The III Corps Comrades Of David Bell Birney
Here are some vignettes of III Corps comrades of David Bell Birney (all of them were Major
Generals except Carr, who was a Brigadier General):
Commanding Generals of III Corps
1. Samuel Heintzelman
The Seven Days, Second Manassas, Chantilly
One of the few utterly colorless commanders in either army. Like Edwin Sumner of II Corps, Heintzelman was "old
Army" and would have made a good regimental commander, but was in over his head in commanding a corps. In
the Seven Days, his men were breaking in battle and he hit on the concept of having the regimental bands play
stirring songs. "Play Yankee Doodle, play doodle anything!" he commanded, and sure enough his men rallied to
the playing of "Yankee Doodle" followed by a twin spin, "Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue."
2. George Stoneman
Fredericksburg
Usually a cavalry commander, this was his one battle in charge of infantry. His claim to fame is that he is the only
III Corps commander to be mentioned in a Bob Dylan song(The Band's cover of this song was more popular),
"The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."
"Virgil Caine is my name,
I worked on the Danville train,
'Til Stoneman's cavalry came,
And tore up the tracks again."
Here's a piece of Bob Dylan trivia: what song of his --- this was my favorite Dylan song in the '70s and got a fair
amount of radio play --- is based around a story that takes place in Paterson, NJ?
3. Daniel Sickles
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg
Perhaps the most controversial of the "political generals" in the Union Army. (Lee had to deal with political
generals too, but his rule was never to appoint one to division or corps command, and he managed to hold to
this rule until well into 1864). Sickles was a product of the Tammany Hall machine. When an assemblyman in
Albany, he was often accompanied into the chamber by prostitutes. Whether his colorful guests raised or
lowered the median moral standard of those assembled is a debatable matter. Elected to Congress, Sickles
discovered that his wife was having an affair with Philip Barton Key, son of Francis Scott Key, who wrote "The
Star Spangled Banner." Sickles shot Key in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House. Charged
with murder, he was aquitted. His lawyer, Edwin Stanton, who later became Lincoln's Secretary of War, used the
defense of "temporary insanity" for the first time in recorded history. Stanton and Sickles rejected the strategy
offered by co-counsel Johnnie Cochran, who wanted to argue to the jury "If the Key don't fit, you must
aquit."Sickles foolishly placed his men too far forward at Gettysburg. His leg mangled by a cannonball, Sickles
calmly smoked a cigar and waved to his men while being carried off the field in a stretcher so that the men would
not lose heart.
4. David Bell Birney
Gettysburg (temporary)
He took over when Sickles was wounded.
5. Winfield Scott Hancock
Gettysburg (temporary)
Meade apparently didn't have much faith in the ability of the political general Birney, so he had Hancock take
over III Corps in addition to his own II Corps. Hancock was Democratic nominee for President in 1880, narrowly
losing the election to my cousin James Garfield.
Commanders, 1st ("Red Diamond") Division, III Corps
1. Philip Kearney
Born to a wealthy Manhattan family of stockbrokers, Kearney wanted to attend West Point but his family insisted
on Columbia. He inherited a million dollars --- back when that was real money --- from his grandfather while in his
20s. He could have built his mansion anywhere, but chose the garden spot of the northeast: Newark (the town of
Kearny, NJ, an interchangeable spelling of his name, was named for him). Kearney studied cavalry tactics in
France, it's hard to believe but Americans at the time thought that the French were on the cutting edge of all
things military (hence the "Zouave" and "Chausseur" regiments of the Union and Confederate armies). He lived
the high life in Paris and NY society, and became a staff officer of Winfield Scott. He hated the job, complaining
that it consisted of arranging flowers and dancing with the ugly wives and clumsy daughters of visiting diplomats.
In the Mexican War he lost his left arm in a cavalry charge. He had an odd sense of humor about his disability.
When Gen. Oliver O. Howard, who went on to found Howard University, lost his right arm in the Civil War,
Kearney said "Well, Howard, at least now we can buy our gloves together." Kearney's first Civil War command
was leader of "The First New Jersey Brigade." One of his charges was at the time a captain in the 4th New
Jersey, DBB's brother William Birney, who himself would eventually rise to Major General (and is possibly the guy
in the mystery photo). Kearney was one of the outstanding division commanders of either side, usually seen
riding around the battlefield with his sword in his right hand and the reins clenched in his teeth. In order to be
able to identify his men in the confusion of battle, his division was the first to use a unit patch, in the form of a
red diamond.
2. David Bell Birney
Chantilly (temporary), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg
2nd ("White Diamond") Division, III Corps
1. Joseph Hooker
Seven Days, Second Manassas, Chantilly
Like his friend Sickles he was profane, boastful, hard-drinking and consorted with prostitutes. Whether the term
"hooker" was derived from his notorious companions of the evening or predated the Civil War is a continuing
dispute of lexicography. He later replaced the Rhode Islander Ambrose Burnside in command of the Army.
Burnside himself left an onomastic legacy: the style of his trademark bushy whiskers with shaved chin were first
called "burnsides," later use flipped it to the more descriptive "sideburns."
Before that appointment, Hooker had stated "what this country needs is a dictator." This remark made it back to
our cousin Abe, who in appointing Hooker wrote "Bring me victories, and I will risk the dictatorship." Lincoln need
not have worried, victory was not in the cards for the overconfident Hooker. Lee detested Hooker more than any
other Union general he faced except Pope, and probably took great pleasure in humiliating him at
Chancellorsville (although Lee lost his "right arm," Stonewall Jackson, in the bargain).
2. Daniel Sickles
Fredericksburg
3. Hiram Berry
Chancellorsville
Another political general, he was killed in action at Chancellorsville.
