Many cemeteries in the eastern, southern and midwestern states hold the remains of many of the men who figured during the American Civil War. One of the best-known cemeteries is the huge grounds of Spring Grove in Cincinnati, Ohio. Here, lie 41 generals buried along with 999 veterans of the long war.
GENERALS OF SPRING GROVE
Some forty Federal generals’ repose in the vast cemetery here at Spring Grove. You can get a civil-war-generals-buried-at-spring-grove-cemetery of the gentlemen here courtesy of the cemetery. Many of the men here in Spring Grove were “brevet” generals. Officers used to be rewarded for bravery and outstanding conduct not with medals, but with brevet ranks. These ranks were honorary and did not count for pay or authority purposes. This practice in the American army borrowed from the British army, started during the Revolutionary War. During the Civil War, many brevet promotions granted at the end of the war, became rewards for meritorious service. Brevet ranks went for either the U.S. Volunteers, the Regular Army or for both. It was possible for an officer to hold four different ranks at one time – normal rank in Volunteer and Regular plus a brevet rank in both branches.
Some generals rose to very high rank during the war but dropped back to a much lower rank in the Regular Army at the war’s end. Over 1,000 officers reached the brevet rank of either brigadier or major general during the war. The majority of the brevet awards became awarded 13 March 1865.
JOSEPH HOOKER
Many of the “generals” of Spring Grove fall into the late bloomer category. Twenty-six of the forty gained brevets to the rank of general having served at ranks below that level during the war. That is not to say their stories are not interesting, it is just that you might not be familiar with those stories. Most of them served in the West, though not all. The highest-ranking officer is Joseph Hooker originally from Massachusetts – a statue of him sits next to the Capitol in Boston. He lies buried here with his wife who hailed from Cincinnati.
The highest-ranking officer is Joseph Hooker originally from Massachusetts – a statue of him sits next to the Capitol in Boston. Hooker began the war in California from where he earlier resigned his commission from the federal army. A graduate of West Point in 1840, he took an active role in the Mexican War fighting with Winfield Scott’s Mexico City campaign.
After the war, Hooker posted to California left the army occupying himself with several projects, none very successful. Drinking and gambling became serious roadblocks. Just before the Civil War, he appeared recovering more purpose in life serving as a road constructor responsible for building a military road through southwestern Oregon.
With the onset of the war, Hooker went east to see if he could take part in the new adventure. More of that story you can read here.
REBIRTH IN THE WEST
Suffice it to say, he worked his way to command the Army of the Potomac before running afoul of the many enemies he gathered along his journey to the top. Relieved just before Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln (To whom Hooker owed much in his advancements) gave him a new assignment as commander of two Army of the Potomac corps – the 11th and 12th – sent to the West after the Federal defeat at Chickamauga. His men helped re-open the supply route into Chattanooga and played a significant role in that following campaign. The two corps played the primary role in the Battle of Lookout Mountain before playing a supporting role at Missionary Ridge the following day.
Hooker went on commanding his corps through much of the Atlanta campaign before running afoul of old enemies once again. William Sherman, in command of the Federal armies in Georgia, did not like Hooker. Those feelings went back to dealings between the two in California. When the commander of one of those Federal armies under Sherman – the Army of the Ohio – died 22 July 1864 at the Battle of Atlanta. Hooker was the senior commander available, but Sherman passed him over in favor of Otis O. Howard, a corps commander under Hooker.
OUT AGAIN
Sherman knew this would insult Hooker – Hooker still laid much blame for his defeat at Chancellorsville at Howard’s feet – and he was right. Hooker resigned his post with the Georgian army. He was then shuffled to a backwater post – Northern Department – commanding from, first Columbus, Ohio and later, Cincinnati.
CINCINNATI SEGUE
In Cincinnati, he met Olivia Grosebeck, the middle-aged daughter of a prominent banker. Married 3 October 1865, the couple did not have much chance to live together as Hooker suffered a stroke a few weeks after their marriage. Slowly recovering, Hooker did return to his army duties in 1866. Another stroke in 1867 forced him to apply for a leave of absence from the military. Hoping to aid his recovery, the couple took off for an extended trip to Europe.
