Burnside, Ambrose E.
Union General Ambrose Burnside’s contained an odd mix of ups and downs. During the war’s first two years, he quickly rose to the rank of Major General for his services at First Bull Run and in a daring coastal raid on North Carolina. He was then given command of the IX Corps at the Battle of Antietam where he was responsible for the costly, although successful, attack on what became known as Burnside’s Bridge. Soon after, he replaced General McClellan as commander of the Union Army of the Potomac but was quickly relieved after the disastrous Union attack on Marie’s Heights at the Battle of Fredericksburg and the subsequent “mud march,” which resulted in his reassignment to the Department of Ohio. Here, he showed his abilities in the capture
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and subsequent defense of Knoxville, defeating the renowned Confederate General James Longstreet, and soon after was reassigned back to the Army of the Potomac as the commander of the IX Corps where he performed well during the Overland Campaign, most notably at Spotsylvania. Although Grant and Meade deserve some blame, the disaster at the crater was ultimately pinned on Burnside, who was relieved of command after the battle. He resigned his commission the next year on April 15. After the war, he served as a Senator from Rhode Island and became the first president of the NRA in 1871. He died on September 13, 1881.
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Ferrero, Edward
General Edward Ferrero has one of the more interesting backgrounds of the Union officer corps. Originally born in Spain to two Italian political exiles (his father was a friend of Giuseppe Garibaldi), his family immigrated to New York not long after his birth. In the years before the war, he was both a Lieutenant Colonel in the New York National Guard and a nationally renowned dance instructor. When the war broke out, he organized the 51st New York regiment and was eventually assigned to General Burnside for his North Carolina raid.
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Ferrero would stay with Burnside and the Union IX Corps throughout the war, serving with distinction at Vicksburg and Knoxville, and eventually coming to command its 4th Division, consisting entirely of African Americans (including many contrabands) from Maryland. In the lead-up to the Battle of the Crater, Ferrero thoroughly prepared his men for the attack, work that was squandered when General Meade ordered the 4th Division replaced by a white division. After seeing his men over the top when they finally joined the battle, he then retired to a bombproof and drank the battle away with the 1st Division’s commander, General James Ledlie. After the battle both Burnside and Ledlie were relieved of command, but General Ferrero maintained his position until the end of the war. He then returned to his dance career until his death on December 11, 1899.
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Hall, Henry S.
Lieutenant Colonel Henry Seymour Hall was a soldier of remarkable ability. When the war broke out in 1861, he organized a group of his fellow students to enlist as G Company, of the 27th New York regiment. Initially serving as a private, he was quickly commissioned and found himself promoted to the rank of Captain and in command of his company of classmates a year after entering the service. Seeing action at some of the war’s biggest battles, including Antietam, Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel
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and assigned to command the 43rd USCTs in May 1864. During the Battle of the Crater, his regiment led the rest of his division’s attack and was responsible for taking almost all of the Confederate prisoners captured that day (over 200). Unfortunately, Hall lost an arm during the battle and would serve out the war as a recruiter. After the war, he became a farmer in Missouri where he was active in local county politics. In 1891, he received the Medal of Honor for his actions at the battles of Gaines Mill and Rappahannock Station. He died in Missouri in 1908.
Sources
-“Captain Henry Seymour Hall,” Antietam on the Web. [link]
-Henry Seymour Hall, “Personal Experience of a Staff Officer at Mine Run and Albemarle County Raid, and as Commander of the 43rd Regiment U.S. Colored Troops, Through the Wilderness Campaign, and at the Mine Before Petersburg, Virginia: From November 7, 1863, to July 30, 1864: A Paper Prepared and Read Before the Kansas Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, October 3, 1894,” (Leavenworth, KS: s.n.), 1894. [link]
-Henry Seymour Hall, “Personal Experience of a Staff Officer at Mine Run and Albemarle County Raid, and as Commander of the 43rd Regiment U.S. Colored Troops, Through the Wilderness Campaign, and at the Mine Before Petersburg, Virginia: From November 7, 1863, to July 30, 1864: A Paper Prepared and Read Before the Kansas Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, October 3, 1894,” (Leavenworth, KS: s.n.), 1894. [link]
Harp, Adolphus
Private Adolphus Harp was a member of F company, 19th USCT regiment. Harp was a former slave from Maryland, one of the border states still loyal to the Union and thus not directly subjected to Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. In December 1863, Harp took advantage of a General Order from the War Department that offered freedom to Maryland slaves that would be willing to fight for the Union. Bearing large scars from his life under the whip, Harp joined the 19th USCT regiment.
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In April, the 19th was assigned to Ferrero's 4th Division and saw its first action at the Wilderness, although limited in scope. Harp was wounded at the Battle of the Crater and seems to have spent the remainder of the war at L'Overture Hospital in Alexandria, Virginia.
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Mahone, William
General William Mahone was commissioned into the Confederate Army shortly after the outbreak of the war in April 1861. As both a slave owner and member of the Democratic Party, he was in favor of secession from the start and would see the war to its finish. Eventually coming to command a Division in General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, he would serve in most of the major engagements in the eastern theater (excluding the 1862 Maryland Campaign due to a wound he received at Second Bull Run) including
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Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and the major battles of the Overland Campaign. He was also elected to Virginia’s state senate in 1863 and served in absentia until the end of the war. At the Battle of the Crater, Mahone was responsible for leading the Confederate counterattack that broke the IX Corps and many of his men participated in the massacre of black troops that took place afterwards. Mahone surrendered at Appomattox with the rest of Lee’s army on April 8, 1865. After the war, Mahone became a railroad tycoon before being elected to the US Senate. It seems he felt guilty for his ownership of slaves and the actions of his men at the crater as, during his time in office, he was the primary voice for the short-lived Readjuster Party, a biracial coalition that sought to pay of the south’s debt and restore social services such as schools. The Readjuster Party eventually collapsed and Mahone lost reelection in 1886, although he continued his involvement in Virginia politics as a Republican until his death in 1895.