IDENTIFYING ATTORNEY-GENERALS

So far I have identified 300 lawyer-generals who served in the Civil War. I know that I have overlooked many others.I originally omitted any lawyer-general who graduated from a military academy. This list does not  include generals like William Tecumseh Sherman, who graduated from West Point but practiced law prior to the Civil War. I have decided to expand my search to include all lawyer-generals, even those who graduated from military academies. Below is a list of the lawyer-generals whom I have identified. If anyone reading this blog post knows of a lawyer-general whom I have omitted, please notify me.

GENERAL	C/U
Abbott, Henry Livermore	U
Adams, Daniel Weisiger	C
Alcorn, James Lusk	C
Anderson, James Patton	C
Archer, James Jay	C
Atchison, David Rice	C
Bagby, Arthur Pendleton, Jr.	C
Baker, Adolphus	C
Baker, Edward Dickinson	U
Barksdale, William	C
Barlow, Francis Channing	U
Barringer, Rufus Clay	C
Bartlett, Joseph Jackson	U
Bartow, Francis Stebbins	C
Bate, William Brimage	C
Battle, Cullen Andrews	C
Beale, Richard Lee Turberville	C
Belknap, William Worth	U
Benedict, Lewis	U
Benning, Henry Lewis	C
Benton, Samuel	C
Benton, William Plummer	U
Birney, David Bell	U
Birney, William	U
Blair, Francis Preston, Jr.	U
Bonham, Milledge Luke	C
Bowen, Thomas Mead	U
Bowles, Pickney Downie	C
Boyle, Jeremiah Tilford	U
Bragg, Edward Stuyvesant	U
Brantley, William Felix	C
Brayman, Mason	U
Breckinridge, John Cabell	C
Brevard, Theodore Washington, Jr.	C
Brice, Benjamin William	U
Briggs, Henry Shaw	U
Brisbin, James Sanks	U
Brodhead, Thornton F.	U
Bryan, Goode	C
Buckland, Ralph Pomeroy	U
Burbridge, Stephen Gano	U
Busteed, Richard	U
Butler, Benjamin Franklin	U
Butler, Matthew Calbraith	C
Cadwalader, George	U
Campbell, Alexander William	C
Campbell, William Bowen	U
Cantey, James	C
Carrington, Henry Beebee	U
Carson, James Harvey	C
Carswell, Reuben Walker	C
Chalmers, James Ronald	C
Champlin, Stephen Gardner	U
Chapin, Edward Payson	U
Chapman, Augustus Alexandria	C
Chapman, George Henry	U
Chesnut, James, Jr.	C
Churchill, Thomas James	C
Clanton, James Holt	C
Clark, Charles	C
Clark, Edward	C
Clark, John Bullock	C
Clark, John Bullock, Jr.	C
Clark, William Thomas	U
Clayton, Henry DeLamar	C
Clingman, Thomas Lanier	C
Cobb, Thomas Howell	C
Cobb, Thomas Reade Rootes	C
Cochrane, John	U
Cockrell, Francis	C
Colquitt, Alfred Holt	C
Conner, James	C
Cook, Philip	C
Cooper, James	U
Copeland, Joseph Tarr	U
Corse, John Murray	U
Cox, Jacob Dolson, Jr.	U
Cox, William Ruffin	C
Craig, James	U
Crittenden, Thomas Leonidas	U
Crittenden, Thomas Turpin	U
Croxton, John Thomas	U
Cruft, Charles	U
Curtis, Newton Martin	U
Davies, Henry Eugene	U
Davis, Edmund Jackson	U
Davis, Joseph Robert	C
Davis, William George Mackey	C
de Saussure, Wilmot Gibbes	C
de Trobriand, Philippe Régis Denis de Keredern	U
Denver, James William	U
Devens, Charles, Jr.	U
Deweese, John Thomas	U
Dibrell, George Gibbs	C
Dilworth, Caleb	U
Diven, Alexander Samuel	U
Drake, Francis Marion	U
Dubose, Dudley McIver	C
Duke, Basil Wilson	C
Dumont, Ebenezer	U
Dunn, William McKee	U
Echols, John	C
Ector, Mathew Duncan	C
Edgerton, Alonzo Jay	U
Edwards, John	U
Evans, Clement Anselm	C
Ewing, Charles	U
Ewing, Hugh Boyle	U
Ewing, Thomas, Jr.	U
Farnsworth, John Franklin	U
Fauntleroy, Thomas Turner	C
Featherston, Winfield Scott	C
Ferry, Oriss Sanford	U
Fessenden, Francis	U
Fessenden, James Deering	U
Finley, Jesse Johnson	C
Finnegan, Joseph	C
Fisher, Benjamin Franklin	U
Floyd, John Buchanan	C
Force, Manning Ferguson	U
Ford, John Salmon	C
Forney, William Henry	C
Fry, Birkett Davenport	C
Fry, Speed Smith	U
Gardiner, Alexander	U
Garrott, Isham Warren	C
Gartrell, Lucius Jeremiah	C
Gary, Martin Witherspoon	C
Geary, John White	U
Gholson, Samuel Jameson	C
Gibson, Randall Lee	C
Giesy, Henry Hensel	U
Gist, States Rights	C
Gordon, John Brown	C
