SELECTED BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
Charles P. Stone
1824--1887, Massachusetts
USMA 1845
 Charles P. Stone (Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and US Army Military History Institute) |
After graduating from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, Stone served as an ordnance officer with Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott's army in Mexico. There, he was brevetted first lieutenant and captain. After the war he spent five years as chief of ordnance of the Pacific Department. In 1856 Stone "" resigned from the Army and was employed by the Mexican government as a surveyor. With the out break of war in 1861, Stone returned to Washington and as inspector general of the District of Columbia militia secured the capital for the arrival of President-elect Abraham Lincoln. Stone was appointed a colonel of the 14th US Regulars in May and a brigadier general of volunteers in August. He commanded a brigade in the Shenandoah Valley during the First Bull Run campaign and afterward commanded a division, the Corps of Observation, guarding the fords on the upper Potomac. In October 1861 he sent a portion of his command to attack a suspected Confederate camp near Leesburg, Virginia, and it was soundly defeated at the ensuing Battle of Ball's Bluff. Stone bore the brunt of public and congressional criticism. In February 1862 he was arrested in the middle of the night, without charges being preferred, and confined for 189 days. Stone was released without explanation. It was not until 1863 that he was given another assignment, in the Department of the Gulf. But in April 1864 the Secretary of War ordered Stone mustered out of his commission, and Stone was without a command. He finally resigned from the Army in September of the same year. After the war he served thirteen years as chief of staff in the Egyptian Army, and
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later he returned to the United States, where he served as an engineer on the foundation for the Statue of Liberty.
Edward D. Baker
1811-1861, England.
 Edward D. Baker (Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and US Army Military History Institute) |
At the age of four Baker and his family left England to come to America, arriving at Philadelphia. He later moved to Illinois, where he was admitted to the bar in 1830. Five years later he became acquainted with Abraham Lincoln and soon became involved in local politics, being elected to the U. S. Congress in 1837, and the US Senate in 1840. In 1844, while living in Springfield, he defeated 5. Lincoln for the nomination for the US congressional seat and was elected. The two remained close friends, however, with Lincoln naming one of his sons Edward Baker Lincoln. During the Mexican War, Baker briefly dropped out of politics and served as a colonel of the 4th Illinois Volunteers. He returned to Springfield in 1848, but, rather than run against Lincoln again for nomination to the U. S. Congress, Baker moved to Galena, where he was nominated and elected to Congress. In 1852, after failing to receive a cabinet appointment under President Franklin Pierce, Baker moved to California, where he was admitted to the state bar. In 1860 he moved again, this time to Oregon, where he was elected to the U. S. Senate. In May 1861 he was authorized by the Secretary of War to organize an infantry regiment to be taken as part of the quota from California. Recruiting mostly in Philadelphia, Baker raised the 1st California Infantry and served as its colonel. A few months later he was assigned command of a brigade in General Stone's division, guarding fords along the Potomac River north of Washington. On 21 October 1861, Baker was killed at the Battle of Ball's Bluff.
Charles P. Devens
1820-1891, Massachusetts
Devens graduated from Harvard University in 1838 and Harvard Law School in 1840 and was admitted to the Massachusetts bar. He later
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 Charles P. Devens (Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and US Army Military History Institute) |
served as a state senator, US marshal, and state militia officer. With the outbreak of war Devens was mustered into Federal service as a. major of the 3 d Battalion of Massachusetts Rifles, a ninety-day regiment. Just before the Battle of First Bull Run the unit's enlistment expired, and the men mustered out. Devens was then commissioned a colonel of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry. In October 1861 his unit participated in the Battle of Ball's Bluff, where he was forced to swim the Potomac River to escape capture. He was promoted to brigadier general in April 1862 and assigned command of a brigade of the IV Corps, Army of the Potomac, from the Peninsula campaign to the Battle of Fredericksburg. In May 1863 at Chancellorsville Devens commanded a division of the XI Corps, where he was wounded and his division virtually destroyed by Lt. Gen. Thomas J. Jackson's flank attack. Returning to duty, Devens commanded a division in the Army of the James during 1864 and 1865 and after the Confederate surrender at Appomattox commanded the District of Charleston, South Carolina. In 1867 he was appointed a judge of the superior court and in 1873 a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Court. Four years later Devens was appointed US Attorney General under President Rutherford B. Hayes, after he had turned down the position of Secretary of War.
