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HMS Warspite's bios: Augur, Averell; Ayres; Bailey; Baird

 
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HMS Warspite's bios: Augur, Averell; Ayres; Bailey; Baird - 11/14/2006 9:41:11 PM   
HMSWarspite

 

Posts: 1401
Joined: 4/13/2002
From: Bristol, UK
Status: offline 		Be gentle with me, I am a poor Brit, who thinks that the Civil War was in the 17th Century, not the 19th! Here are my 5. I will put one per post, to ease comments. First:

Major General Christopher Colon Augur.(b. 1821, d. 1898).
Born in New York, he graduated West Point in the same class as Grant (1843), 16th of 39, one of 13 Union and 3 Confederate Generals from that class. Although he was present during some well known campaigns of the Civil War and has the reputation of being a competent battlefield commander, Augur was never to achieve the success or fame of some of the Generals he came into contact with. During the war with Mexico he served as an aide-de-camp and fought creditably. During the 1850s he saw frontier service. He was promoted steadily and on May 14, 1861, attained the rank of Major in the Regular Army. At the outbreak of war he was Commandant of Cadets at West Point, but in November 1861 he was commissioned a Brigadier General of Volunteers, and joined McDowell's corps, where he commanded the 1st Brigade of 1st Division, later known as the Iron Brigade of the east.
His first Civil War action was on the Rappahannock during the Peninsular campaign. By August 1862, he commanded a division, and fought Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain under General Nathaniel Banks. Although a defeat for the outnumbered Union troops, the Union performance was good. Augur and his fellow Division commander Alpheus Williams attacked the Confederate line. William's troops broke the "Stonewall" brigade, and severely damaged the rebel left. Augur's men were prevented from completing the defeat by Jackson's only drawing of his sword, to rally the line. A P Hill was thus given time to reinforce and reform the rebel line. Augur's division was pushed back with the rest of Bank's corps. He was severely wounded in the right side during the ensuing rout.
He was promoted brevet Major General of Volunteers in recognition of this performance, and in November, Banks, by now in New Orleans, specifically requested that Augur lead one of his divisions in the Louisiana campaign. Sherman also commanded a division under Banks in this campaign. At the preparation for the siege of Port Hudson, Augur commanded an independent force, and had the centre of the line during the assaults. From October 1863, until 1866, Augur was promoted to be commander of XXII Corps (Department of Washington). Augur was promoted Brig. Gen. in the United States Army in March 1865, and confirmed as brevet Maj. Gen. for services in the field during the rebellion. He was the officer in command of the escort returning President Lincoln's body to the White House, after he was assassinated, on the evening of April 14, 1865.
After the war, Augur remained in the Army. He returned to the frontier and was a signatory to several treaties between the US and the Indians in the late 1860's. He retired in 1885, died 1898, and is buried in Arlington.



< Message edited by HMSWarspite -- 11/15/2006 1:24:02 AM >

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RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/14/2006 9:44:51 PM   
HMSWarspite

 

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From: Bristol, UK
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Brig. Gen. William Woods Averell (b. 1832, d. 1900). His career could be described as McClellan in miniature, showing early promise as an organiser, but later failing due to lack of resolution and decision. Graduating West Point 26th of 34 in the class of 1855, he was sent to the frontier. He was wounded in New Mexico, October 1858, and was an invalid for two years. Returning to duty after Fort Sumpter, he won praise by evading the Confederate forces in Texas and New Mexico whilst taking orders to his old regiment which had been cut off. He was at First Bull Run, winning more praise. He was made Colonel of 3rd Penn. Cav., in August 1861, and trained it effectively from a poor state. In July 1862 he was given a cavalry brigade, which again he improved significantly. He caught malaria and missed the Antietam campaign, returning to chase JEB Stuart as he rode round the Army of the Potomac.
In January 1863, Averell was given command of one of three divisions in the new Cavalry Corps of the AoP. In February, Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee (who was at West Point with Averell), captured 150 of Averell's cavalrymen. Three weeks later Averell crossed the Rappahannock at Kelly's Ford and awaited Lee. Lee was outnumbered but he attacked then withdrew and Averell declared victory. This battle is cited as the first time Union horsemen beat Confederate cavalry, but all the odds were with Averell. Hooker was not at all pleased, thinking Averell had missed the chance to destroy Fitzhugh Lee. When shortly afterwards, Hooker sent his cavalry, including Averell's division, on a raid behind Confederate lines, Hooker reported to Washington that Averell "seems to have contented himself between April 29 and May 4 with having marched ... 28 miles, meeting no enemy deserving of the name, and from that point reporting to me for instructions." and removed him from command.
Despite this, Averell was promoted brevet Brig. Gen. and sent to West Virginia, where he built up yet another command to a reasonable standard of training. In November 1863 he lead a raid against the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad in his most successful operation of the war. On 6 November 1863, Averell's brigade defeated the last major Confederate force in West Virginia at Droop Mountain with small loss to his own force. In the Valley against Jubal Early in 1864, Averell was under Sheridan's command. He won a victory at the Battle of Moorefield, but was relieved of command again in September by Sheridan, who was unhappy with his performance at Fisher's Hill. This incident left Averell very unhappy. He had no further active service, and resigned, although he was promoted to brevet Maj. Gen. of the Regular Army just before the end of the war.
Averell spent most of the next 20 years trying to prove his removal was political. The army reinstated him in 1888, but the usual view is that he was just not a combat commander, being over promoted due to his organisational ability, while unable to act decisively on campaign.


