Confederate Connections to the American Revolution and the Early History of the US CSA President Jefferson Davis was the son of a soldier in the American Revolution. Vice President Alexander H. Stephens was the grandson of a soldier in the Revolution. Gen. R.E. Lee was the son of a cavalry general in the Revolution and the nephew of two signers of the Declaration of Independence. His wife was the great-granddaughter of Martha Washington. Samuel Cooper, Jr., ranking general of the CSA, was the son of a Revolutionary officer from Massachusetts. He was born in New Jersey and appointed to West Point from New York. His wife was the granddaughter of the Virginia Revolutionary statesman George Mason. Her brother was the Confederate minister to Great Britain, James M. Mason William Henry Chase, who commanded the Florida state forces in the early days of the Confederacy, was a native of Maine and was the great-nephew of John Hancock, famous signer of the Declaration of Independence from Massachusetts. Brig. General Hylan B. Lyon, CSA, was born in Kentucky, but his grandfather, Matthew Lyon, was a congressman from Vermont who was one of the few strong supporters of Jefferson in New England and was famous for having been prosecuted under the Sedition Act. Brig. Gen. and Secretary of War George W. Randolph was the grandson of Thomas Jefferson. Brig. Gen. James E. Slaughter was the grand-nephew of James Madison. Maj. Gen. Daniel S. Donelson was the nephew of Andrew Jackson. Brig. Lucius M. Walker was the nephew of President James K. Polk. Lt. Gen. Richard Taylor, CSA, was the son of General and President Zachary Taylor and the grandson of a Revolutionary officer. Lt. Gen. Leonidas Polk’s father was a Revolutionary colonel as was his maternal grandfather. Maj. Gen. Matthew C. Butler was the nephew, on his mother’s side, of the great Connecticut naval heroes, Oliver Hazard Perry and Matthew Calbraith Perry. Butler’s wife was the great-granddaughter of the Revolutionary Gen. Andrew Pickens. A number of the early heroes of the US Navy were Southerners like Stephen Decatur. Most of the rest of the outstanding Naval officers were from the Middle States and almost none from New England, though New England was supposedly the most seafaring part of the Union. The US Marine Corps from its beginning to the War was mostly led and manned by Southerners. After his experience before the mast, Herman Melville, author of Moby Dick, contrasted Southern navy officers very favorably with others for their decency and fairness to lower ranks. Maj. Gen. David E. Twiggs was the son of Gen. John Twiggs of the Revolution. Brig. Gen. Hugh W. Mercer was the grandson of Revolutionary Gen. Hugh Mercer. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, CSA, was the son of a Revolutionary army colonel. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Huger’s grandfather was a Revolutionary officer and a friend of Lafayette. Lt. Gen. John C. Pemberton was descended from one of the prominent first settlers of Pennsylvania. Brig. William Nelson Pendleton’s forebears included Thomas Nelson, Revolutionary governor of Virginia and signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Virginia patriot Edmund Pendleton. At least two grandsons and many other relatives of Patrick Henry served in the Confederate army. President John Tyler was a member of the Confederate Congress and his son Robert was Treasurer of the Confederate States. Lt. Gen. Richard H. Anderson, CSA, was a grandson of a Revolutionary officer. Lt. Gen. D.H. Hill was grandson of a Revolutionary officer. Lewis A. Washington, a grandnephew of George Washington, was one of the people slaughtered by John Brown on his raid on Harpers Ferry. (Brown stole a sword of George Washington’s which he regarded as a talisman.) The father of Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith, CSA, was a distinguished War of 1812 officer from Connecticut, and his brother, a colonel, was killed in action in the Mexican War. Maj. Gen. Joseph B. Kershaw was the grandson of a Revolutionary officer. Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton’s grandfather was a Colonel in the Revolution and a general in the War of 1812. Brig. Gen. Humphrey Marshall was grandson of the first US Senator from Kentucky. Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge, besides being Vice-President of the US, had a grandfather who was an early Senator from Kentucky and a member of Jefferson’s cabinet. Brig. Gen. Turner Ashby’s grandfather was an officer in the Revolution. The father of Brig. Gen. William Carroll, CSA, was a general in the War of 1812. Brig Gen. Henry A. Wise was the son-in-law of John Sergeant, distinguished Pennsylvania political leader and candidate for Vice-president of the U..S Brig. Gen. William Preston CSA was the grandson of two Revolutionary officers. Brig. Gen. Bradley T. Johnson, CSA, was the grandson of a Revolutionary officer. John P. Maclay, Gen. of Louisiana state forces in the Confederacy, came from a family who were the leading Jeffersonians in western Pennsylvania including an important Senator. Brig. Gen. Lewis A. Armistead had a father and four uncles who fought in the War of 1812. Robert W. Johnson, member of the Confederate Congress from Arkansas, was the nephew of Richard M. Johnson, Vice-president of the US The father of Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Drayton was born in St. Augustine, where his family had been exiled because of Revolutionary activities. Revolutionary War Gen. William Henry’s son, Gustavus, was a member of the Confederate Congress from Kentucky and his grandson a Confederate colonel. William R. Caswell, Confederate officer from Tennessee, was the grandson of North Carolina Revolutionary War general and governor Richard Caswell. The great American painter James McNeill Whistler, though born in Massachusetts, was a Confederate sympathizer, which partly explains why he spent his life in Europe, according to a recent biography. His brother was a Confederate surgeon. The words to the US national anthem were written by Francis Scott Key, as is well known. Less well-known is that his grandson, Francis Key Howard, was one of the Marylanders imprisoned by Lincoln for Southern sympathies. Howard was also the grandson of Col. John Eager Howard, commander of the famous Maryland Line in the Revolutionary War. Another Francis Scott Key grandson was Richard Hammond Key, Confederate soldier who died in a Yankee prison camp
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 12:26:57 +0000