William R. Lee
1804-1891, Massachusetts
Lee was a classmate of Robert E. Lee in the West Point class of 1829 but dropped out prior to the completion of his studies. He served for a time as a civil engineer and railroad superintendent and in July 1861 was appointed a colonel of the 20th Massachusetts Infantry. He was captured at the Battle of Ball's Bluff in October and with others was held as a hostage for the good treatment of the captured crew of the Confederate privateer Savannah. He was exchanged in April 1862 and rejoined his regiment. At the Battle of Nelson's Farm in June 1862, he was severely injured when his horse fell on him. Nevertheless, he participated in the
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 William R. Lee (Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and US Army Military History Institute) |
Peninsula campaign and the Battle of Antietam. At Antietam, even though he was the senior colonel present in his brigade, he refused to accept temporary command of the brigade when the commanding officer was wounded. His regiment served at the Battle of Fredericksburg on 13 December 1862. Two days later Lee was assigned command of the 3d Brigade in the II Corps, but he immediately offered his resignation from the Army, which was accepted on 17 December 1862.
Issac J. Winstar
1827-1905, Pennsylvania
 Issac J. Wistar (Catherine Vanderslice Collection, US Army Military History Institute) |
After graduating from Haverford College, Wistar studied law and opened a practice in Philadelphia. In 1853 he became a law partner of Edward D. Baker. In 1861 Wistar assisted Baker in raising the 1st California Infantry and was appointed a lieutenant colonel. After Baker, who had been the regiment's colonel, was assigned command of the brigade, Wistar commanded the 1st California Infantry at the Battle of Ball's Bluff in October 1861. There, he was wounded three times, his right arm being completely disabled, and was carried from the field. In November 1861, while convalescing, he was appointed colonel of the regiment. Although his arm was still disabled, Wistar returned to duty with the regiment in time to participate in the Battle of Antietam in September, where he was wounded again, in his left arm. In
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March 1863 he was promoted to brigadier general and in May assigned a brigade in Brig. Gen. George W. Getty's division stationed at Suffolk, Virginia. In May 1864 he was briefly in command of a brigade of the XVIII Corps, Army of the James, but was soon relieved. He seems to have held no other command, until he resigned in September 1864. After the war he practiced law, became prominent in the coal business, and at one time was president of the American Philosophical Society and Academy of Natural Sciences. In 1892 he founded the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia, the first independent medical research facility in the United States.
Milton Cogswell
1825-18 82, Indiana
USMA 1849
![Photo: Milton Cogswell (Civil War Library & Museum, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States [MOLLUS], Philadelphia, Pa.)](photos/pg71.JPG) Milton Cogswell (Civil War Library & Museum, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States [MOLLUS], Philadelphia, Pa.) |
After graduating from the U.S. Military Academy in 1849 Cogswell was assigned to the 8th US Infantry and served at Sackett's Harbor, New York, until 1850, when he was transferred to frontier duty in Texas. A year later he was assigned to the Military Academy, first as an assistant professor of mathematics and later as w assistant professor of infantry tactics. In 1855 Cogswell served on frontier duty in New Mexico. In May 1861 he was promoted to captain and shortly afterward appointed a colonel of volunteers in command of the 42d New York Infantry. At the Battle of Ball's Bluff on 21 October, Cogswell was captured and remained a prisoner of war until exchanged in September 1862. Assigned a colonel of volunteers of the 2d New York Heavy Artillery the following month, he resigned his volunteer commission in April 1863. During the final years of the war Cogswell served generally in various administrative posts in New York. After the war he served in North and South Carolina as an acting judge advocate general; assistant commissary of musters; assistant commissioner of the Freedmen's Bureau; provisional mayor of Charleston, South Carolina; in the Bureau of Civil Affairs; military commander of Columbia, South Carolina; and military commander of Charleston, South Carolina. Beginning in 1869 he served with the 21st Infantry in Arizona, until his retirement in 1871.