< Message edited by HMSWarspite -- 11/14/2006 9:57:52 PM >

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RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/14/2006 9:48:01 PM   
HMSWarspite

 

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Maj. Gen. Romeyn Beck Ayres (b. 1825, d. 1888). Although the son of a small town doctor, Ayres was well educated. His father encouraged all his sons to follow a profession, and Ayres graduated West Point in 1847 (with A E Burnside and A P Hill), 22nd in his class of 38. He was a tall, balding, carefully dressed man, and was later described as a hard fighting artilleryman. After West Point he caught the end of the Mexican War, serving in occupation garrisons, and on the SW frontier. In 1861 he was promoted Captain, US Artillery. He fought at First Bull Run, commanding Battery E, 3rd Artillery in Sherman's Brigade. Whilst unable to closely engage for most of the day, his rearguard action helped save the defeated army from the pursuing Confederate cavalry after the battle. He went on to serve the entire war in various positions in the Army of the Potomac. He was commander of the artillery in W. F. Smith's (2nd) Division, October 1861 to November 1862, and VI Corps, until April 1863. He was present at all the AoP major actions including the Peninsular, Antietam, and Fredericksburg where he was injured falling off his horse. He was highly thought of by his seniors, and his performance in these battles was often commended.
He was promoted Brig. Gen. of Volunteers, November 1862, and transferred to the infantry, commanding a brigade in V Corps at Chancellorsville. He commanded a division at Gettysburg, suffering heavy losses to two brigades when outflanked following the rout of Caldwell's division in the Wheatfield. No blame was aimed at Ayres for this and he was actually made brevet Maj. Gen. of Volunteers after Gettysburg and the Wilderness, continuing to command various divisions to the end.
He fought in all the subsequent actions of V Corps. During the Petersburg campaign he was wounded, but not badly enough to prevent him commanding his division for the Appomattox campaign. During the battle of Five Forks, V Corps was ordered to attack and flank Pickett's corps. V Corps attacked with the intention of Ayres' division pinning the Confederate line, whilst Crawford's turned Pickett's right. In fact, in dense thickets, Pickett was not where the Union Cavalry had indicated he would be, and Ayres men were subjected to flanking fire themselves. The Union division commanders managed to sort things out in time to defeat Pickett decisively, although some of Pickett's men escaped the originally intended encirclement. Warren, commander of V Corps, was sacked for this, but Ayres was particularly praised for his role in the battle. He ended the war as brevet Major General, in the Regular Army.
Ayres is buried at Arlington. Unusually for a Union general, there is also a noted Confederate in his grave. Juliet Opie Hopkins, his mother-in-law, set up and ran several hospitals for the Confederates, treating many wounded, often being present on the battlefield, and once being wounded herself. When she died she was buried next to her son-in-law.

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RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/14/2006 9:50:45 PM   
HMSWarspite

 

