The Generals and Their Families (originally written in 2007 for grad school)

Catherine Wilson, Executive Director GCHS

The text of an article from the Xenia Torchlight newspaper of 17 August 1864 reads as follows: “Generals’ Families at Yellow Springs. Greene county has the honor of being the home of five prominent Union Generals in the service of the country at this time. The beautiful village of Yellow Springs is honored with the wives and families of Generals Rosecrans, Scammon, Kilby Smith, Stanley and Schofield. The Yellow Springs Hotel and the Neff House are both full of guests, and hundreds are waiting places that otherwise would be there. It is a pity that the magnificent Neff estate is not improved by a first class hotel. There is no place in Ohio so beautiful and so accessible. When the war is over the want must be remedied.” It seemed odd that a town the size of this one would have so many nationally prominent figures associated with it, but additional research remedied that misconception. Yellow Springs had been known for several years before the war as a watering place and health resort. The iron-laden spring that gave the town its name had been made into a pilgrimage place for health seekers, apparently on the principle that “if it tastes bad it must be good for you.” The Neff House was open from 1842 to 1882; it was named Neff Grounds Park about 1900, and in 1929 became Glen Helen, part of Antioch College. Yellow Springs Hotel was open from at least 1855 to at least 1895; it was the M.E. Home of the Aged in 1901. Bryan High School was built on the site in 1928, which currently houses community offices.

Most of the generals were of the Catholic faith, and had graduated from the United States Military Academy, which are two reasons that they might have gravitated toward each other. Unfortunately, many details about these generals’ families have been lost or were never recorded. The personal memoirs were not very personal at all; they mostly treated with military matters. In fact, the publisher’s note in the preface to Stanley’s memoirs says, “The introductory part of the Memoirs as printed here, is an abridgement … as it dealt at too great length with non-military incidents that do not come within the scope of this review. With the opening of the Civil War period the text will be given integrally.” That was not what this particular historian wanted to hear!

Here is the information I was able to glean on the generals’ families who stayed in Yellow Springs during the last two years of the war. A Civil War general is supposed to have lived in a house on West North College Street, according to Nina Myatt, former curator at Antiochiana. She could not recall the name, however; it could be either Schofield or Stanley, since the other three are well-documented. There is more to be done on this subject; for instance, Rosecrans’ papers are at UCLA’s Young Research Library, and look juicy.

William Starke Rosecrans was born 6 Sept 1819 in Kingston, Delaware Co. OH. He was graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1842, 5th in a class of 56. He died 11 Mar 1898 in Los Angeles CA. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery, having been moved from Los Angeles in May 1908. He and his wife Annie Eliza (Hageman) Rosecrans were married 24 Aug 1843 and had 8 children: 4 sons and 4 daughters. Louis Adrian (or Adrian Louis) (1844-70) was an Antioch College student as a freshman and sophomore, and became a priest. Other children were William (1845-46); James Addison ( b. ca. 1846); Mary Louise (ca. 1847/50 – 1873/76), who became an Ursuline nun at the monastery in Brown Co. OH and died there at age 26; Lily R. (ca. 1851/54 – post 1900) married Joseph Kemp Toole; Anna D. (ca. 1852/54 – post 1900); Carl Frederick (1856 – post 1900); and Charlotte (ca. 1857/62 – Nov 1863), who died in Yellow Springs.

When in Yellow Springs (1863-64), his family lived in a house on the northwest corner of Elm and Walnut streets, rented from an Antioch professor, C. S. Pennell. Antiochiana has a photograph in its collection identified as Lily Rosecrans; the reverse says (incorrectly) that she lived at “The Lawn,” William Mills’ house, which was actually across the street. Mrs. Rosecrans was in Yellow Springs at least as early as January 1863; she is mentioned in a letter from Mary Ladley to her brother Oscar in a letter dated January 16 of that year. Mrs. Rosecrans was “serenaded” by Antioch students after good news from the battle of Murfreesboro/Stone River TN came to Yellow Springs. His brother Sylvester, a Catholic bishop, lived in Springfield OH during the 1860s, and is mentioned in newspaper articles occasionally.

