******************** REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE? ******************** Although Henry M. Stanley found fame when he discovered David Livingstone in Africa, years earlier he had engaged in a series of actions that may have been without parallel. At the age of twenty and infected with "war fever," Stanley abruptly quit his job to enlist in the Sixth Arkansas Infantry. Along with numerous comrades captured at Shiloh, he was sent to a prison near Chicago. Life at Camp Douglas was harsh, and there seemed to be no prospect of release. Hence the Confederate combat veteran became a "galvanized Yankee" by taking an oath of allegiance and exchanging his gray uniform for a blue one. Soon discharged because of illness, he went to New York and enlisted in the U.S. Navy. Stanley, also known as John Rowlands, is the only serviceman known to have served in the Confederate army, the Union army, and the U.S. Navy. His unique military career came to an end when he jumped ship at a New Hampshire port early in 1865 and became a deserter.
*** Read more about interesting people of the Civil War in our "Biographies" section at: http://www.ehistory.com/uscw/features/people/list.cfm
******************** WHAT'S IN A NAME? *************************
Jesse Bright's name seldom appears on any list of notable Civil War figures. In view of his record, that omission is remarkable.
Bright hailed from Indiana, where Lincoln spent many of his boyhood years. He was a state legislator and a lieutenant governor before going to Washington in 1845. During fifteen years in which he gained seniority, Bright three times served as president pro tem of the Senate, despite the fact that he had made numerous political enemies, some of whom were prominent in his own Democratic Party.
On December 16, 1861, lawmakers who sensed something unusual was about to happen crowded into the chamber. A letter dated March 1, 1861, and written by Bright was read into the record. According to it, Bright's friend Thomas B. Lincoln had made a significant improvement in firearms. The letter would have stirred no interest had it not been sent to Montgomery, Alabama, and addressed to "His Excellency Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederation of States."
The fact that a U.S. senator had recognized the separate legal identity of the seceded states caused a turmoil in the Senate. Bright's colleagues devoted most of twenty working days to debate concerning the terse memorandum. Bright made a long and vigorous speech in his defense and found more supporters than his record would have caused him to expect.
In the end, the term "President Jefferson Davis" was too much for Bright's colleagues to accept. Repeatedly, the president of the United States had underscored his verdict that no secession had taken place. Bright was expelled formally in February 1862, the first senator to be have ever been removed by his colleagues.
************** TRACING YOUR CIVIL WAR ANCESTRY ***************** "There I was, face-to-face with the headstone at Evergreen Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: 'Cpl. James Harvey Bump, July 2, 1863, Co A 111th NY Inf.' Until then, I had no idea that I had any family relations that were involved, much less fought and died in the American Civil War, even though I have been interested in this great conflict since being a young child. I recalled how my grandfather had spread large sheets of paper on his living room floor, telling me the story of the Bump family. He told me then of Edouard Bompasse who arrived on the Fortune the year after the first Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, and of how the family had spread out since the year of 1621 all across America. Perhaps I never asked, but I do not recall him telling of any of those who fought in the Civil War. A thousand questions flooded my mind then: Who was James Harvey Bump? Were we directly related? How did he come here to fight for the New York 111th Infantry Regiment? Where was he from? Did he have brothers or cousins that fought with him here? What happened to them? Were there other relations that fought in the war? The list of inquiries went on and on... I resolved then to find out about James Harvey Bump, and to trace him as best as I could to see how all this could have happened." --- by Bruce Bump *** Get invaluable tips and detailed information on genealogy and how to research your family's ancestry by visiting our genealogy community and resources section at: http://www.ehistory.com/communities/genealogy/research/index.cfm
****************** TRULY, A SELF-MADE MAN *********************
Nathan Bedford Forrest grew up without a trace of formal schooling. In much the same fashion as Lincoln, but to a far less degree, he managed to educate himself. To keep the records needed by a livestock dealer, sixteen-year-old Forrest had to learn mathematics as well as how to read and write.
Forrest made enough money from cattle to support his family and soon had enough capital to enter the slave trade. Purchases of land in increasingly larger tracts enabled him to become a cotton planter of significance. As a result, Nathan B. Forrest accumulated assets of at least $1 million, a very large amount for that time. When he enlisted in the Seventh Tennessee Cavalry, he may have been the Confederacy's only millionaire private.
Soon he raised a cavalry battalion of his own and was rewarded by promotion to lieutenant colonel. Sometimes engaged in pitched battles but more often leading raids, the self-taught cavalry leader did not surrender until he learned that Lee had capitulated at Appomattox. In postwar years he was a railroad president.
Wealthy beyond the dreams of most southerners, Forrest occupies a Civil War niche that belongs to him alone. No other man who fought in either gray or blue enlisted as a private and surrendered as a lieutenant general.