Posts: 1401
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Brig. Gen. Joseph Bailey (b.1825 d. 1867) spent half of the War as a junior infantry officer, before finding his forte as an army engineer. Born in Ohio, he studied civil engineering in Illinois, and then worked as a civil engineer and lumberman in Wisconsin. In 1861 he volunteered for the 4th Wisconsin Regt. and was made Captain. The regiment moved to Maryland, and joined Gen. Butler's force to occupy New Orleans in April 1862. At this point his engineering background came in useful, and he became chief engineer for New Orleans, whilst retaining his "day job".
He supported Gen. Banks' siege of Port Hudson, again as an engineer. Following its capture, Bailey was promoted Lt. Col. (June 1863). At this point the regiment was converted to cavalry, but retained the title of 4th Wisconsin. Bailey was thus a trained engineer, and acting as such, whilst second in command of a cavalry regiment, having only had infantry experience!
The centerpiece of Bailey's wartime career, and a brilliant work of engineering and organisation, came during Banks' campaign on the Red River. Banks' Army of the Gulf landed in Louisiana in March 1864, to capture Shreveport, where Gen. Kirby Smith was in charge of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi (popularly known as the "KirbySmithdom" because of the isolation from the rest of the Confederacy). Banks' advance was met by Gen. Taylor at Mansfield. Although severely handled by the superior Union force, Taylor managed to halt Banks who withdrew back down the Red River. However at Alexandria he found himself on the horns of a dilemma. Supporting his army was a significant part of the Union's Mississippi squadron. The river had dropped sufficiently that the gunboats could not shoot the rapids at Alexandria. If Banks withdrew without them, the fleet would be lost, and his army then faced defeat by Taylor if he did not have the fleet to support him.
Bailey called on his logging experience, and suggested building a dam between the two sets of rapids. This would raise the level of the river and allow the gunboats to pass the upper rapids. Then the dam would be blown, and the flood would carry the fleet over the lower rapids. Banks was sufficiently desperate to agree to the attempt. Despite false starts, the plan was executed more or less to Bailey's plan in 10 days. The fleet and the army returned safely to New Orleans.
In recognition Bailey was voted the "Thanks of Congress", only one of 15 to be so honored, and the only one who was not a corps or division commander. He was promoted to command the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry as Colonel, made a brevet Brig. Gen., and given command of the Engineer Brigade, XIX Corps. He then assumed command of various cavalry brigades, still retaining his engineering role. His was confirmed as Brig. Gen. of Volunteers in November, and at the end of the war was made Brevet Maj. Gen.
After the war he moved to Missouri, and became a sheriff. He was killed by two men he had arrested and was taking in.


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RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/14/2006 9:54:24 PM   
HMSWarspite

 

Posts: 1401
Joined: 4/13/2002
From: Bristol, UK
Status: offline 		And finally (incidently one of the harder careers to follow):

Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird (b.1824 d. 1905)
Absalom Baird was the offspring of a family tracing military involvement to at least the Revolutionary and French wars. He was born in Pennsylvania, and studied law. He then went to West Point, passing out 9th in a class of 43 (1849). At the outbreak of the Civil War, he transferred to staff duty, and was Tyler's adjutant at First Bull Run. By 1862 he was Chief of Staff to Keyes' (IV) Corps, fighting in the Peninsular Campaign. In April 1862 he was made Brig. Gen. of Volunteers, and transferred to the West.
There he was put in command of 27th Brigade, 7th Division, Army of the Ohio, under the command of Gen. Buell. His brigade and the rest of the division occupied the Cumberland Gap, after the Confederates evacuated it in June but they were forced to evacuate in turn in September. After the evacuation, the division transferred to Kentucky.
Baird was then promoted to command the 3rd Division of the Army of Kentucky, participating in Gen. Rosecrans campaign into Tennessee. He fought in several actions, culminating in Chickamauga. In this action he was promoted to brevet Lt. Colonel in the Regular Army. His division went on to fight at Chattanooga, for which he was brevetted Colonel.
His next major campaign was the capture of Atlanta, the pursuit of Gen. Hood's army, and the march to the sea under Sherman. He was present at the capture of Savannah, the march though the Carolinas and the surrender of Johnson's army at Durham, NC. He was made brevet Brigadier General in the Regular Army in March 1865, for his performance at Atlanta, and brevet Major General of Volunteers at the end of the war.
In 1896, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Jonesboro, Georgia. The citation records that he voluntarily lead a brigade in an assault upon the enemy's works, on September 1, 1864.
General Baird is buried in Arlington.

What do you think?


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RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/15/2006 1:19:15 AM   
raven1

 

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From: montana
Status: offline 		Concise and to the point. Well done.

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RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/15/2006 1:19:48 AM   
Gil R.


Posts: 10821
Joined: 4/1/2005
Status: offline 		I only have time to skim them right now, but they look quite good. There are some minor style points, but these are just the sort of thing we're looking for.

I'll post more detail critiques in the next day or two. In the meantime, if anyone else has any opinions feel free to chime in.

By any chance are you able to rename the thread to include the generals' bios? I'm hoping we can do that for each thread in which people post the bios. (Oddly enough, my moderator powers seem to enable me to delete posts, but not make a simple change.)

(in reply to HMSWarspite)
Post #: 7
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/15/2006 1:23:14 AM   
HMSWarspite

 

Posts: 1401
Joined: 4/13/2002
From: Bristol, UK
Status: offline 		Your wish is my command...

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Post #: 8
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/25/2006 6:27:00 AM   
Gil R.