Eliakim Parker Scammon was born 27 Dec 1816 in Whitefield, Lincoln Co. ME. He died 7 Dec 1894 in New York NY. He was graduated from the US Military Academy in 1837, 9th in a class of 50. He married Margaret Stebbins in ca. 1841, and they had 7 children. Mary Weir ( b. 8 Jul 1842) married Nathaniel Jones; Margaret Seabury (b. 11 May 1845) married Walter Lockwood; Caroline Meredith (29 Feb 1848 – Feb 1866); Julia Courtney (b. 10 Jan 1850) married Francis Deming Hoyt; Louis Waldron (25 Aug 1851 – 29 Aug 1852); Winifred Young (b. 12 Sep 1854); and Helen Adelia (18 Dec 1859 – 12 Aug 1863). The latter possibly died while they were living in YS. During the war, he was captured by guerillas on 3 Feb 1864 and released in August of the same year, returning to Yellow Springs.

When in Yellow Springs his family lived in two different houses. According to a Xenia Torch-Light article dated 28 Oct 1863, they lived at the Antioch College president’s house; at that time the house was empty, the college being essentially closed due to financial difficulties. Lamers states that the families of Rosecrans and Scammon shared a house (45, 82), so it must have been during 1864 that the Scammons moved into the house on Walnut St.

John McAllister Schofield was born 29 Sep 1831 in Gerry, Chautauqua Co. NY. He was graduated from the US Military Academy in 1853, 7th in a class of 52. He died 4 Mar 1906 in St. Augustine FL, and is buried at Arlington Cemetery. He married Harriet Bartlett 17 Jun 1857, the daughter of Prof. W.H.C. Bartlett, a graduate of the Military Academy who taught philosophy there. They had five children: John Rathbone (Mar 1858 – 1868); William Bartlett (b. 18 Jun 1860); Henry Halleck (1862- died age 9 mo.); Mary Campbell (10 Jun 1865 – 19 Apr 1959), who married Avery DeLano Andrews; Richard McAllister (27 Mar 1867 – 6 Nov 1941). Harriet died 24 Dec 1888, just after he became Major-General of the US Army, and he married Georgia Kilbourne in 1891. They had one child: Georgia (b. 4 Apr 1897). When in Yellow Springs his family lived at an unknown location.

Thomas Kilby Smith was born 23 Sep 1820 in Boston, Suffolk Co. MA. He attended the US Military Academy, but did not graduate. He died 14 Dec 1887 in New York NY. His wife, Elizabeth B. (McCullough) Smith, whom he married 21 May 1848, bore him 8 children: 5 sons and 3 daughters. He resigned field duty in July 1864 on account of health. Their children were Elizabeth/Bessie (b. ca. 1850); Bella (ca. 1852 – 1867/8); Adrian (b. ca. 1861/63); Walter George (1854-1924); Theodore Dehon (ca. 1857 – 15 Feb 1894), who became Rev. Father Maurice; Hellen (b. ca 1865); Caroline (b. ca. 1868); and Duncan (b. ca. 1869).

When in Yellow Springs his family lived in the Dean house. A. S. Dean, bursar and trustee of Antioch College, owned several properties on the 1855 map of Yellow Springs. There are three likely candidates for the house in which Smith’s family lived: one is at the northwest corner of Whiteman and Livermore streets, another is on the northeast corner of Walnut and Short streets. The former is very close to Antioch College, while the latter is practically across the street from Rosecrans. The likeliest is a building on Antioch’s campus, next to the site of the president’s house and now called Pennell House, that the Dean family had built in 1856, and lived in until 1859, the year of Horace Mann’s death. A slightly earlier article in the Xenia Torch-Light places the President’s house and Dean’s house rather close together, with Rosecrans a little further away: “Antioch College had the entire front of the North Hall, and the north end of Antioch Hall, giving an extent of over 200 feet and four stories high, entirely illuminated. This together with the President’s mansion, occupied now by the family of Gen. Scammon, and the Dean house, occupied by the family of Col. Smith, both which were illuminated with great taste, made, in that part of the place, a very fine appearance. Gen. Rosecran’s house also was an object of special attention” (Xenia Torch-Light, 28 Oct 1863).

