Tag: Shaler (Alexander)

Wikipedia says: Alexander Shaler (March 19, 1827 – December 28, 1911) was a Union Army general in the American Civil War. He received the United States military’s highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the Second Battle of Fredericksburg. After the war, he was at various times the head of the New York City Fire Department, president of the National Rifle Association, and Mayor of Ridgefield, New Jersey from 1899 to 1901.

…After returning to New York City, Shaler became lieutenant colonel of the 65th New York Volunteer Infantry, known as the 1st United States Chasseurs. John Cochrane served as colonel. Shaler was credited by The New York Times with drilling the regiment well. The regiment left for the front on August 27, 1861. They served in the Peninsula Campaign of Major General George McClellan and then in the Maryland Campaign as part of the division of Brigadier General Darius Couch in IV Corps, Army of the Potomac. Shaler became colonel on June 17, 1862, after Cochrane was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. After Antietam, Couch’s division became the third division of VI Corps. John Newton succeeded Couch. Shaler’s regiment became part of Cochrane’s brigade in that division. It was present at the Battle of Fredericksburg but not seriously engaged.

Shaler assumed command of the brigade in March 1863 following the resignation of John Cochrane. He was appointed to the rank of brigadier general, to rank from May 26, 1862, on May 26, 1863. (Joseph Eldridge Hamblin became colonel of the regiment in his place.) Shaler led the brigade at the Second Battle of Fredericksburg, also known as the Second Battle of Marye’s Heights, on May 3, when VI Corps, under Major General John Sedgwick drove Jubal Early’s division away from the Heights. At a crucial moment, Shaler seized a flag and led his men into the Confederate defenses. In 1893, he received the Medal of Honor for this act. His brigade also participated in the Battle of Salem Church.

In the Battle of Gettysburg, VI Corps served as a reserve for the Army of the Potomac. Shaler’s brigade was sent to the right flank early on July 3, 1863. There it helped XII Corps hold Culp’s Hill. Shaler’s brigade usually was in reserve, but units went to the front line to help in resisting Confederate attacks. About 3:30 that afternoon, Shaler’s brigade was sent to the center of the army as a reserve around the time of the repulse of Pickett’s Charge.

Shaler commanded the prisoner of war camp at Johnson’s Island on the shores of Lake Erie in the winter of 1863-1864, with his regiment serving as prison guards. He was back with his brigade in 1864 in time to participate in the Overland Campaign. VI Corps had been reorganized, and Shaler’s brigade served in General Horatio Wright’s first division. This brigade was on the army’s right flank in the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. At first, it was in a “refused” position facing north, thus protecting the rest of the corps. Then it was drawn into the main line of battle, supporting its fight with LG Richard S. Ewell’s corps. As a result, Shaler’s brigade was flanked by Confederate troops led by Brigadier General John Brown Gordon that had swung northward to attack the Union right flank. Shaler and Brigadier General Truman Seymour were among the Union soldiers captured in his foray. Shaler was trying to rally his men when he was made a captive. He was sent to Libby Prison, in Richmond, Virginia and then to Macon, Georgia. In the summer of 1864 he was placed under the fire of Union batteries bombarding Charleston, South Carolina.

In late 1861, Federal officials selected Johnson’s Island as the site for a prisoner of war camp to hold up to 2,500 captured Confederate officers. The island offered easy access by ship for supplies to construct and maintain a prison and its population. Sandusky Bay offered more protection from the elements than on other nearby islands, which were also closer to Canada in the event of a prison break. Woods of hickory and oak trees could provide lumber and fuel. The U.S. government leased half the island from private owner Leonard B. Johnson for $500 a year, and for the duration of the war carefully controlled access to the island.

The 16.5-acre (6.7 ha) prison opened in April 1862. A 15-foot-high (5 m) wooden stockade surrounded 12 two-story prisoner housing barracks, a hospital, latrines, sutler’s stand, three wells, a pest house, and two large mess halls (added in August 1864). More than 40 buildings stood outside the prison walls, including barns, stables, a limekiln, forts, barracks for officers, and a powder magazine. They were used by the 128th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, which guarded the prison. The prisoners had a lively community, with amateur theatrical performances, publishing, and crafts projects available.

After the unraveling of a Confederate espionage ring which had been plotting the seizure of the Great Lakes warship USS Michigan and a mass breakout of prisoners, Forts Johnson and Hill were constructed over the winter of 1864–65. They were not operational until March 1865, in the war’s final months, when the prisoner population peaked at 3,200.

More than 15,000 men passed through Johnson’s Island until it was closed in September 1865. About 200 prisoners died as a result of the harsh Ohio winters, food and fuel shortages, and disease. Johnson’s Island had one of the lowest mortality rates of any Civil War prison. Confederates made many escape attempts, including efforts by some to walk across the frozen Lake Erie to freedom in Canada, but only a handful of escapes were successful.

Among the prominent Confederate generals imprisoned on Johnson’s Island were Isaac R. Trimble and James J. Archer (both captured at the Battle of Gettysburg), William Beall, Thomas Benton Smith, Edward “Allegheny” Johnson and Missouri cavalrymen M. Jeff Thompson and John S. Marmaduke, William Lewis Cabell later Mayor of Dallas and Lieutenant Christopher Columbus Nash, later the sheriff of Grant Parish, Louisiana, who directed the Colfax riot in 1873, was also imprisoned at Johnson’s Island.