Posts: 10821
Joined: 4/1/2005
Status: offline 		Okay, I’ve gone over these, and they’re all quite good and certainly usable. I’ve edited each one a bit, usually in terms of style, and consider them good to go (unless anyone has some info that should be added). First, some basic points:

1) The program can’t handle separate paragraphs, so everything should be written as a second long paragraph.
2) For less important generals, one should try to keep the bio short. While 3000 characters might be available, people are less likely to read long entries on guys they don’t really care about
3) When referring to other officers or politicians, give their title and full name, again for esthetics. So in the first sentence it said that Augur was “in the same class as Grant,” which I changed.
4) All ranks should be abbreviated to save space: Maj. Gen., Brig. Gen., Pres., etc. (This is only when used as a title, such as Maj. Gen. C.C. Augur – if you’re saying “C.C. Augur became a Major General” then it’s written out.)
5) The first sentence should always use the general’s name. So instead of “Born in New York, he graduated...” I’ve changed it to “Born in New York, Augur graduated...” It’s just stylistically better to do that.
6) Small numbers (say, under 20) should be written out: “thirteen Union and three Confederate,” not “13 Union and 3 confederate.”
7) At one point you referred to the war as “the rebellion,” but it’s best to be neutral and refer to it as the Civil War
8) I had to make some minor changes to switch from British English to our inferior variant (e.g., “organizational” rather than “organisational”).

Also, I devised my own ratings for these five generals, but please let me know if you have suggestions for changes


Maj. Gen. Christopher Colon Augur (b. 1821, d. 1898). Born in New York, Augur graduated West Point in 1843, finishing 16th out of 39 in a class that would provide thirteen Union and three Confederate generals, including Ulysses S. Grant. Note that I rewrote the previous sentence to make it flow more smoothly. Although he was present during some well known campaigns of the Civil War and has the reputation of being a competent battlefield commander, Augur was never to achieve the success or fame of some of the generals he came into contact with. During the war with Mexico he served as an aide-de-camp and fought creditably, and during the 1850’s he saw frontier service. He was promoted steadily and on May 14, 1861, attained the rank of Major in the Regular Army. At the outbreak of war he was Commandant of Cadets at West Point, but in November 1861 he was commissioned a Brigadier General of Volunteers, and joined McDowell's corps, where he commanded the 1st Brigade of 1st Division, later known as the Iron Brigade of the east Is this an actual nickname, in which case it should be in quotes?. Augur’s first Civil War action was on the Rappahannock during the Peninsular campaign. By August, 1862, he commanded a division, and fought Stonewall Jackson at Cedar Mountain under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel Banks. Although a defeat for the outnumbered Union troops, the Union performance was good. Augur and his fellow division commander Alpheus Williams Do you know Williams’s rank? I believe he would have been a brigadier general. attacked the Confederate line. Williams's troops broke the "Stonewall Brigade,” and severely damaged the rebel left. Augur's men were prevented from completing the defeat only by Jackson's drawing of his sword to rally the line. Maj. Gen. A.P. Hill Note that I added Hill’s rank at the time of the battle. Ideally, we should always provide that sort of information. was thus given time to reinforce and reform the rebel line. Augur's division was pushed back with the rest of Banks's corps. He was severely wounded in the right side during the ensuing rout. Augur was promoted brevet Major General of Volunteers in recognition of this performance, and in November, Banks, by now in New Orleans, specifically requested that Augur lead one of his divisions in the Louisiana campaign. I am deleting the following sentence because it’s not especially relevant, and therefore this seems a good way of shortening the entry a little: “Sherman also commanded a division under Banks in this campaign.” At the preparation for the siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana, Augur commanded an independent force, and had the center of the line during the assaults. In October, 1863, Augur was promoted to be commander of XXII Corps (Department of Washington), a post he held until 1866. Augur, who was promoted to brigadier general in March, 1865, and subsequently confirmed as brevet major general for services in the field during the Civil War, was the officer in command of the escort returning Pres. Abraham Lincoln's body to the White House after his assassination. After the war, Augur remained in the Army until 1885, returning to the frontier and acting as a signatory to several treaties with the Indians in the late 1860's. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Initiative: Normal
Leadership: Good
Command: Great
Tactics: Great

(in reply to HMSWarspite)
Post #: 9
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/25/2006 6:27:28 AM   
Gil R.


