I like to think I would have got to him eventually, but an email query from distant descendent Gene Siscoe brought Captain J.M. Cutts, Jr. (1837-1903) to my attention yesterday. The question concerned his actions on General Burnside’s staff at Antietam in 1862. Sadly, I can’t help much there, Cutts is only listed as present in Burnside’s after-action report.

But the Cutts story does have tendrils reaching interesting spots and connects with some names you’ll certainly know.

etching by B. Wall from A Lincoln Reprimand (1950)

Cutts served for about 6 weeks in mid-1861 as Private in the 1st Rhode Island Volunteers, and then accepted an appointment as Captain in the new 11th United States Infantry. He was then about 24 years old. By Antietam he was an Aide-de-Camp to Major General Ambrose Burnside, under whom he had served in the 1st Rhode Island. Because of his apparent lack of previous military experience, I’d guess his US Army commission and staff postion were based on family connections. (more…)

Mr Erik Himmel of Schriever, Louisiana has kindly sent me a pile of information about his great-great-grandfather, the late Captain Victor Joseph St. Martin, for use in a biographical sketch on Antietam on the Web. Captain St. Martin was wounded and captured in action at Sharpsburg while commanding Company K of the 8th Louisiana Volunteer Infantry.

V. J. St. Martin (CDV courtesy E. Himmel)

St. Martin returned to his Regiment, but was later killed on Cemetery Hill Ridge at Gettysburg. (more…)

I should avoid online Civil War discussion groups. They just give me more research threads to pull. Like I need more.

I’d been following a discussion about artillery over on the American Civil War Message Board. I was thinking I could contribute on a question about unit organization, which referred to Battery B, 1st New York Light Artillery, as an example.

R.D. Pettit, c. 1861-65

First, I looked to see what that battery was doing at Antietam, and noticed the commander was Captain Rufus Petit (above). I didn’t have much on the Captain, but did know that he had been dismissed from the service in 1865. I wondered why. He seemed to have served honorably on the Peninsula and at Antietam. “Dismissed” is usually bad. (more…)

Let me introduce you to “Gus” Osborne, late of North Carolina and Confederate service.

As a 25 year old Captain, he briefly led the 4th Regiment of North Carolina State Troops in action in the Sunken Road at Sharpsburg on September 17th, 1862, before being struck down and captured by the enemy there. He survived both that experience and the War, however, living to be nearly 90 years of age.

Edwin Osborne, 1864-5

Edwin Augustus Young Osborne was raised by his “pioneer” father, Dr. Ephriam Osborne, in the wilds of Alabama, Arkansas, and Texas in the 1840s and 50s before coming to North Carolina at age 22. Family lore has it that he walked alone from Texas to an aunt’s in Charlotte, and that he enrolled in a military school at Statesville.

He probably helped raise a company of soldiers in Iredell County, and was commissioned Captain in what became Company H of the 4th NCST as that unit was organized in May of 1861. He served with his Regiment in the campaigns of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia thereafter. He was wounded in action at Seven Pines in May 1862, but was back with his unit in time to join the Maryland Campaign. (more…)

Doing research into the people and events of the Maryland Campaign is often a game of large effort invested for little return. In some cases, though, the reverse is true, and the clues revealed can be a bit overwhelming.

One such case is a story I’ve been working on and off for about a year now. It centers on Captain Enoch E. Lewis, Company K, 71st Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers. Or maybe it centers on President Lincoln, I’m not sure yet. All I have right now is a collection of hints and pointers to interesting relationships and events.

The bare bones are these:

Lewis, a young lawyer of privileged background, of Philadelphia society, joined Oregon Senator Edward Baker‘s famed ‘California Regiment’ in 1861 as Captain of Company K. He served bravely in action through the battle of Antietam (September 1862), where he briefly succeeded to command of the regiment as senior officer present.

There is significant evidence that he and (by then) Major R. Penn Smith, another Philadelphia dandy who was the regiment’s first Adjutant, had clashed personally and professionally. Was it a long-standing feud? Slights given and received while in service? Perhaps both, I can’t tell yet.

Following Antietam, Captain Lewis was reported absent and shortly afterward charged–presumably by Major Smith– then arrested and court-martialled for being absent without permission and conduct ‘unbecoming an officer’ and ‘prejudicial to good order and discipline’. (more…)