Stoneman, George

Stoneman was born in 1822 on a farm in Bastei, New York. He was the first child in the family of timber merchant George Stoneman Sr. and Katerina Rebecca Cheney. He studied at the Jamestown Academy, where he graduated at the age of 18 and unexpectedly decided to enter the West Point Military Academy. He personally wrote a letter to Secretary of War Bell asking him to be admitted to the academy and on May 9, 1842 he was officially enrolled in the cadets ^[1] . At West Point , Stoneman lived in the same room with the future General Thomas Jackson . Subsequently, his classmate Darius Couch wrote that Stoneman and Jackson were friends, in some ways very similar, and in some ways very different, both were restrained, silent and unobtrusive ^[2] .

Stoneman graduated from the 33rd Academy in 1846 and was assigned to the 1st Dragoon Regiment in the temporary rank of second lieutenant ^[3] . In 1846-1848, he participated in the Mexican War, but did not see major battles. July 12, 1847 received the permanent rank of second lieutenant .

From 1848 to 1852 he served in California, participated in skirmishes with the Indians. In the years 1853-1854 contributed to the mapping of the Sierra Nevada. July 25, 1854 received the rank of first lieutenant. From October 1854 to March 1855 he served in the Jefferson Barracks, where on March 3, 1855 he became captain of the 2nd Dragoon Regiment. In 1858-1859 took a vacation to travel to Europe.

The war found Stoneman in Fort Brown, where he refused to surrender to the Confederates of David Twiggs , managed to leave the fort with his detachment and go north and return east. May 9, 1861 received the rank of major of the regular army. May 24 participated in a campaign against Alexandria. June 20, was at the headquarters of the army of General George McClellan in West Virginia, where he served until August 13.

On August 13, 1861, Stoneman received the rank of brigadier general of the volunteer army and on August 14 he was appointed commander of the cavalry of the Potomac Army. November 22, 1862 he married Mary Oliver Hardisty (1836-1915) ^[4] in Baltimore.

On March 14, 1862, McClellan instructed Stoneman to carry out a reconnaissance raid in the direction of Manassas, but Stoneman was only able to fulfill this order in part, due to the poor condition of roads and floods on the rivers.

A few days later the transfer of the Potomac army to the Virginian Peninsula began, which marked the beginning of the campaign on the peninsula . Under the command of Stoneman there were 24 110 cavalrymen, who on March 17 loaded onto vehicles. During the campaign, Stoneman was present at the siege of Yorktown, participated in the battle of Williamsburg (May 4), commanded the vanguard in the attack on Richmond, and then in all the cavalry operations of the Seven Day Battle . Since McClellan underestimated the role of cavalry in combat, Stoneman was unable to show himself, as well as all other federal cavalry. Part of the reason for this was the terrain unsuitable for cavalry.

On September 1, 1862, General Philip Carney , commander of the 1st Division of the III Corps of the Potomac Army , was killed in the battle of Chantilly , and on September 10, Stoneman was appointed in his place, having surrendered his cavalry division to Alfred Pleasanton . The corps was badly damaged in the battles on the Peninsula, therefore, did not participate in the Maryland campaign . At the end of October, McClellan launched a new offensive, crossed the Potomac River and headed for Warrenton . Stoneman commanded a cavalry detachment of 9 or 10 thousand people. They crossed the Potomac River near Leesburg . In this city, Stoneman marked his headquarters and from there conducted surveillance of the enemy in the Loudons Valley ^[5] . At the end of October, McClellan was removed from command and on November 9 said goodbye to the officers of his army. Ben Fuller Fordney wrote: “It was a difficult moment for Stoneman, who parted with his classmate. McClellan summoned him to West Virginia for the successful campaign of 1861, sent him to the Peninsula and gave him a division. Stoneman could feel that if he stopped Stuart during his Maryland and Pencilville raid, McClellan might not be in such a difficult situation ” ^[6] .

On November 15, 1862, the new Commander-in-Chief Burnside appointed Stoneman the commander of the III Corps, and on November 29, Stoneman was awarded the rank of Major General of the Volunteer Army ^[3] . In this position, he participated in the battle of Frederiksberg.

On November 22, 1862, Stoneman married Mary Oliver Hardisty from Baltimore.

After Frederiksberg, the commander in chief of the army was Joseph Hooker, who brought the cavalry into one large corps and instructed Stoneman to lead this unit. This cavalry corps could operate independently, raid deeper into enemy territory, destroy its communications and deliver intelligence information.

In the spring of 1863, a plan for the Chancellorsville Campaign was developed. The main role in the Hooker plan was assigned to the Stoneman corps. He was supposed to break into the rear of the army of Li, destroy the railway, prevent the supply of supplies and, as a result, complicate the retreat of the entire North Virginia army. However, this raid, known as the Stoneman Raid, ended in failure. The corps successfully started the raid, but stalled after crossing the Rapidan. During the battle of Chancellorsville, Stoneman achieved virtually nothing, and as a result, Hooker called him the main culprit of Chancellorsville defeat. The hooker needed to find the guilty one, so he removed Stoneman from command and sent him to Washington formally due to poor health. There, in July, Stoneman got into an administrative position, becoming the head of the federal cavalry bureau. Subsequently, Camp Stoneman, a large stockpile of cavalry supplies on the Potomac River, was named after him.

At the beginning of 1864, Stoneman was tired of paperwork in Washington and turned to his friend John Scofield with a request to return him to field service. He wanted to become the commander of the infantry corps, but in the end he led the cavalry corps of the Ohio Army. He participated in the battle for Atlanta and was captured near Macon in Georgia. Stoneman became the highest ranking prisoner of war of the federal army. He was held captive for three months.

Sherman intervened in the fate of Stoneman, and Stoneman was released on exchange. He returned to the army and in December 1864 led a raid from eastern Tennessee to southwestern Virginia. He carried out several raids into Virginia and North Carolina, captured the city of Salem, destroyed the Moratok Iron Fernans factory, and in Salisbury was about to release 1,400 federal prisoners of war, but did not have time. For his services, he received the temporary rank of major general of the regular army. Stoneman nearly captured the President of the Confederation Davis during his flight from Richmond.

In June 1865, he took command of the Tennessee department and led the occupation of Memphis.

In 1866, ode Stoneman opposed the radical Reconstruction and joined the Democratic Party. He led the military administration at Virginia Petersburg and was known as a proponent of the milder forms of Reconstruction. In September 1866, he left the Volunteer Army and remained in the regular army with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was sent to Arizona, but in May 1871 he was removed from his post. Stoneman moved to California and settled with his wife in the valley of Saint-Gabriel, in the estate of Los Robles. In 1882, he was elected Governor of California from the Democratic Party. After the end of his term, his house burned down (presumably due to the fault of his personal enemies), and Stoneman began to have financial problems. He returned to New York State for treatment. He died of a stroke in Buffalo and was buried in the Bentley Cemetery Cemetery in Lakewood.

• Ben Fuller Fordney . George Stoneman: A Biography of the Union General. - McFarland, 2008 .-- ISBN 0786483466
• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher . Civil War High Commands. - Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001 .-- ISBN 0-8047-3641-3 .
• Gerleman, David J. George H. Stoneman, Jr. // Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. - N. Y .: WW Norton & Company, 2000. - ISBN 0-393-04758-X .

• Register of Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy Class of 1846
• George Stoneman, Jr. Civil War General and California Governor