Posts: 10821
Joined: 4/1/2005
Status: offline 		Brig. Gen. William Woods Averell (b. 1832, d. 1900). Averell’s career could be described as “McClellan in miniature,” showing early promise as an organizer, but later failing due to lack of resolution and decisiveness. Graduating West Point 26th of 34 in the class of 1855, he was sent to the frontier. He was wounded in New Mexico, October 1858, and was an invalid for two years. Returning to duty after Fort Sumpter, he won praise by evading the Confederate forces in Texas and New Mexico while taking orders to his old regiment, which had been cut off. He served at First Bull Run, winning further praise. He was made Colonel of 3rd Pennsylvania Cavalry It’s okay to write out the names of military units, in August 1861, and trained it effectively from a poor state. In July 1862 he was given a cavalry brigade, which again he improved significantly. He caught malaria and missed the Antietam campaign, returning to chase J.E.B. Stuart as he rode round the Army of the Potomac. In January 1863, Averell was given command of one of three divisions in the new Cavalry Corps of the AoP. In February, Confederate Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee (who had attended West Point with Averell), captured 150 of Averell's cavalrymen. Three weeks later Averell crossed the Rappahannock at Kelly's Ford and awaited Lee. Lee was outnumbered but he attacked and then withdrew, and Averell declared victory. This battle is cited as the first time Union horsemen beat Confederate cavalry, but all the odds were with Averell. Hooker was not at all pleased, thinking Averell had missed the chance to destroy Fitzhugh Lee. When shortly afterwards Hooker sent his cavalry, including Averell's division, on a raid behind Confederate lines, Hooker removed him from command, reporting to Washington that Averell "seems to have contented himself between April 29 and May 4 with having marched ... 28 miles, meeting no enemy deserving of the name, and from that point reporting to me for instructions." Despite this, Averell was promoted brevet Brigadier General and sent to West Virginia, where he built up yet another command to a reasonable standard of training. In November 1863 he led a raid against the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad in his most successful operation of the war. On 6 November 1863, Averell's brigade defeated the last major Confederate force in West Virginia at Droop Mountain with small loss to his own force. In the Valley against Jubal Early in 1864, Averell was under Sheridan's command. He won a victory at the Battle of Moorefield, but was relieved of command again in September by Sheridan, who was unhappy with his performance at Fisher's Hill. This incident left Averell very discouraged. He had no further active service, and resigned, although he was promoted to brevet Major General of the Regular Army just before the end of the war. Averell spent most of the next 20 years trying to prove his removal was political. The army reinstated him in 1888, but the usual view is that he was just not a combat commander, being over promoted due to his organizational ability, while unable to act decisively on campaign.

Initiative: Poor
Leadership: Normal
Command: Fair
Tactics: Normal
Cavalry: Fair


(in reply to Gil R.)
Post #: 10
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/25/2006 6:27:45 AM   
Gil R.


Posts: 10821
Joined: 4/1/2005
Status: offline 		Maj. Gen. Romeyn Beck Ayres (b. 1825, d. 1888). Although the son of a small-town doctor, Ayres was well educated. His father encouraged all his sons to follow a profession, and Ayres graduated West Point in 1847 (in the same class as A.E. Burnside and A.P. Hill), finishing 22nd in his class of 38. He was a tall, balding, carefully dressed man, and was later described as a hard-fighting artilleryman. After West Point he caught the end of the Mexican War, serving in occupation garrisons, and on the southwest frontier. In 1861 he was promoted Captain, U.S. Artillery. He fought at First Bull Run, commanding Battery E, 3rd Artillery in Sherman's Brigade. While unable to closely engage for most of the day, his rearguard action helped save the defeated army from the pursuing Confederate cavalry after the battle. He went on to serve the entire war in various positions in the Army of the Potomac. He was commander of the artillery in W.F. Smith's (2nd) Division, October 1861 to November 1862, and VI Corps, until April 1863. He was present at all of the AoP’s major actions including the Peninsular Campaign, Antietam, and Fredericksburg, where he was injured falling off his horse. He was highly thought of by his seniors, and his performance in these battles was often commended. Ayres was promoted Brigadier General of Volunteers, November 1862, and transferred to the infantry, commanding a brigade in V Corps at Chancellorsville. He commanded a division at Gettysburg, suffering heavy losses to two brigades when outflanked following the rout of Caldwell's division in the Wheatfield. No blame was aimed at Ayres for this and he was actually made brevet Major General of Volunteers after Gettysburg and the Wilderness, continuing to command various divisions to the end. Ayres fought in all the subsequent actions of V Corps. During the Petersburg campaign he was wounded, but not badly enough to prevent him commanding his division for the Appomattox campaign. During the battle of Five Forks, V Corps was ordered to attack and flank Pickett's corps. V Corps attacked with the intention of Ayres' division pinning the Confederate line, while Crawford's turned Pickett's right. In fact, in dense thickets, Pickett was not where the Union Cavalry had indicated he would be, and Ayres men were subjected to flanking fire themselves. The Union division commanders managed to sort things out in time to defeat Pickett decisively, although some of Pickett's men escaped the originally intended encirclement. Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, commander of V Corps, was sacked for this, but Ayres was particularly praised for his role in the battle. He ended the war as brevet Major General, in the Regular Army. Ayres is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. Unusually for a Union general, there is also a noted Confederate in his grave: Juliet Opie Hopkins, his mother-in-law, who set up and ran several hospitals for the Confederates and treated many wounded, often being present on the battlefield, and once being wounded herself.

Initiative: Fair
Leadership: Good
Command: Good
Tactics: Fair

(in reply to Gil R.)
Post #: 11
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/25/2006 6:28:04 AM   
Gil R.