Gorman, Willis Arnold	U
Graham, Charles Kinnaird	U
Granbury, Hiram Bronson	C
Grant, Lewis Addison	U
Gray, Henry	C
Green, Thomas	C
Greer, Elkanah	C
Gregg, John	C
Gregg, Maxcy	C
Gresham, Walter Quintin	U
Grose, William	U
Hackleman, Pleasant A.	U
Halleck, Henry	U
Hamlin, Cyrus	U
Hanson, Roger Weightman	C
Harding, Abner Clark	U
Harland, Edward	U
Harman, William Henry	C
Harris, Nathaniel Harrison	C
Harrison, Benjamin	U
Harrow, William	U
Hartranft, John Frederick	U
Hatton, Robert Hopkins	C
Hawley, Joseph Roswell	U
Hawthorn, Alexander Travis	C
Hayes, Rutherford Birchard	U
Haynie, Isham Nicholas	U
Hays, Harry Thompson	C
Helm, Benjamin Hardin	C
Henderson, Robert Johnson	C
Hindman, Thomas Carmichael	C
Hodge, George Baird	C
Hogg, Joseph Lewis	C
Holt, Joseph	U
Holtzclaw, James Thadeus	C
Hovey, Alvin Peterson	U
Hurlbut, Stephen Augustus	U
Hutton, Eppa	C
Imboden, John Daniel	C
Jackson, Henry Rootes	C
Jackson, James Streshly	U
Jackson, John King	C
Jackson, William Lowther	C
Jenkins, Albert Gallatin	C
John Calvin Brown	C
John Carpenter Carter	C
Johnson, Bradley Tyler	C
Johnston, George Doherty	C
Johnston, Robert Daniel	C
Jones, Patrick Henry	U
Kane, Thomas Leiper	U
Kemper, James Lawson	C
Kenly, John Reese	U
Kennedy, John Doby	C
Kershaw, Joseph Brevard	C
King, Wilburn Hill	C
Kirk, Edward Needles	U
Lane, James Henry	U
Lee, Albert Lindley	U
Lee, Edwin Gray	C
Leggett, Mortimer Dormer	U
Lewis, Joseph Horace	C
Lewis, Levin Major	C
Lowry, Robert	C
Lytle, William Haines	U
Marston, Gilman	U
Martin, William Thompson	C
McBride, James Haggin	C
McCay, Henry Kent	C
McClernand, John Alexander	U
McCook, Anson G.	U
McCook, Daniel, Jr.	U
McCook, Edward Moody	U
McCook, Robert Latimer	U
McGowan, Samuel	C
McLean, Nathaniel	U
McRae, Dandridge	C
Miller, John Franklin	U
Miller, William	C
Milroy, Robert Huston	U
Mitchell, John Grant	U
Mitchell, Robert Byington	U
Morgan, John Tyler	C
Mulligan, James Adelbert	U
Nickerson, Franklin Stillman	U
O’Neal, Edward Asbury	C
Orme, William Ward	U
Osborn, Thomas Ogden	U
Otho French Strahl	C
Paine, Halbert Eleazer	U
Palmer, John McAuley	U
Patton, George S.	C
Pegram, William	C
Pettus, Edmund Winston	C
Phelps, John Smith	U
Potter, Robert Brown	U
Potts, Benjamin Franklin	U
Pratt, Calvin Edward	U
Pryor, Roger Atkinson	C
Rains, James Edward	C
Ransom, Matthew Whitaker	C
Raum, Green Berry	U
Rawlins, John Aaron	U
Read, Theodore	U
Reid, Hugh Thompson	U
Reilly, James William	U
Rice, Elliott Warren	U
Rice, James Clay	U
Rice, Samuel Allen	U
Ross, Leonard Fulton	U
Rousseau, Lovell	U
Sackett, William	U
Sanborn, John Benjamin	U
Schenck, Robert Cumming	U
Shackelford, James Murrell	U
Shepley, George Foster	U
Sherman, William Tecumseh	U
Shields, James	U
Sickels, Daniel Edgar	U
Slack, James Richard	U
Slough, John Potts	U
Smith, Green Clay	U
Smith, Thomas Church Haskill	U
Smith, Thomas Kilby	U
Smith, William	C
Spears, James Gallant	U
Spencer, George Eliphaz	U
Spinola, Francis Barretto	U
Starkweather, John Converse	U
Stedman, Griffin Alexander, Jr.	U
Steedman, James Blair	U
Stevenson, John Dunlap	U
Stuart, David	U
Stumbaugh, Federick Shearer	U
Sullivan, Peter John	U
Swayne, Wager	U
Taylor, Nelson	U
Terrell, Alexander Watkins	C
Terry, Alfred Howe	U
Terry, Henry Dwight	U
Thayer, John Milton	U
Tibbits, William Badger	U
Toombs, Robert Augustus	C
Ullman, Daniel	U
Underwood, Adin Ballou	U
Van Derveer, Ferdinand	U
Van Wyck, Charles Henry	U
Vandever, William	U
Veatch, James Clifford	U
Vincent, Strong	U
Walker, Francis Marion	C
Wallace, Lew	U
Wallace, William Hervey Lamme	U
Ward, William Thomas	U
Washburn, Cadwallader Colden	U
Wells, George Duncan	U
Whitaker, Walter Chiles	U
White, Julius	U
Williams, Alpheus Starkey	U
Williamson, James Alexander	U
Wise, Henry Alexander	C
Wistar, Isaac Jones	U
Woods, William Burnham	U
Wool, John Ellis	U
Wright, Marcus Joseph	C
York, Zebulon	C

