Who is your favorite character from the Civil war Days? (state, attack)

[bluescityleon]

Originally Posted by Grandstander

The cast is far too large for me to identify a favorite Civil War personality. Those reading the "This Day" thread know that I have an affection for the ones inclined to bombast and color....Earl Van Dorn, The Pathfinder, Benjamin "The Beast" Butler, Jeb Stuart.

There is so much that does not make it into popular histories and is only found in reading the personal papers and memoirs of the participants. For example, Abner Doubleday was among the defenders of Fort Sumter in 1861 and he left behind a wonderful account of the action. In order to sustain a continuous fire, Major Anderson had the guns worked by crews which relieved one another after a few hours of work. Doubleday's troop worked the first shift on one gun and then was relieved by his friend Captain Seymour. He reports the event as...



Chapter X - The Bombardment; Reminiscences of Forts Sumter and Moultrie

At Bunker Hill sharpshooter was handed a fresh rifle that had to be passed and reloaded and a fresh one passed up. Unfortunate for the young crack-shot he was un-trained and never learned to conceal himself. Even so he dinged 25 rushing red coats, or more, and some officers before a red coat spotted him...but I degress.........that was Bunker Hill. I bevieve the motivation for the Revolution........the Civil War is a puzzle to me
...the personal motives of individuals....and the senement of the dicision makers........the planers and economic stradegist , I wonder what they were thinking...feeling was strong....but was war the only way?

[ovcatto]

Originally Posted by bluescityleon

I bevieve the motivation for the Revolution........the Civil War is a puzzle to me
...the personal motives of individuals....and the senement of the dicision makers........the planers and economic stradegist , I wonder what they were thinking...feeling was strong....but was war the only way?

Romanticism - all too often the motivation of young men - played no small part in the personal motivation of many. This was the age of Romanticism and war was a principle subject of poets during the Age of Romanticism. Then there was the sense of belonging and loyalty to one's kin and one's neighbors, Johnny is marching off to the glorious war thus I must go as well. And of course the war would be a short affair or so many thought. Unfortunately those who foisted war upon the South were quite gifted in shaping a rather distorted narrative. Fire Breathers like William Lowndes Yancey it may sound vaguely (or not so vaguely) familiar;

This was because a great party, bound together by enthusiasm and unity of purpose, proposed through the ballot-box to change the nature of the Government and overthrow the Constitution. The forms through which the Constitution could be legally changed were to be disregarded, and they proposed to triumph by numerical force. They proposed to give us a new Government, based on a different set of principles, and to establish a law higher than the Constitution. The author of the “irrepressible conflict” idea had been put forward as a sectional candidate for the Presidency, and it was proposed to elect him by a sectional vote. That party had a skilled and accomplished leader, WM.H. SEWARD, who tells us that this is a contest between Freedom and Slavery, which must go on till all the States are free or all are slave. Mr. SEWARD called this a contest with Slavery, but he called it a contest with the Constitution.

[Fortoggie]

That was such a bloody, wide spread and now I believe unnecessary war that I have given up on my old hero's who ranged from Robert E. Lee to Lincoln and a dozen others and I have retreated to the movie- Cold Mountain
, sort of depicts for me that whole sordid affair. He went off like so many other southerners thinking that they would go teach those yankees a lesson and be home in a few weeks to brag about it.
There was nobody smart enough are powerful enough to wage peace.

[P47P47]

Alexander Little - 19th Arkansas Infantry, Company C

Charles Love - Union Army (not sure of regiment)

[alte hornise]

My absolute favorite would have to be my great-great grandfather, who served in Co.K, 15th Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry.
As for a major historical figure, I would have to go with Lt.Gen. U.S. Grant. He knew what it would take to finally defeat Lee & the Army of Northern Virginia, and finally end that awful war.
Lee is a very noble and sympathetic figure, but I am glad that his efforts were ultimately in vain, and the Union was re-united.

[Frihed89]

Phillip Sheridan

[Seeker5in1]

Thomas E. Jackson (Stonewall), a brilliant tactician and a devout Christian.

[yinduffy]

I have a soft spot for U.S. General James S. Wadsworth. A white-haired 54 year old independently wealthy philanthropist when the war began, he forsake a salary to serve his country the best way he could.
His men respected and liked him. He had never been a professional military man but did OK and didn't let anybody down.
When he was killed at Wilderness, the Rebs respected him and his reputation and returned his body ( though they kept a good map which they found on him).

[mwruckman]

Originally Posted by CountryCarr

Always liked T.J. "Stonewall" Jackson......great potential cut short..

We in the Union were very lucky his own boys gunned him down by accident during the Battle of the Wilderness. He was quite a handful at places like Antietam (Sharpsburg to you southerns), Harper's Ferry and places like Manasas. Just imagine if he instead of John Bell Hood and Longstreet had been calling the shots the day the Grey tried to take the Roundtops! There may never have been a need for Pickett's Charge.

[mwruckman]

My hero is Joshua Lawrence Chamberlaine, a scholar (he taught at and was President of Bowdoin College) , statesman (Governor of Maine for 3 terms) and the commander of the 20th Maine who very likely saved the Union on July 2nd 1863.