Posts: 10821
Joined: 4/1/2005
Status: offline 		Brig. Gen. Joseph Bailey (b. 1825, d. 1867). Bailey spent half of the Civil War as a junior infantry officer, before finding his forte as an army engineer. Born in Ohio, he studied civil engineering in Illinois, and then worked as a civil engineer and lumberman in Wisconsin. In 1861 he volunteered for the 4th Wisconsin Regiment and was made Captain. The regiment moved to Maryland, and joined Gen. Benjamin Butler's force to occupy New Orleans in April 1862. At this point his engineering background came in useful, and he became chief engineer for New Orleans, while retaining his "day job." He supported Gen. Nathaniel Banks' siege of Port Hudson, again as an engineer. Following its capture, Bailey was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in June, 1863. At this point the regiment was converted to cavalry, but retained the title of 4th Wisconsin. Bailey was thus a trained engineer and continued acting as such, while serving as second in command of a cavalry regiment – even though he only had infantry experience. The centerpiece of Bailey's wartime career, and a brilliant work of engineering and organization, came during Banks' campaign on the Red River. Banks' Army of the Gulf landed in Louisiana in March 1864 in order to capture Shreveport, where Gen. Kirby Smith was in charge of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi (popularly known as the "KirbySmithdom" because of the isolation from the rest of the Confederacy). Banks' advance was met by Gen. Richard Taylor at Mansfield. Although severely handled by the superior Union force, Taylor managed to halt Banks, who withdrew back down the Red River. However, at Alexandria Taylor found himself on the horns of a dilemma. Supporting his army was a significant part of the Union's Mississippi squadron. The river had dropped sufficiently that the gunboats could not shoot the rapids at Alexandria. If Banks withdrew without them, the fleet would be lost, and his army then faced defeat by Taylor if he did not have the fleet to support him. Bailey called on his logging experience, and suggested building a dam between the two sets of rapids. This would raise the level of the river and allow the gunboats to pass the upper rapids. Then the dam would be blown, and the flood would carry the fleet over the lower rapids. Banks was sufficiently desperate to agree to the attempt. Despite false starts, the plan was executed more or less to Bailey's plan in ten days. The fleet and the army returned safely to New Orleans. In recognition, Bailey was voted the "Thanks of Congress," only one of 15 to be so honored, and the only one who was not a corps or division commander. He was promoted to command the 4th Wisconsin Cavalry as Colonel, made a brevet Brigadier General, and given command of the Engineer Brigade, XIX Corps. He then assumed command of various cavalry brigades, still retaining his engineering role. His was confirmed as Brigadier General of Volunteers in November, and at the end of the war was made Brevet Major General. After the war, Bailey moved to Missouri and became a sheriff, but just two years later he was killed by two men he had arrested and was taking in.

Leadership: Normal
Initiative: Normal
Command: Normal
Tactics: Normal
Cavalry: Fair

(in reply to Gil R.)
Post #: 12
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/25/2006 6:28:23 AM   
Gil R.


Posts: 10821
Joined: 4/1/2005
Status: offline 		Brig. Gen. Absalom Baird (b.1824, d. 1905). Baird was the offspring of a family tracing military involvement to at least the Revolutionary and French wars. He was born in Pennsylvania, and studied law. He then went to West Point, passing out in 1849 9th in a class of 43. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he transferred to staff duty, and was Tyler's adjutant at First Bull Run. By 1862 he was Chief of Staff to Keyes' (IV) Corps, fighting in the Peninsular Campaign. In April 1862 he was made Brigadier General of Volunteers, and transferred to the West. There he was put in command of 27th Brigade, 7th Division, Army of the Ohio, under the command of Maj. Gen. Don C. Buell. His brigade and the rest of the division occupied the Cumberland Gap after the Confederates evacuated it in June, but they were forced to evacuate it in turn that September. After the evacuation, the division transferred to Kentucky. Baird was then promoted to command the 3rd Division of the Army of Kentucky, participating in Gen. William S. Rosecrans’s campaign into Tennessee and fighting in several actions, culminating in Chickamauga. In this action he was promoted to brevet Lieutenant Colonel in the Regular Army. His division went on to fight at Chattanooga, for which he was brevetted Colonel. His next major campaign was the capture of Atlanta, the pursuit of Gen. John B. Hood's army, and the “March to the Sea” under Sherman. He was present at the capture of Savannah, the march though the Carolinas and the surrender of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army at Durham, North Carolina. He was made brevet Brigadier General in the Regular Army in March 1865, for his performance at Atlanta, and brevet Major General of Volunteers at the end of the war. In 1896, he was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Jonesboro, Georgia. The citation records that he voluntarily led a brigade in an assault upon the enemy's works, on September 1, 1864. Gen. Baird is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

Initiative: Fair
Leadership: Good
Command: Great
Tactics: Good


(in reply to Gil R.)
Post #: 13
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/25/2006 12:09:28 PM   
HMSWarspite

 

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Status: offline 		OK. My next lot are half done, and I will incorporate your points. I have spotted a problem with the last sentance of Ayres' notes (it isn't a sentance), and also there are a few characters that need ranks. Would you like me to do them, or will you?