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Nathan G. Evans
1824-1868, South Carolina
USMA 1848
 Nathan G. Evans (Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and US Army Military History Institute) |
After graduation from the U. S. Military Academy, Evans served on the western frontier with the dragoons and cavalry, before resigning in 1861 to enter Confederate service. He was commissioned a colonel and commanded a small brigade at the Battle of First Bull Run, where it was said his command went far toward saving the day for the South. During the thick of the fight, he was everywhere, closely followed by an aide carrying a jug of Evans' favorite whiskey. His brigade later was assigned to guard the upper fords of the Potomac, above Washington. In October 1861 a Union force crossed the river near Leesburg and at the Battle of Ball's Bluff Evans' command drove the enemy into the Potomac River, inflicting great loss. Evans was promoted to brigadier general to be effective the day of the battle. Evans' brigade participated in the battles of South Mountain and Antietam in September 1862 and was assigned to General Joseph E. Johnston's army during the Vicksburg campaign as well as campaigns in North Carolina. His passion for alcoholic beverages led to constant difficulties with his superiors, and he was subsequently tried for drunkenness and acquitted and later for disobedience of orders and also acquitted. General P. G. T. Beauregard considered Evans incompetent and had him removed from command for a time. After the war Evans became a high school principal in Alabama, where he died in 1868.
Eppa Hunton
1822-1908, Virginia
After graduating from the New Baltimore Academy, Hunton taught school for three years, then studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1843. He became prominent as an officer in the Virginia militia and as a commonwealth's attorney. With the outbreak of war in 1861 Hunton was commissioned a colonel of the 8th Virginia Infantry, which participated
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 Eppa Hunton (Massachusetts Commandery Military Order of the Loyal Legion and US Army Military History Institute) |
in the Battle of First Bull Run in July. In October his regiment was part of Evans' brigade near Leesburg, where he led his command against a Union force at Ball's Bluff, driving it into the Potomac River. Afterward, Hunton held brigade command in Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's division, Maj. Gen. George Pickett's division, and the Department of Richmond, being promoted to brigadier general in August 1863. After service in the defenses of Richmond, he rejoined Pickett's division and fought at Cold Harbor and in the Richmond and Petersburg siege lines. In March 1865 his command fought a delaying action at Five Forks and again the following month at Sayler's Creek, where he was captured. After the war Hunton resumed his former law practice and became involved in politics. From 1873 to 1881 he served in the US Congress and in the US Senate from 1892 to 1895.
Walter H. Jenifer
1823--1878, Maryland
Jenifer, the son of a former member of Congress and minister to Austria, entered the U. S. Military Academy in 1841 (along with Charles P. Stone) but withdrew two years later. In 1847 Jenifer was commissioned a lieutenant of infantry, transferred two months later to the 3d Dragoons, and in 1855 was assigned to the 2d Cavalry, serving with Nathan G. Evans. While serving with the 2d Cavalry, Jenifer patented a cavalry saddle that would be used in substantial numbers by Confederate and some Union cavalry during the Civil War. In February 1861, while he was stationed in Texas, that state seceded from the Union and officers of the 2d Cavalry were offered positions in the Confederate Army. Jenifer declined the offer, although he was sympathetic to the Southern cause. Instead, he planned to offer his services to his home state of Maryland, if it seceded. Maryland did not secede, but in April Jenifer resigned his US commission and unsuccessfully attempted to organize a company of Maryland cavalry for Confederate service. By July 1861 Jenifer had been commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the Confederacy and commanded
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several companies of Virginia cavalry in Brig. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's brigade at the Battle of First Bull Run. Afterward, Jenifer was assigned to Col. Nathan G. Evans' brigade near Leesburg, where in October 1861 his cavalry companies participated in the Battle of Ball's Bluff. In early 1862 Jenifer, now a colonel, was assigned to command the 8th Virginia Cavalry but was relieved of command when the regiment was reorganized shortly thereafter. Throughout the remainder of the war, he served mostly in the Department of the Gulf as inspector of cavalry and a cavalry commander. After the war Jenifer was one of fifty former Union and Confederate officers to accept commissions and serve in the Egyptian Army (including Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone). Jenifer was commissioned a colonel in the Egyptian Army in 1870, agreeing to fight for Egypt in any war except one against the United States. Two years later, his health affected by his foreign service, Jenifer returned to the United States and began operating a horse farm in Maryland. With the assistance of the khedive of Egypt, Jenifer imported and raised Arabian horses in Baltimore, Maryland, winning top awards at local fairs before his death in 1878.
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Last updated 13 July 2006 |