Southern Generals Who Didn't Turn Traitor in the Civil War

[rpannier]

Unlike Robert E Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and the like, these southerners stayed with the U.S.

David Farragut:
You may not know the man, but you likely know his famous battle cry, "Damn the Torpedoes! Full speed ahead!" He urged his naval forces forward in the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864. He lead the capture of New Orleans

George Henry Thomas:
As a teenager, he and his family took to hiding in the woods during the Nat Turner Slave Rebellion in 1831. What he took away from the experience was far different than most people around him did. He decided that maybe the slaves weren't so happy after-all. A close friend of Lee, everyone assumed he'd join the confederacy, but he didn't. His roommate at West Point was William T. Sherman. His units were instrumental in several key Union victories.
His family in Virginia didn't speak to him for years. He reconciled with his brothers, but his sisters never spoke to him again.
He commanded Union victories at the Battle of Mill Springs, Kentucky (1862), Chickamauga in Georgia (1863), and the Battle of Nashville (1864). He was at the Battle of Stone’s River (1862–1863), the Chattanooga Campaign (1863) in Tennessee and, under William T. Sherman, in the Atlanta Campaign (1864).
Thomas commanded African-American soldiers. He was a supporter of civil rights during reconstruction and a confidant of Grant.

William Rufus Terrill:
He wrote to his family, "I am as I have ever been true to my oath, true to my country — and true to the flag that floats over, whose folds I should prefer to be my winding sheet rather than see the dissolution of this once glorious country.”
He was killed in the Battle of Perryville in 1862. He was a Brigadier General at the time.
Two of his three brothers died in the war fighting for the Confederacy. To which I say, quoting the words of Michael Che, "Good"

Phillip St. George Cooke:
Gen Cooke wrote, “I owe Virginia little; my country much.” He is credited the Father of the Modern Cavalry. He lead the successful Peninsula Campaign.
His son chose the confederacy. They didn't speak for decades after the war.
He defeated his son-in-law J.E.B. Stuart who also turned traitor and fought for the south.

Edmund Jackson Davis:
Born in Florida. Family moved to Texas. He chose the Union. He commanded troops in Texas that stayed with America. He was elected governor during Reconstruction. A staunch supporter of civil rights for the freed slaves. He was voted out of office in an election that was likely fraudulent (really fraudulent, as opposed to trump's imaginary one)

John Gibbon:
A soldiers soldier. Born in Philly, his family moved to North Carolina to own property, including slaves. An artillery specialist, when the war broke out he stayed with America, while his brothers joined the traitors. He commanded the "Iron Brigade" at Second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg and Gettysburg. He was wounded at Gettysburg. After recovering, he returned to fight in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, Cold Harbor and Petersburg. He was at Appamatox Courthouse with Grant for Lee's surrender.

Winfred Scott:
Not exactly the greatest person on the list, (he participated in the forced removal of Native Americans in the Trail of Tears) he was the second American General to achieve the ran of Lt. General after George Washington. His poor health and inability to get along with Lincoln lead to his removal and retirement. Though Ulysses S. Grant eventually used a strategy similar to Scott’s proposed “Anaconda Plan” which was instrumental in Union Victory in the war.

[f_townsend]

1. Thank you for this

Reminds us that southerners are as patriotic as anyone else. And plenty of unpatriotic northerners (e.g. Trump)

[rpannier]

2. The one who really caught my attention was Edmund J Davis

I never had thought about people living in Texas (or anywhere else in the South) forming up in defense of the Union staying in the state. I always assumed (erroneously) that they fled north and joined the Union.
But, given the time period, that would be really difficult (and kind of stupid) to travel all that way, join the Union in the north and then go back south again

[Journeyman]

3. There could never be enough statues for Gen. Thomas, nor enough praise heaped upon his name. . . .

Unfortunately, however, outside of the history books -- and even then, rarely in those books not exclusively about Union military tactics in the West -- the "Rock of Chickamauga" is largely unknown and unsung. He holds the distinction, however, as the only Union commander who drove a major Confederate army away from a prepared position in a complete rout -- and he did it twice, first at Chattanooga, later at Nashville.


In a November 1868 report, Thomas noted efforts made by former Confederates to paint the Confederacy in a positive light, stating:

The greatest efforts made by the defeated insurgents since the close of the war have been to promulgate the idea that the cause of liberty, justice, humanity, equality, and all the calendar of the virtues of freedom, suffered violence and wrong when the effort for southern independence failed. This is, of course, intended as a species of political cant, whereby the crime of treason might be covered with a counterfeit varnish of patriotism, so that the precipitators of the rebellion might go down in history hand in hand with the defenders of the government, thus wiping out with their own hands their own stains; a species of self-forgiveness amazing in its effrontery, when it is considered that life and property—justly forfeited by the laws of the country, of war, and of nations, through the magnanimity of the government and people—was not exacted from them.

— George Henry Thomas, November 1868

[Kid Berwyn]

8. Thank you!

George Henry Thomas was a remarkable American.

Great post, OP and thread!

[Frasier Balzov]

4. Winfield Scott (not Winfred)

Commanding General of the United States Army from 1841 until resigning under Lincoln after the start of the Civil War.

A Virginian by birth.

Union patriot who became too fat for his horse.

[ITAL]

9. He's also arguably

One of the best general's in US History. Putting aside whether the Mexican American War was unjust or not, his campaign was pretty amazing. Even the Duke of Wellington, vanquisher of Napoleon, said Scott was probably the greatest General of the age.

[Frasier Balzov]

11. So had he lost his mojo by the Civil War?

Lincoln seemed to have had no confidence in him.

Honoring him by working around him.

[ITAL]

12. He was kinda old

I mean, we don't even let generals stick around in their mid 70s nowadays, much less then. The Anaconda plan was his though.

[DemocraticPatriot]

5. Gen. Henry Thomas, "the Rock of Chickamaugua"

probably the most famous of that group, a Virginian...

[Karadeniz]

6. Fascinating... I never knew!

[Irish_Dem]

7. Profiles in Courage.

Always impressive and deserving of praise.

[okaawhatever]

10. A little tidbit here, Gloria Johnson, of the Tennessee Three graduated from, and taught at, Farragut

High School. The school was named for Admiral Farragut.