_____________________________

I have a cunning plan, My Lord

(in reply to Gil R.)
Post #: 14
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/25/2006 1:27:22 PM   
Jonathan Palfrey

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

8) I had to make some minor changes to switch from British English to our inferior variant (e.g., “organizational” rather than “organisational”).



A small note: "organizational" is correct in both British and American English; it derives from Latin spelling. The use of 's' in place of 'z' in such words, although quite common in Britain now, was introduced in relatively modern times in imitation of French spelling. The Oxford English Dictionary prefers 'z'.

(in reply to Gil R.)
Post #: 15
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/25/2006 7:34:00 PM   
Gil R.


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Jonathan Palfrey

quote:

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

8) I had to make some minor changes to switch from British English to our inferior variant (e.g., “organizational” rather than “organisational”).



A small note: "organizational" is correct in both British and American English; it derives from Latin spelling. The use of 's' in place of 'z' in such words, although quite common in Britain now, was introduced in relatively modern times in imitation of French spelling. The Oxford English Dictionary prefers 'z'.
quote:

Unusually for a Union general, there is also a noted Confederate in his grave: Juliet Opie Hopkins, his mother-in-law, who set up and ran several hospitals for the Confederates and treated many wounded, often being present on the battlefield, and once being wounded herself.


Interesting. I was trusting the MS Word dictionary, as well as my own knowledge of the language. Still, I think that the 'z' is better, mainly because of the American focus of this game. (If it were "Crown of Glory" I probably would have left it.)

(in reply to Jonathan Palfrey)
Post #: 16
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/25/2006 7:37:22 PM   
Gil R.


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quote:

ORIGINAL: HMSWarspite

OK. My next lot are half done, and I will incorporate your points. I have spotted a problem with the last sentance of Ayres' notes (it isn't a sentance), and also there are a few characters that need ranks. Would you like me to do them, or will you?


Regarding ranks for other figures mentioned in bios, I've gone back and forth on this. Ideally, we'd always say whether it was a Brig. Gen. or Maj. Gen. who said or did something relevant to the subject of the bio, but finding out that information is usually extra work, and it will be very tough to do that consistently in every bio. So, my thinking is that when people have that information they should include it, but otherwise just go with the generic "Gen." The alternative is to use "Gen." for everyone, but that undoes some of the work already done.

As for the Ayres sentences, you're right. I rewrote it, but it doesn't read properly. So, I'm now thinking of going with: "Unusually for a Union general, there is also a noted Confederate in his grave: Juliet Opie Hopkins, his mother-in-law, who set up and ran several hospitals for the Confederates and treated many wounded, and as a regular battlefield presence had even been wounded once herself."

< Message edited by Gil R. -- 11/25/2006 7:41:59 PM >

(in reply to HMSWarspite)
Post #: 17
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/25/2006 9:05:29 PM   
HMSWarspite

 

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From: Bristol, UK
Status: offline 		Perfect.

_____________________________

I have a cunning plan, My Lord

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Post #: 18
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/26/2006 8:42:15 AM   
Jonathan Palfrey

 

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quote:

ORIGINAL: Gil R.
Interesting. I was trusting the MS Word dictionary, as well as my own knowledge of the language.


The spelling with 's' is commonly perceived as the standard British spelling, even by many British people, but in fact it's the Americans who have preserved the original British spelling while the British have varied from it. The quotations listed in the Oxford English Dictionary suggest that 'organization' was the normal spelling from the 15th to the 18th centuries; in the 19th century both spellings were in common use; 'organisation' became more common in Britain in the 20th century.

Software companies are not, of course, authorities on language.

I remember that, in the early 1990s, I had written a manual of several hundred pages in WordPerfect, and decided to subject it to the spelling checker. I had to spend a considerable amount of time checking all the words that it flagged; the end result being that it found only one or two typos in the whole manual, all the other words flagged being correct. Since that experience, I've never used spelling checkers again; they're more trouble than they're worth.

(in reply to Gil R.)
Post #: 19
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 11/26/2006 8:49:22 AM   
Gil R.


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Status: offline 		I hear you on spellcheckers. Don't get me started on how stupidly MS Word's is designed. But here's an example: it doesn't recognize possessives, so if you take a noun that is in the spellchecker and add 's to it, it thinks that's not a word. Now how could the programmers not have fixed this after all these years? And another gripe: to my amazement, the other day I was informed that I have filled up my custom dictionary, meaning that it will no longer accept new words from me. In this day of 100GB drives and 1GB RAM, etc. etc., why would Microsoft limit the size of that file to around 100-200 words? My profession requires using all sorts of words not found in English dictionaries, and now I can't add them to the MS Word spellchecker any longer.

