Edward Francis Winslow

BRAVE SOLDIER AND SUCCESSFUL RAILROAD PRESIDENT

Almost alone among the Iowa soldiers who bore distinguished honors and responsibilities during the War for the Union, General Winslow lived on until the 22d of October, 1914, when his death occurred, at Canandaigua, N. Y., aged seventy-seven years.

Edward Francis Winslow was born in Augusta, Me., September 28, 1837. In 1856, at the age of nineteen, he entered upon a business career in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. When the war called the young men of Iowa, he gave quick response, recruiting a company for the Fourth Iowa Cavalry. In January, 1863, he was made major, and, ten months later, was commissioned colonel of his regiment. He commanded a brigade under Sherman, Grant, Sturgis and Wilson respectively, and wherever he was ordered, whether to victory or, as under Sturgis, to inevitable defeat, he served with equal fidelity and courage. In December 1864, after having earned his star over and over again, he was brevetted a brigadier-general. He was mustered out at Atlanta, August 10, 1865.

Reference has been made to Sturgis’s ill-starred campaign against Forrest. It is a matter of history that but for the defense put up by Winslow’s brigade, without orders other than those originating with himself, the retreating army of Sturgis would never have reached Memphis. Other witnesses of the retreat corrected certain misrepresentations of Sturgis, and Winslow received the high praise he had so bravely won but which his chief had withheld. The chagrin of this retreat was in part obliterated by the after-victory at Tupelo in which Winslow was led by A. J. Smith.

To tell with any detail the story of General Winslow's activities during the war — from the winter of 1861-62, with Curtis in Missouri, until the victory at Columbus in 1865, to which he contributed both the plan and a brigade of splendid veterans — would be to write many chapters of war history. It must suffice here to quote the deliberate judgment of Iowa’s war-historian, Maj. S. H. M. Byers, who says: “He was loved by his soldiers, and shared with them the hard march, the fierce encounter, or the last cracker. His brigade, was a fighting brigade and was as well known among the cavalry of the West as was Crocker's Iowa Brigade among the infantry.” He “came out of the war a brevet brigadier-general, with the reputation of a good patriot, a brave soldier and a splendid cavalry commander.”

The veteran general was only twenty-eight when he was mustered out. Gen. James H Wilson, in his interesting work, “Under the Old Flag,” refers to General Winslow's achievement at Columbus as “one of the most remarkable not only of the war but of modern times.”

After the war, General Winslow was offered a captain’s, and later a major’s, and still later a colonel’s commission in the regular army, but he had seen enough of war.

In the siege of Vicksburg he received a wound which caused him no end of pain and inconvenience. Before setting out on his long marches, his wounded leg was wrapped in stiff bandages, and much of the time his suffering was acute. Again, one day, while leading his brigade in the fall of 1863, in the vicinity of Vicksburg, a shell burst near him as he sat on his horse, and the concussion ruptured an ear-drum, causing total deafness in one ear.

The purpose of the war attained, the general gladly turned his attention to business. His executive ability led him to engage in railroad building and managing. For years he resided in Cedar Rapids, serving as manager of the Burlington, Cedar Rapids and Northern Railway, years afterward absorbed by the Rock Island system.

In 1879, as vice president and general manager of the Manhattan Elevated Railway, he unified the system of control and management of its lines. In 1880 he was elected president of the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company, and vice president of the Atlantic & Pacific Railway Company. He was also for several years president of the New York, Ontario & Western Railway Company, and formed an association for the purpose of building the West Shore Railway, which he completed in about three years. His last active work was in the organization of the “Frisco” system.

For several years after his retirement, General and Mrs. Winslow resided in Paris and spent much time in travel. A few years ago the general visited his old comrade, General Bussey, in Des Moines, and a reception given the two worthies by ex-Mayor and Mrs. Isaac L. Hillis, was a notable assemblage of prominent Iowa soldiers and civilians. The general was in full possession of his faculties, including that most elusive of all the faculties, the memory.

