McKinley hasn't been president yet but it reflects the grandeur the grand company that these men were in and I think the best way to summarize the service of these men during the war all the positive qualities that it had the sense that they were serving their country during the war and afterwards they tried to apply that same level of service to their country as president is reflected in a speech that William McKinley gave to a reunion of the 23rd Ohio he said we had a million soldiers in the field when the war terminated and the highest testimony to their character is found in the fact that when muster hour came and that vast army which for years had been accustomed to Wars and carnage returned to their homes they dropped into the quiet walks of citizenship and no trace of them was ever discernible except in the air the integrity of their character their intense patriotism and their participation in the growth and development and maintenance of the government which they contributed so much to save I want to thank everybody for coming out for our lecture today I leave all a good time and enjoy the program I know everybody here at Gettysburg is very glad to have so many of you coming back week after week and so glad to have such strong support for this lecture series thank you very much for your time you you

Channel: GettysburgNPS

Views: 22,614

Rating: 4.8356166 out of 5

Keywords: Rutherford B. Hayes (US President), Ulysses S. Grant (US President), James A. Garfield (US President), Benjamin Harrison (US President), William McKinley (US President), ulysses s grant, Battle Of Chickamauga (Military Conflict), Battle Of Cedar Creek (Military Conflict)

Id: iBVf8L1o2uM

Length: 55min 45sec (3345 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 24 2015