(in reply to Jonathan Palfrey)
Post #: 20
RE: Spelling checker problems - 11/26/2006 12:37:30 PM   
Jonathan Palfrey

 

Posts: 535
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From: Sant Pere de Ribes, Spain
Status: offline 		We are well off topic by now.

However, I did a quick Web search and found two solutions to your problem.

1. You can have more than one custom dictionary in Word.

2. You can edit your custom dictionary with WordPad (not with Word) and manually add more words to it, taking it over Word's size limit.

There's also my own more radical solution:

3. Turn off the spelling checker and use a dictionary if you feel uncertain about any particular word. I also habitually reread anything I've written, catching most typos.

P.S. The same Web page says that custom dictionaries are limited to 64 kilobytes in size. That should give you space for about 5000 words, depending on the size of the words. If you come to a stop after a few hundred words, something is wrong: probably your dictionary file is corrupt or something.

< Message edited by Jonathan Palfrey -- 11/26/2006 1:37:55 PM >

(in reply to Gil R.)
Post #: 21
RE: Spelling checker problems - 11/26/2006 5:30:17 PM   
Gil R.


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quote:

ORIGINAL: Jonathan Palfrey

We are well off topic by now.

However, I did a quick Web search and found two solutions to your problem.

1. You can have more than one custom dictionary in Word.

2. You can edit your custom dictionary with WordPad (not with Word) and manually add more words to it, taking it over Word's size limit.

There's also my own more radical solution:

3. Turn off the spelling checker and use a dictionary if you feel uncertain about any particular word. I also habitually reread anything I've written, catching most typos.

P.S. The same Web page says that custom dictionaries are limited to 64 kilobytes in size. That should give you space for about 5000 words, depending on the size of the words. If you come to a stop after a few hundred words, something is wrong: probably your dictionary file is corrupt or something.


Thanks for checking -- it never would have occurred to me. 64KB strikes me as microscopic, based on today's memory capabilities.

Like you, I never rely on spellcheckers (or spell-checkers, I'm too lazy to check), but I do like the fact that those red lines might tip me off to errors. But when dealing with so many non-English words as well as personal names, the screen can be full of red, which is why I like to add those words to the dictionary so that they don't distract me. I'll look into this site's tips.

(in reply to Jonathan Palfrey)
Post #: 22
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 1/13/2007 8:00:17 PM   
HMSWarspite

 

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Sorry, I missed some of the questions (seeing only the shuffled words). As a general point, I dont mind you changing anything you see fit. Here are the answers to your actual points.
quote:

ORIGINAL: Gil R.

Note that I rewrote the previous sentence to make it flow more smoothly.

OK
quote:


Is this an actual nickname, in which case it should be in quotes?.

Yes, although I don't know how widespread. It was certainly used at the time, although doesn't seem to have lasted as well as some others!
quote:


Do you know Williams’s rank? I believe he would have been a brigadier general.

Yes - a quote from a web site (http://bhere.com/plugugly/williams/williamsbio.html) "Remarkably, Williams never received promotion to Major General, other than an honorary Brevet, mostly due to his refusal to curry favor with the press and his not having the connections in a West Point dominated military. That he had been a Democrat politician did not help either. Beloved by his troops, highly regarded and honored by his fellow officers, this neglect is glaring."
quote:


Note that I added Hill’s rank at the time of the battle. Ideally, we should always provide that sort of information.
OK[
quote:


I am deleting the following sentence because it’s not especially relevant, and therefore this seems a good way of shortening the entry a little: “Sherman also commanded a division under Banks in this campaign.”

OK


_____________________________

I have a cunning plan, My Lord

(in reply to Gil R.)
Post #: 23
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 1/13/2007 11:30:13 PM   
Gil R.


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Joined: 4/1/2005
Status: offline 		Thanks! The bios in this thread are all ready for the patch, then.

(in reply to HMSWarspite)
Post #: 24
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 1/14/2007 12:18:59 AM   
chris0827

 

Posts: 441
Joined: 11/17/2006
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quote:

  I am deleting the following sentence because it’s not especially relevant, and therefore this seems a good way of shortening the entry a little: “Sherman also commanded a division under Banks in this campaign

 
It was Thomas Sherman as well. Not the famous Sherman.

(in reply to Gil R.)
Post #: 25
RE: HMS Warspite's 5 Union minor bios - 1/15/2007 1:05:40 AM   
HMSWarspite

 

Posts: 1401
Joined: 4/13/2002
From: Bristol, UK
Status: offline 		Oops

_____________________________

I have a cunning plan, My Lord

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Post #: 26
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