During the last three years of his life, General Winslow had busied himself writing a book of reminiscences of his part in the Civil War. The book had been completed and waited only the final revision when, on the 22d of October, 1914, illness closed it forever to the author. The manuscript left in possession of his widow cannot fail to be a valuable addition to Iowa history, as it is a transcript from the memory of one of Iowa’s best-known and most highly esteemed soldiers.

SOURCE: Johnson Brigham, Iowa: Its History and Its Foremost Citizens, Volume 1, 397-9

Book Review: Columbus Georgia 1865

Columbus Georgia 1865: The Last True Battle of the Civil War

By Charles A. Misulia

Ask the average person on the street when the Civil War ended and the answer you will most likely get is when Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House. Most people would be surprised to learn that the war never really officially ended, but rather the fighting between the Confederate and United States armies continued for weeks after the surrender ceremony at Appomattox, and gradually ceased as one by one the remaining Confederate armies in the field laid down their arms and surrendered. Just as there was no official declaration of war when hostilities broke out between the North and South, so was there no peace treaty declaring the war at an end.

There were more than a few battles and skirmishes that took place after General Lee’s surrender, and among them was the battle between the Federal cavalry under the command of Major General James H. Wilson and confederate forces under the over all command of Major General Howell Cobb with Colonel Leon Von Zinken acting as field commander, at Columbus, Georgia, April 16, 1865. Because it happened a week after the surrender at Appomattox, and the day after the death of President Abraham Lincoln, and during the manhunts for Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, and Confederate President on the run, Jefferson Davis, the Battle of Columbus has been largely forgotten.

Florida attorney and a self-proclaimed “Civil War enthusiast,” Charles A. Misulia, has long been fascinated by the events which took place between April 15th & April 18th, 1865 in the streets of Girard (present day Phoenix City), Alabama and her sister-city across the Chattahoochee River, Columbus, Georgia and has written the first full length account of the battle in his book, “Columbus Georgia 1865: The Last True Battle of the Civil War.”

Mr. Misulia has written a fascinating in-depth look at the battle and the men who fought it, both Union and Confederate; soldiers and civilians. Starting with a brief overview of Wilson’s Raid into Alabama, the author next methodically recounts the Confederates preparations for the coming of the Federal cavalry and the construction of the fortifications in Gerard and Columbus. The battle on April 16th took place largely during the waning hours of daylight, and a good part of it was fought in the dark. Mr. Misulia gives a blow by blow account of the battle and demonstrates the confusion and difficulties of fighting a Civil War era night-time battle. He follows the Federal cavalrymen as they gain the upper hand on the Confederate defenders as they cross the turpentine soaked bridge across the Chattahoochee River and burst into the streets of Columbus to capture the city. As the Federal cavalry, had not yet learned the news of Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, Mr. Misulia also details the destruction of the city and any possibility that any of its resources would be used to aid in the Confederate cause.

In the first appendix of his book Mr. Misulia defines the differences between a battle and a skirmish and narrows down the field of possible contenders for the “last true battle” of the Civil War to: Fort Blakely, Alabama on April 9th, 1865; West Point & Columbus, Georgia, both on April 16th; Munford’s Station, Alabama, April 23rd and Palmetto Ranch, Texas, May 12th–13th. He takes each in its turn and gives his explanation of why he has ruled out all but the Battle of Columbus as the last true battle of the Civil War. It is an interesting discussion, but lends itself more to the trivial than a matter for academic discussion.

With his book, “Columbus Georgia 1865; The Last True Battle of the Civil War,” Mr. Misulia has filled a void in Civil War literature too long overshadowed and overlooked. His book rightly deserves its place on the bookshelves of Civil War scholars and enthusiasts alike, alongside other histories of Civil War battles such as Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg and Chickamauga.

ISBN 978-0-8173-1676-1, University Alabama Press, © 2010, Hardcover, 360 pages, Maps, Photographs, Appendices, Endnotes, Bibliographic Essay & Index. $39.95