Question of the Week: Which Civil War governor would you like to meet?
If you could meet the governor of any state (or territory) from during the Civil War, who would it be and what would you want to know about their time in office?
If you could meet the governor of any state (or territory) from during the Civil War, who would it be and what would you want to know about their time in office?
Oliver Morton of Indiana !
Also Morton. I would want to discuss with him if he helped Jefferson C. Davis get away with the murder of Bull Nelson.
Andrew Curtin of PA
I would like to have met William A. Jayne, governor of the Dakota Territory during the war. He was a physician in Springfield, Illinois, who treated Abraham Lincoln and his family members. Dr. Jayne was also a politician who served as mayor of Springfield before President Lincoln appointed him as governor. Besides the obvious insights he might give into the character and personality of Lincoln, he and I share the same name and most likely a common ancestor from the 1700s. Dr. Jayne’s grandfather was born in Orange County, N.Y. before moving to Cayuga County, N.Y. My ancestors came from Orange County.
My pick would be Governor Joseph E. Brown of Georgia. It seems he was a real bonified gadfly. He not only didn’t like the power and reach of the Federal Government under Lincoln, he had the same disdain for the power and reach of the Confederate Government under Jeff Davis. What a guy!
Andrew Gregg Curtin of Pennsylvania
I would like to meet Governor William Sprague of Rhode Island. I think he would be a good drinking buddy, and I like to find out what one of the most beautiful women in the country – Katie Chase – found in him that was attractive.
Speaking of bad choices.
But she probably thought he was a future president.
Morton. Hands down. Among other things, an executive who knew his State’s Constitution and how to use it to advantage in a crisis.
Letcher of Virginia or Vance of North Carolina.
John Andrew of Massachusetts
Like to meet them all and determine who was the most full of himself, who was the least.
Governor Madison S. Perry of Florida and his role in the secession of his State.
Another vote for John Andrew of Massachusetts, who had the good sense to appoint a distant relative of mine, George Boutwell, as his liaison with Lincoln to speed up the delivery of the 6th Massachusetts regiment in response to Lincoln’s call for 75,000 troops following Ft. Sumter.
John Andrew and Andrew Curtin….
Thomas Overton Moore.
I would like to meet Andrew Curtain of Pennsylvania. A visionary and inspiring leader, he took care of his constituents and the young men who volunteered to serve in the war. In particular, he quickly and brilliantly assessed the grave error that the Federal Government made in the spring of 1861 when it was swamped with volunteers eager to fight for the union, and told Pennsylvanians that only 14 regiments were required. This was soon expanded to 25, then 29, but nearly 15,000 men were told to go home – they weren’t needed. Curtain, realizing that a rebuffed American volunteer was unlikely to volunteer a second time, or answer the call of conscription, kept the volunteers at Harrisburg, and uniformed, armed and equipped them at state expense. They were formed into 15 regiments, the 1st-15th Reserves.
His investment quickly paid off; by August 1861 the Federal Government had decided they were vital to the Cause and inducted them into the army, numbering them the 30th-44th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiments, but they were always known by their Reserves numbers. Of the nearly 30 young men from my family who served in the War, at least half a dozen served in at least three of the Reserves regiments, with one of them referring to his regiment in his diary by its Reserves number, not its Federal designation.
Young, intelligent, quick-minded and patriotic, Andrew Curtain did great service to the Union and when the time machine gets invented, I want to meet him.
Isham G. Harris, Governor of Tennessee. When Union forces captured Nashville and then Memphis he remained “Governor” and became an advisor to Albert Sydney Johnson. After Johnson was killed at Shiloh, Harris was an advisor for nearly every Confederate general in the Western Theatre, Bragg, J. Johnston,Hood and Beauregard. I would like to know what he said to these men and when Davis came to meet with Bragg and his staff in October of 1863 was he present or did he speak with Davis?
Beriah Magoffin who was the Kentucky governor during the Secession Crisis of 1860-1861, and famously sought Kentucky to remain “neutral” during the commencement of armed hostilities.