Generals Bios Project

[Gil R.]

FYI, someone over at the American Civil War Gaming Club recommended consulting “Glory in Grey,” a series of four books which have short bios of 425 CSA generals. He says the set can be purchased for $60+$10postage from http://www.bibleschool.edu/bibleBookstore/index.html

If you want to see a sample entry, he (forum name: eireb) quotes the one on Sibley. The thread is at: http://www.wargame.ch/board/acw/topic.a ... hichpage=1

[Mike13z50]

I am willing to help out, I'm a librarian at a very old southern school with good biographical references for Civil War generals.  I should be able to find even the most obscure.  Send me a list of names.

I assume you can contact me via email?

Excellent game btw.
mike13z50

[jkBluesman]

How is the project going? Are their any CSA-Generals left to do such as Edward Porter Alexander or Patrick Cleburne? And what about US-General Carl Schurz?

[Gil R.]

ORIGINAL: jkBluesman

How is the project going? Are their any CSA-Generals left to do such as Edward Porter Alexander or Patrick Cleburne? And what about US-General Carl Schurz?

Porter was done by Missouri Rebel (you can find the thread by setting the forum to show threads older than 30 days), but Cleburne and Schurz are both out there (as are about 800 other guys...). Would you be interested in taking a stab at them?

As for how the project is coming, I have now edited and put into the spreadsheet around 100 generals, and still have about 30-40 that I haven't gotten to yet. So we're on a pace to finish sometime in 2008, though if more people volunteer we could finish sooner. But we've certainly made excellent progress so far.

[jkBluesman]

I'll take Schurz and Cleburne, thanks.

[Gil R.]

ORIGINAL: jkBluesman

I'll take Schurz and Cleburne, thanks.

Great! Go for it. Just remember that the maximum is 3900 char., and try to emulate the format used by others (e.g., providing full names of all officers and politicians who are named). As you've seen, it's important to get basic biographical details in as well as what the general did during the war, but if you've got any colorful anecdotes or quotes those would be great too.

Also, there's never a deadline for bios, but if you take more than a week they might have to wait for the next patch. (Note to forum: that is not a promise that the patch will be out next week, since I'm out of the promises business, but rather a statement based on the fact that I might not have time to get to the bios after that.)

[shenandoah]

Are there any more generals that need to be done?  CSA, Turner Ashby, any?  USA, any?  I am willing to take on a set if you need some help.
 
shenandoah

[Gil R.]

Ashby would be great, in fact. He was assigned to someone very early on, but that person ended up writing a very short paragraph, and Ashby deserves much more attention. Since the original biographer never responded to my request for a longer version, I hereby reassign him. So, why don't you start with Ashby, but also tell me what other preferences you might have? Thanks, and welcome aboard!

[tdean001]

Gil-
I am totally excited about this project...  I would love to contribute.  Give me some generals!

Thanks,
Tom

[Gil R.]

ORIGINAL: tdean001

Gil-
I am totally excited about this project... I would love to contribute. Give me some generals!

Thanks,
Tom

Great! Any preferences, or should I just do the usual thing and start you off with the next guys on the list?

[tdean001]

Gil-
Just add me onto the end of the list. I'll take whomever you've got.

Tom

[Gil R.]

Okay, how about Fremont, McCulloch, Huger and two 9-percenters, H.D. Clayton and T.I. Clingman? (The first three are 100-percenters in the July scenario, so it would be good to get bios done for them.)

Thanks!

[tdean001]

Gil-
Did you mean Ben McCulloch or his brother Henry? I could do both, if you want.

Tom

[Gil R.]

Ben. Was Henry a general? We don't have him in the database.

[tdean001]

Gil-
Yeah, he was a brig. general for the Confederacy. Sounded like a pretty good one, too. I'll take care of his brother, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_McCulloch
http://www.civilwarhome.com/mccullockwilsoncreek.htm

Tom

[Bombsight]

Hey tdean,
Henry McCullough was a general of Texas State Troops only. Check out Dr. Ralph Wooster's book of Texas Generals in Grey. I will do a bio on that great defender of states' rights, Camille de Polignac (aka Polecat) who commanded a Texas Brigade in the Trans-Mississippi Dept.

[Gil R.]

Whit,

Battleline already wrote a bio of "Polecat," which I'll paste below. Feel free to make any suggestions on how it might be improved. There are still plenty of generals who haven't had bios done yet, so please let me know if you'd be interested in working on others.


Maj. Gen. Camille A.J.M.,P.d. Polignac, CSA (b. 1832, d. 1913) One could write an entire book on the adventures of Camille Armand Jules Marie, Prince de Polignac (of which much would be the full name). Polignac was born in Millemont, Seine-et-Oise, France, Feb. 16, 1832. He was the son of King Charles X’s president of the council of ministers and an English mother. He received education at the College of Stanislaus in Paris and joined the 3rd Regiment of Chasseurs in 1853. In the Crimea, he served with the 4th Hussars as a lieutenant. He later transferred to the 4th Chasseurs before being discharged in 1859. At the start of the Civil War, Polignac was in Central America. He immediately offered his services to the Confederacy and was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel July 16, 1861. In 1862, he was on the staffs of Generals Beauregard and Bragg. Polignac was promoted to brigadier general Jan. 10, 1863, and later to major general April 8, 1864. Much of his service as a general came in Gen. Richard Taylor’s army in Louisiana. He fought with distinction at the battles of Mansfield, Pleasant Hill and in other battles during the Red River Campaign. Near the end of the war, the Confederate government sent Polignac to France to try to seek intervention from Napoleon III’s government. He ran the blockade March 17, 1865, and arrived in Spain shortly before the end of the war. After the war, he studied mathematics and political economy, but came out of military retirement to lead the French 1st Division during the Franco-Prussian War. Awarded the Legion of Honor, Polignac returned to the study of mathematics and developed a reputation in the field prior to his death in Paris Nov. 15, 1913. He was the last Confederate major general to die. He was buried in Frankfort-on-Main, Germany.

[jkBluesman]

Strange to see the French name for Frankfurt in an English bio.

[Bombsight]

Gil,
Good standard write up. Allow me to add some color. My great grandfather was in the 17th Consolidated Texas cavalry and stepped off behind Gen Mouton and Gen Polignac at the Battle of Mansfield. Mouton was killed in the charge and Polignac moved up to command the division. Mouton's division suffered about 40% casualties (heavier in Grey's Louisiana brigade) in the attack. One Federal Division was pretty well wrecked and two artillery batteries were captured (2nd Rhode Island and the Chicago Mercantile Batteries). The federals were driven in confusion from the field when Walker's Texas Division rolled up the flank. This battle marked the high point of Banks' Red River Campaign. After this point, Banks was in retreat followed closely by Taylor's Army. Polignac earned a lot of praise with his conduct under fire.
Since then, every first born male Polignac child has been named "Mansfield".

[Gil R.]

Whit, thank you for that information. As you'll see in the thread that has Polignac's bio, I incorporated a good chunk of it.