Soon after their return in 1867, Olivia fell ill dying 15 July 1868 of tuberculosis. Another stroke three months later forced Hooker to retire from the army. He would live until 31 October 1879 suffering from partial paralysis from his strokes. Both Olivia and Joseph originally lie in graves in New York. They came to be re-buried here at Spring Grove in 1880.
THE FIGHTING MCCOOKS
The Fighting McCooks account for three more actual generals and one brevet general. The McCooks hailed from eastern Ohio – Daniel raising his family in Carrollton while John grew his in Steubenville. Buried here at Spring Grove is Daniel’s family – John’s family lies, for the most part, at Union Cemetery in Steubenville.
John, as a physician, volunteered his services to the Union army. He was joined by another brother George, a surgeon – joined also by his son. Daniel volunteered to serve as a paymaster. Nine of his sons joined the cause – the “Tribe of Dan”. Three would die in combat. John and his five sons – the “Tribe of John” – all survived.
They are deserving of another post.
WILLIAM LYTLE
Of the others, William H. Lytle is the most famous of the Spring Grove generals. His body retrieved from where he had fell at Chickamauga and laid in state in the rotunda of the county courthouse in Cincinnati. The next day, his funeral was probably the grandest of all who lie buried here at Spring Grove with so many people lining the streets of Cincinnati that Lytle’s cortege did not reach the cemetery until dusk. Four militia regiments marched along the route complete with bands and an artillery battery. The hearse drawn by six white horses was draped in black with a horse following behind with empty boots in the stirrups.
His monument stands close to the entry to the cemetery made of Carrara marble. On the south side of the monument is a bas-relief showing the general leading his men at Chickamauga. An eagle sits atop with a garland of laurel leaves.
Lytle before the war was a politician and member of one Cincinnati’s leading families. He was one of America’s leading poets – his poem “Anthony and Cleopatra” written in 1858 well known throughout both the North and the South. Raising the 10th Ohio at the beginning of the war, Lytle suffered wounds twice before. The second time, at Perryville, where he also became subsequently captured. At Chickamauga, Lytle was shot down by a Confederate sniper supposedly with the approval of General Bragg. His body was brought to the attention of Confederate general Patton Anderson who set a guard over the body. He had knew Lytle from the Democratic Convention of 1860.
FROM ANTHONY AND CLEOPATRA
“I am dying, Egypt, dying.
WILLIAM LYTLE
Ebbs the crimson life-tide fast,
And the dark Plutonian shadows
Gather on the evening blast;
Let thine arm, oh Queen, enfold me
Hush thy sobs and bow thine ear,
Listen to the great heart secrets
Thou, and thou alone, must hear.
….
I am dying, Egypt, dying;
Hark! The insulting foeman’s cry;
They are coming; quick, my falchion!
Let me front them ere I die.
Ah, no more amid the battle
Shall my heart exulting swell;
Isis and Osiris guard thee, –
Cleopatra, Rome, farewell!”
Many of the Spring Grove generals lie buried in family plots marked with tall monuments making it possible to spy their final resting places underneath a foot of snow. Some do not. Men like Jacob Ammen whose gravestone sits flat to the ground have to wait my ‘official’ visit for a time when the snows have melted.
JEPTHA GARRARD
Among those generals whom I could find among the snows – and rain – of Spring Grove include the family plot of Jeptha and Kenner Garrard, a pair of brothers who both reached the rank of general – Jeptha’s was of the brevet variety. Another brother, Israel, also was a Federal general as was a cousin, Theophilus Garrard. Jeptha started out the war as a captain in the cavalry before becoming the colonel of the 1st U.S. Colored Cavalry late in the war.
KENNER GARRARD
Kenner was a West Pointer graduating in 1851. He served in the Southwest during the decade before the war in the cavalry. Imprisoned in the South at the start of the war, his parole terms kept him from taking an active part in the war until 27 August 1862 when he became the colonel of the 146th New York which he led as a part of the Army of the Potomac. He took over Stephen Weed’s brigade when Weed died at Gettysburg on the second day of that battle.