4. Joseph Carr
Chancellorsville (temporary)
"A profane or obectionable word was never heard from his lips." His men found out that he had been a dance
instructor before the war, and they would tease him by yelling out dance instructions such as "Promenade to the
bar!" when he rode by.
5. Alexander Humphreys
Gettysburg
An underrated general who displayed great personal courage commanding a V Corps division at
Fredericksburg. His men called him "Old Goggle Eyes" because of his reading glasses and his strict discipline.
He was an intellectual who would discuss wide-ranging subjects in his officers' mess. Asst. Secretary of War
Charles Dana said that Humphreys was "one of the loudest swearers in the Army" and was a man of
"distinguished and brilliant profanity." Apparently an expert on such matters, Dana said that only Hancock could
equal Humphreys in the field of creative profanity. After Gettysburg, Humphreys became Chief of Staff of the
Army of the Potomac and late in the war commanded II Corps after Hancock was wounded, taking over from
Birney, who had briefly been in temporary command.
David Bell Birney was, later in the war, commanding general of X Corps under my cousin US Grant. His brother
William M. Birney commanded one of the divisions, made up of black troops that he had recruited.
I won't go through all of his subordinates, but one of his other division commanders was interesting, Alfred Howe
Terry. Terry was born in Hartford in 1827 and was before the war clerk of the Superior Court in New Haven.
In September, 1864 Birney coordinated with Ben Butler --- another notorious political general who kept his job
only because Lincoln couldn't afford to alienate the "War Democrat" faction that Butler represented by sacking
him--- and his XVIII Corps in an assault that was part of the Petersburg campaign. Birney's men broke through
Lee's lines at New Market and Chaffin's Bluff, coming within just three miles of Richmond, closer than any Union
troops would get until the final days of the war the following April.
Birney's men couldn't make it past the final fort and had to retreat. Less than a month later he would die of
malaria. His successor in command of X Corps was Alfred Terry.
After the war Terry stayed in the Army and commanded the Dakota Territory military district. He was
unsuccessful in negotiating a treaty with the Sioux and Cheyenne to get them to leave the Black Hills. In 1876 he
devised a plan to drive out the Sioux and Cheyenne from the area. Three columns of federal troops would come
from different directions to cut off the Indians' retreat.
It was a good plan, but the cavalry column was led by George Armstrong Custer, who impulsively disobeyed
Terry's orders, jumping the gun and going in ahead of schedule, much to his detriment. Terry and his column
found the slain Custer and his men the day after the massacre. Another of Terry's subordinates in this campaign
was Nelson Miles, who would later capture Geronimo and still later become the head of the Army during the
Spanish-American War (Teddy Roosevelt, who despised Miles, forced him into retirement in 1903).
Interestingly, the town of Birney, Montana is just east of the Little Big Horn battlefield. Given the penchant for
naming Montana towns in this area after generals (Ft. Phil Kearny, Miles City, Terry, Custer, etc.), my guess is
that that this town, which lies between the Crow and Cheyenne Reservations, was named for DBB.
Just to the south are Sheridan and Crook Counties, Wyoming, named for two other CW generals, the latter place
being the location of "Devil's Tower" featured in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."
Maj. Gen. William M. Birney's grandson, Hoffman Birney (real name: Herman Hoffman Birney, Jr.) (1891-1958)
was a writer of western novels of some renown, some were under the pen name of David Kent. One written
under his own name was "The Dice of God," described as "a lusty, panoramic novel of the men who had won
their reputations on the battlefields of Virginia and lost their lives in the hills of Montana."
Sam Peckinpaugh wrote a screenplay based on "The Dice of God" that was made into a movie, "The Glory
Guys" (1965). The co-stars were Tom Tryon, star of the sci-fi classic "I Married a Monster from Outer Space"
(1958), and Harve Presnell, who played William H. Macy's father-in-law, who pays the ransom for his kidnapped
daughter, in "Fargo." James Caan and Slim Pickens had co-starring roles in The Glory Guys.
By the way, perhaps the most likely candidate, datewise, for the one who married a Pine Plains Deuel is James
G. Birney IV, born New Haven 1844, died Ft. Davis, TX 1870. He is the one who was a staff officer for Sheridan
and Custer; a museum in Bay City recently purchased his Civil War sword for their collection.
Daniel Butterfield is an interesting brigade commander back in the old days of III Corps, although he only served
briefly with that organization and went on to become Chief of Staff to Joe Hooker and then Meade (who replaced
him in that post with Humphreys, who I guess was a better swearer) (Meade had a good vocabulary of profanity
himself).
Butterfield's father, John Butterfield, founded American Express in 1850 along with Henry Wells and William G.
Fargo. Dan Butterfield was unpopular, and was blamed by many for turning Hooker's HQ into a combination bar
and brothel. Nonetheless, he was quite innovative, and instituted the corps identification badges (expanding on
Kearney's red diamond patch) and revamped the army intelligence service by bringing in Pinkerton agents.
While a brigade commander, he worked with a bugler to devise a distinctive call for his brigade that could be
played to rally his men in battle, when they become separated, intermingled with other units, and generally
confused. The call evoked Butterfield's name:
But-ter-field
Butterfield
Butterfield, Butterfield, Butterfield
Butterfield, Butterfield
Butterfield.
This song won a Grammy Award in 1862 for coolest lyrics, beating out entries by the young Bob Dylan, the band
Soggy Hardtack (the 19th century version of Limp Bizkit), and Stephen Foster.
Butterfield left the brigade for his higher posting and the call wasn't used in battle, but soldiers took to it, and it
was used in place of "Tattoo," the regulation bugle call, in signaling "lights out." We still hear Butterfield's brigade
call today --- much too often, in fact --- and along the way the tempo has slowed and it has acquired the title of
"Taps."
Richard Gifford
September 17-19, 2003