BONING UP ON THE CIVIL WAR

I hadn’t gotten far into my project of working on lawyer-generals before I discovered that I knew next to nothing about the Civil War. Although I’m something of a military history buff, my interest is largely confined to ancient and medieval military history. I can tell you a lot more about the Roman Civil War battles between Caesar and Pompey than I can about the American Civil War battles between Grant and Lee. This means that when reading accounts of the careers of the various generals, I cannot put them into the context of the entire Civil War. I decided to correct this deficiency by suspending investigation of individual generals until I had learned more about the Civil War as a whole.

My first self-inflicted reading assignment was James McPherson’s Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era, a one-volume history of the war which runs to 909 pages. The first 1/3 of the book, which deals with the lead-up to the war, was interesting and informative, but I was impatient to get to the fighting. Once Fort Sumter was fired on, the book became much easier to read. It seemed to me to be equal parts narrative and analysis, and it opened my eyes to what a close-run affair the war actually was. I had always been under the impression that the South never had a chance to win and had committed cultural suicide by seceding from the Union. McPherson seems to be saying that the South had a good chance to win, and he can’t quite figure out why it didn’t.

I next picked up a copy of Bruce Catton’s Civil War, which is a one-volume compilation of his trilogy on the Army of the Potomac. It’s only 730 pages, but the print is much smaller. So far, I’ve gotten through the first volume, Mr. Lincoln’s Army, and the lesson it seems to teach is that if the North’s generals hadn’t been a gaggle of incompetent boobs, the North would have won the war in 90 days. Actually, I’m overstating somewhat. Catton seems to like George B. McClellan, blaming much of McClellan’s timidity on false intelligence given him by Allan Pinkerton. It seems Pinkerton had a penchant for grossly over-estimating the size of the Confederate forces arrayed against McClellan. Catton seems to think that if Lincoln had kept McClellan in charge after Antietam, McClellan could have whipped Lee. If past performance is any measure of future performance, Catton’s assessment is wrong.

There’s a joke about two types of trial lawyers. One type is “always ready, never prepared.” The other is “always prepared, never ready.” I think this contrast captures the difference between Lee and McClellan. Lee was always ready to give battle, even when he was outnumbered and his troops were bedraggled and used-up. No matter how prepared McClellan was, he always needed just a few thousand more men, a few more cannons, a little more rest for his men, or a better alignment of the stars before he was willing to risk action. When Lee had his adversary on the ropes, he went for the jugular. When McClellan had Lee on the ropes, he let him escape. McClellan just didn’t have the killer instinct that Lee and Grant had.

Catton contends that what kept the North in the Civil War during the first year was the fact that the men of the Army of the Potomac were far better than their generals. The picture he paints shows the fighting spirit of volunteer enlisted men mitigating the blundering of amateur generals. It is reminiscent of the legions of Republican Rome during the Second Punic War. Rome’s citizen militia led by blundering amateur generals suffered repeated defeats at the hands of the military genius Hannibal. The Roman Legions kept coming back time after time until finally they crushed Hannibal at the Battle of Zama. The Army of the Potomac kept coming back time after time until finally it crushed Lee at Appomattox.

Catton’s appraisal seems to be echoed by the Confederate attorney-general Clement A. Evans, who wrote a brief history of the Civil War as part of the twelve volume Confederate Military History. Evans had this to say: “The courage of the several great Northern armies which struggled often and long with the army of Northern Virginia, will never be questioned by Confederate soldiers.” Confederate Military History, Volume 12, page 218.

After I get through with Bruce Catton’s Civil War, I plan to read Shelby Foote’s three volume work, The Civil War: A Narrative (2,976 pages). By that time, I ought to be somewhat less ignorant on the subject of the Civil War, and I can go back to working on Attorney-Generals.