Kenner became a brigadier general later in July 1863 and given a boost to major in the Regular Army. He next went west to the Army of the Cumberland to lead the 2nd Cavalry division during the Atlanta campaign.
Next, he led the 2nd division of Major General Andrew Smith’s 16th Corps providing George Thomas with the critical veterans needed to crush Hood at Nashville in December of 1864. Ending the war in Mobile, Kenner gained brevets to brigadier and major general of the Regulars for his war service. He resigned in 1866 to work in real estate. He and Jeptha lie here in the family plot, two of the Spring Grove generals.
WILLIAM BALDWIN
William Henry Baldwin was a graduate of Harvard Law School coming to Cincinnati afterwards to set up a law practice, but he Italian Civil War broke out. Baldwin joined Garibaldi as a foreign volunteer. With the onset of the American Civil War, Baldwin returned to Ohio becoming the lieutenant colonel of the 83rd Ohio. That regiment fought at Chickasaw Bluffs, Arkansas Post and Vicksburg.
During the subsequent Mobile campaign near the end of the war, Baldwin led a charge which captured a vital fort. The Confederate commander, Francis M. Cockerill, was called upon to surrender the fort and he asked to whom he was to surrender the fort to.
Baldwin replied, “The 83rd Ohio.” Cockerill – who would go on to serve five consecutive terms as U.S. senator from Missouri after the war – answered back, “I believe we did that once before.” Cockerill’s Missouri brigade had actually surrendered to the same Ohio regiment at Vicksburg in July 1863. Following the war, Baldwin returned to Cincinnati earning a living as a lawyer until his death in 1898.
JOSHUA BATES
Joshua Hall Bates was another West Pointer who graduated in 1847. After serving for five years in the army, Bates resigned to practice law in Ohio. He was one of the three original Ohio militia brigadier generals at the start of the war. He helped to organize the training facility at Camp Dennison near Cincinnati and was a figure in the development of fifteen Ohio regiments. Bates thought he was too old to take an active part in the filed campaigns – he was 44 – so he resigned his commission at the end of August 1861 and returned to his law practice – he would continue to practice until his death at 91 years of age in 1908. The tall monument of the family plot makes it easy Bates among the Spring Grove generals.
G. W. NEFF
George Washington Neff followed his father as a president of and independent fire company and fire insurance company. A member of a pre-war militia company, Neff served as a principal organizer of the 2nd Kentucky actually comprised of Ohioans. Colonel Neff led his men in western Virginia but fell capture at the Battle of Scarry Creek 17 July 1861. He endured over a year of imprisonment before gaining exchange. Returning to Ohio, Neff helped with the force that repelled the raiders of John Hunt Morgan. Named to the colonelcy of the 88th Ohio afterwards, he led the regiment as it guarded prisoners at Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio. He gained a brevet to brigadier general at the end of the war. After the war, Neff returned to his insurance business.
EDWARD NOYES
Edward Follansbee Noyes worked his way from orphan through Dartmouth. Graduating in 1858 from the Cincinnati Law School, he practiced in Cincinnati until the start of the war when he signed up as a major in the 39th Ohio. Late in 1862, Noyes became the regiment’s colonel becoming involved in both the battles of Iuka and Corinth. He lost a leg during the Atlanta campaign and ended the war as the prison commander at Camp Dennison. He was brevetted to brigadier general for his services 13 May 1865. After the war, Noyes gained election as governor of Ohio in 1871. He served as campaign manager for Rutherford B. Hayes during his successful run in 1876. His reward was becoming named minister to France where he served from 1877 until 1881. He returned to Cincinnati, dying at the age of 59 in 1890.
PETER SULLIVAN
Irish born; Peter John Sullivan came to America at the age of two. Graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, he went on to work as a military engineer in Washington, D.C. and served as the official stenographer of the U.S. Senate.
Moving to Cincinnati in 1848, Sullivan studied and was admitted to the bar. By the start of the war, he had amassed a considerable amount of money with which he helped raise four regiments.
Lincoln insisted he become the lieutenant colonel of the 48th Ohio and he was the colonel within two months. Sullivan was very active at the Battle of Shiloh, he was wounded three times and had four horses shot out from under him.