David Sloan Stanley was born 1 Jun 1828 in Cedar Valley, Wayne Co. OH. He died 13 Mar 1902 in Washington DC. He was graduated from the US Military Academy in 1852, 9th in a class of 43, and married Anna Marie Wright on 2 Apr 1857. He won the Medal of Honor for his actions in the battle of Franklin TN. Their children were Florence Elizabeth (7 Jan 1858 – 1859); Josephine Huntington (b. 24 Jun 1860), married Willard Holbrook [her late sister’s husband]; Sarah Eliza (b. 23 Mar 1862), married David Rumbough; Anna Huntington (20 Apr 1864 – 25 Feb 1907), married Willard Holbrook; Alice May (13 Mar 1866 – Jul 1870); Blanche Huntington (b. 14 May 1871); and David Sheridan (10 Sep 1873 – 4 May 1942), married Jane Fordyce. When in Yellow Springs his family lived at an unknown location.

Sources

1860 and 1870 Federal census: Hamilton Co. OH; Orange Co. NY; Philadelphia PA; San Rafael, Marin Co. CA; Ft. Sully, Dakota Territory. Accessed through Heritage Quest.

Antiochiana, Antioch College archives, Olive Kettering Library.

Biographical Directory of the United States Congress 1774 to Present <http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=R000440>

Cullum, George W. Biographical register of the officers & graduates of the U.S. Military Academy… Vol. 1, 1802-1840. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868, 524.

Cullum, George W. Biographical register of the officers & graduates of the U.S. Military Academy… Vol. 2, 1841-1867. New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868, 42-43, 309-310, 338-339.

Forbus, Randy. List and photographs of Union officers online, R and S surnames. Civil War Personnel page. <members.fortunecity.com/dforbus/ur.htm and /us.htm>

Hirst, Cosmelia. Scrapbook, Antiochiana, Antioch College archives, 31.

Ladley, Oscar Derostus; Carl Becker & Ritchie Thomas, eds. Hearth and knapsack: the Ladley letters, 1857-1880. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1988.

Lamers, William M. The Edge of Glory: a biography of General William Starke Rosecrans, U.S.A. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1999 (reprint of 1961 edition).

New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia, <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13191c.htm>, <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13506c.htm>, <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14060a.htm>

Rootsweb genealogy website, <http://www.rootsweb.com>

Roth-Skiles, Nikki. Union Generals P to S, American Experience website. 6 Jan 2005. <http://home.ptd.net/~nikki/usagen5.htm>.

Sanborn Fire Insurance maps. OhioLINK Digital Media Center, <http://dmc.ohiolink.edu>.

Sanders, Scott. Glen Helen – A Human Timeline. Glen Helen Ecology Institute pamphlet, November 2000.

Sanders, Scott. “Horace Mann’s house,” Antiochiana website, Antioch College. <http://www.antioch-college.edu/antiochiana/Mannhouse.htm>

Schofield, John M. Forty-six years in the army. New York: The Century Co., 1897.

Smith, Walter George, ed. Life and letters of Thomas Kilby Smith. New York: GP Putnam’s Sons, 1898.

Stanley, David Sloan. Personal memoirs of Major-General D.S. Stanley, U.S.A. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 1917.

US Army Medical Department Center & School, <http://www.cs.amedd.army.mil/dptmsec/Stanley.htm>

US Army Military History Center, <http://www.army.mil/cmh-pg/books/cg&csa/Schofield-JM.htm>

Virtual American Biographies, <http://famousamericans.net/williamstarkerosecrans/>, <http://famousamericans.net/thomaskilbysmith/>, <http://famousamericans.net/davidsloanstanley/>

Xenia Sentinel newspaper, 9 Feb 1864.

Xenia Torch-Light newspaper, 25 Feb 1863, 28 Oct 1863, 4 Nov 1863, 18 Nov 1863, 17 August 1864.