Administrative Information

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Preferred Citation

Cartes-de-Visite of Confederate Generals, 1860-1865, Accession #10694-a, Special Collections, University of Virginia Library, Charlottesville, Va.

Acquisition Information

This collection was purchased by the Library from Mr. John L. Heflin, Jr., of Brentwood, Tennessee, on July 20, 1987.

Biographical/Historical Information

Brigadier General James Morrison Hawes (1824-1889) was a colonel of the Second Kentucky Cavalry at the beginning of the Civil War but resigned to accept a major's commission in the Confederate Army. He was promoted at the request of General Albert Sidney Johnston and fought at Shiloh and Milliken's Bend during the Vicksburg campaign. He later commanded Confederate forces fortifying Galveston Island, Texas.

Lieutenant General Theophilus Hunter Holmes (1804-1880) was a veteran of the Seminole and Mexican wars. He was promoted to brigadier general in June 1861, then to major general in October of the same year. He commanded a brigade at First Manassas and a division during the Seven Days' battles. Although he was named commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department and promoted to lieutenant general in 1862, he asked his West Point (1829) classmate and friend Confederate President Jefferson Davis to relieve him of command. Holmes later became commander of North Carolina's reserve troops during 1864.

Brigadier General John Hunt Morgan (1825-1864) was a veteran of the Mexican War and organized the Lexington Rifles (as part of the Kentucky militia) in 1857. They joined the Confederacy after the war began and he was promoted to brigadier general in 1862. Morgan led a series of cavalry raids into Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee before his capture and imprisonment in the Ohio State Penitentiary in July 1863. He escaped during the following November and was appointed commander of the Department of Southwest Virginia but was killed by Federal forces on September 4, 1864. Morgan's carte-de-visite shows him in a blue uniform, and was probably taken during his pre-war Mexican or militia service.

Clement Laird Vallandigham (1820-1871) was a Democratic politician from Ohio who became a leader of the Copperheads (Northern Democrats opposed to the Civil War and the policies of the Federal government). He was a candidate for governor of Ohio in 1863 and was banished from the Union by Abraham Lincoln for his speeches and activities against the war. He was summarily expelled from the Confederacy after criticizing the Confederate government's handling of its military and political efforts.

Scope and Content Information

This collection, ca. 1860-1865, contains five items, chiefly cartes-de-visite of three Confederate generals and one of Clement L. Vallandigham, an Ohio politician.