He could never go to the field again, a result of his wounds, but he served a variety of administrative roles for the rest of the war, gaining a brevet promotion to brigadier general at the war’s end.
Andrew Johnson appointed him as minister to Colombia and Grant reappointed. His health failing, he resigned and returned to his law practice in Cincinnati, dying in 1883 at the age of 61.
BYRON KIRBY
Byron Kirby was born in Cincinnati. There is not a lot online about General Kirby. He spent the first war months with the 6th USD Regular Infantry as a 1st Lieutenant. Next, he served as an aide to Major General William Rosecrans. Last, he gained a commission as a major in the 3rd Maryland Cavalry. Promoted to lieutenant colonel 23 January 1864, he commanded the regiment in the Red River campaign. At the end of the war, he gained two brevet promotions to colonel and brigadier general for services rendered during the war. He died in 1882 and lies buried in his family lot another of the Spring Grove generals.
ANDREW HICKENLOOPER
Andrew Hickenlooper worked for the city surveyor of Cincinnati from the young age of nineteen. After three years, he became the city surveyor. But, two years later came the war.
He recruited an artillery battery, Hickenlooper’s Battery or the 5th Ohio Independent Battery. They were in Missouri first before being attached to the Army of the Tennessee playing a significant part in the Battle of Shiloh. He was able to save four of his six guns in the initial Confederate attack and later helped defend the Federals caught in the Hornet’s Nest.
Moving up, he became a divisional artillery leader and finally the chief of staff of the 17th Corps. Serving as an engineer with Sherman, he participated in the Atlanta, March to the Sea and Carolina campaigns. For service rendered, he gained the brevet promotion to brigadier general.
Post war, Hickenlooper became a US Marshall for southern Ohio, then serving two years as the Cincinnati city civil engineer. Next, he became president of the Cincinnati Gas Company. In 1879, Hickenlooper gained election as lieutenant governor for Ohio. An ever-tireless worker for veteran affairs, he served as the Secretary for the Society of the Army of Tennessee. He also published a book on Shiloh in 1902.Dying in 1904, he lies here at Spring Grove in his hometown. There is also a statue of Hickenlooper at Vicksburg National Military Park dating to 1912.
LEWIS GOVE BROWN
Early in the Civil War, Lewis Brown joined the 11th Ohio regiment. The 11th served with the Army of the Cumberland after Stones River through Tullahoma, Chickamauga, Chattanooga and the Atlanta campaign. Brown, at the end of his three-year obligation, became the colonel of the newly-organize 117th US Colored Infantry Regiment. The 117th went to the East becoming involved in the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign. After Lee’s surrender, the regiment became posted to the Mexican border on the Rio Grande until being mustered out in August 1867. Lewis gained a brevet promotion to brigadier general.
Lewis died in 1889 of suicide – gunshot wound.
NICHOLAS LONGWORTH ANDERSON
Cincinnati born and raised Nicholas Longworth Anderson was a Harvard graduate from 1858. He spent the next two years studying in Germany before returning to Cincinnati to study law.
With the war, a nephew of Brigadier General Richard Anderson who commanded Fort Sumter, he enlisted becoming a first lieutenant with the 6th Ohio – 12 May 1861- rising to lieutenant colonel by the end of June. He took command of the regiment as a colonel on 9 November 1862 serving through the various campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland from Shiloh through the Atlanta campaign mustering out of service 23 June 1864.
Fighting in the brigade of General William Grose, Anderson was wounded twice at Stones River and Chickamauga. He gained a brevet promotion to brigadier general at the end of the war for services rendered and later to major general.
Two of his cousins would also gain the rank of brigadier general – one in the form of a brevet, Allen Latham Anderson (8th California) and Thomas McArthur Anderson fighting as a brigadier general in the Philippines.
The Anderson and Longworth families have been linked together in Cincinnati since the mid-19th century. Many are buried in the Longworth plot here at Spring Grove. Of the 72 people buried here, 45 are Andersons while, by comparison, only 9 are Longworths. Nicholas’ father, Larz is the link with the Longworths through marriage.
HENRY KENNETT
Henry Gassaway Kennett was an Ohio lawyer from before the war. Henry served as major in command of the Cincinnati Zouaves before the war. He began the war serving as lieutenant colonel in the 27th Ohio. That regiment served in John Pope’s successful expedition against Island No. 10. Like the other units from the Missouri-based force, they became involved in the siege of Corinth. After Corinth’s fall, they stayed in the area taking part in both the battles of Iuka and Corinth. Kennett served as chief of staff for William Rosecrans, the Federal commander in both battles.
In August 1862, Kennett became the founding colonel of the 79th Ohio. The regiment became involved in the pursuit of John Morgan’s raid across the Ohio River. Eventually, they became part of the Army of the Ohio going south in 1864 to join William Sherman’s force in the Atlanta campaign. They would go on with Sherman to the sea and on to the Carolinas. Kennett would resign 1 August 1864 at the end of his three-year obligation.
His father, John – an immigrant from St. Petersburg, Russia – led the 4th Ohio Cavalry from 1861 until 1863. A graduate of Harvard, John was a co-owner of a tobacco company in Cincinnati before the war.
With the end of the war, Henry went back to his law practice as well as serving in the Ohio House of Representatives. He died in early 1895.
SOLDIERS’ CIRCLE
With the Civil War raging and the numbers of dead rising, locals here in Cincinnati thought Spring Grove made a fitting burial ground for Ohio’s dead. The US Sanitary Commission agreed, meeting with the trustees of the cemetery early in 1862. They placed a request for a 100-foot diameter circular plot, capable of holding 300 graves near the lake feature just created at the cemetery. The grave sites would lay out in concentric circles.
Usual internment fees were waived by the cemetery and the lots filled quickly. So fast that the Cemetery, reluctant to donate more real estate, persuaded the state legislature to purchase two similar lots for $1,500 each for Ohio soldiers. Names, ages, company and regiments were all carefully recorded – there are only 28 unknown soldiers buried in the Soldier’s lots with 994 recorded.
The dead came from battlefields and army hospitals of all theaters of the war. Some 339 remains were moved here from Camp Dennison in 1866, the men dying mostly from hospitals in and around Cincinnati.
There are three mounds around the outside of the circles with an officer’s body lying at the center of each mound.
GEORGE ELSTNER
Colonel George R. Elstner who commanded the 50th Ohio dying at Utoy Creek near Atlanta at the age of 22 is supposed to lie in the middle of the first mound though it appears he has a grave elsewhere in the cemetery, too.
FREDERICK JONES
Colonel Frederick Jones lies in the next circle. His family moved to Cincinnati when he was ten years old. He studied law and was admitted to the bar. Jones was the Prosecuting Attorney for the Police Court of Cincinnati when the war began.
A brief stint as a captain at Camp Dennison was followed by an appointment as lieutenant colonel of the 31st Ohio. Soon after, he transferred on to the 24th Ohio in March 1862. At Shiloh, he gained a brevet promotion to colonel for gallantry on the field.
He died during a charge at Stones River on 31 December 1862. An upright siege gun pointing to the sky marks the location of his grave in the middle of his mound.
ROBERT LATIMER MCCOOK
General Robert Latimer McCook – Tribe of Dan – laid in the center of the mound closest to the lake. One of two of Spring Grove generals buried in the Soldiers’ section, later, his remains transferred to the McCook family temple.
THOMAS WILLIAMS
Brevet Brigadier General Thomas J. Williams is the second of Spring Grove generals in the Sodliers’ Section lying under the cannon in Lot C. He was added after the war dying – 18 November 1866 – of brain inflammation at the age of 29. A bookkeeper before the war, Williams enlisted with the 23rd Kentucky as a captain.The 23rd served in all of the campaigns of the Army of the Cumberland after Shiloh – Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Franklin and Nashville.
Later following his discharge after his three-year tour, he gained a major’s commission with the 55th Kentucky Mounted Infantry on 1 March 1865. The 55th operated against Southern guerillas in northern Kentucky just upriver from Cincinnati. Promoted to lieutenant colonel at the end of that month, he mustered out with his regiment 19 September 1865. He gained a brevet promotion to colonel. In early 1866, he gained another brevet promotion to brigadier general.