Rich Hanson's Civil War Stories: General David Ramsey Clendenin: Forgotten Hero

His death in March of 1895 was front page news in the Galesburg Republican-Register. The story comprised two and a half long columns, and a picture of the old warrior. “COLONEL CLENDENIN DEAD” “Peaceful End of Long Illness-An Illustrious Career.” Overblown rhetoric?

Not in this case. After all, this was the man who joined his command to that of Major General Lew Wallace at a small stream called Monocacy Creek, in Maryland, and helped to hold General Jubal Early and his Confederates at bay long enough for reinforcements to be brought up to defend the Nation’s capitol. This affair of arms has been referred to as “The Battle That Saved Washington.” Shortly after the war, he was chosen, probably at the recommendation of General Lew Wallace, to sit on the military commission that tried the 8 defendants accused of participation in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln. Wallace’s recommendation was no doubt based on his respect for Clendenin. Wallace had referred to him as “As brave a cavalry officer as ever mounted a horse.” David Ramsey Clendenin’s services to the Union were recognized in July of 1865 with his being awarded the rank of Brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers for “Meritorious services during the War.”

Sadly, the heroes of each previous generation are set aside, as every generation after chooses a new set of heroes to venerate. Like General Douglas MacArthur’s reflections on an “old soldier,” General Clendenin’s Civil War service is all but forgotten by all but a few ardent history buffs; his reputation has faded like the image of an old photograph left on a dresser for the sun to drain of color. Hopefully this article will regain him some of the attention that he deserves.

David Ramsey Clendenin began his life on June 24, 1830 in Little Britain, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His association with the State of Illinois, which became his adopted home, began in 1850 when he traveled to the Prairie State to visit his brother Robert who resided in Whiteside County. A letter in the Knox College collection, dated April 4, 1850, is that of an excited young man making plans for his future.

“I do not want to go out on the River for if I do I will not live very long. I would rather go to school and there is one about 70 miles south of this [his brother’s farm] at Galesburg where I can go for about $30 per year by working two hours a day. It is called The Manual Labor School and it is considered the best school in the State. If John will give me any encouragement I will go there and perhaps I will go in all events. I can go there for five years for $200 if I have my health and by that time I would be a first-rate scholar, ready for any profession. I would obtain the degree of Bachelor of Arts. “

He continues in the same letter to discuss his brother’s politics, which he is ready

to find fault with.

“Robert is a confounded Abolitionist. He and I have some great arguments upon this subject. He has a great many documents to refer to, and I have the worse side, but still I won’t give up. No! Never. But no wonder. All the people in this countryside are of the same politics, or at least all I have seen. His Father- in- Law’s family are strong Abs. You see what has turned him. Love for a woman. Ha! Ha! Ha! What an idea.

He is a strong anti-war man. That is what I dislike most. He gave me Jay’s Review of the Mexican War and I had not looked far into it before I found an outright lie, which I brought before his mind and proved it to be a lie. Such a book ought to be burnt. It is nothing but Tomism from beginning to end and railing against the administration of Polk, throwing all the blame of the war on his shoulders. But such works please Robert. He thinks it is true as preaching. You would be surprised at his bigotry, blind zeal, etc. in the Abolitionist cause.”

Young Clendenin enrolled at Knox College that Fall, citing as his preparation for higher learning his training at the Hopewell Academy in Pennsylvania and the Lyndon Academy in Lyndon, Illinois. He went on to attend Knox from 1851 until his graduation in 1854. While a student there he edited a student publication, but failed to earn any honors or prizes. He was a member of the Gnothautii Literary Society , and he was chosen to give a commencement speech. The young scholar delivered an address no doubt laden with classical allusions, the title of which was The Eloquence of Ruins. During his time at Knox, he came to admire President Blanchard who left a lasting impression upon his life long after Clendenin’s travels took him far away from Knox.

His attachment to his former instructor was always warm, loyal and reverent.

During his college years he met Sophia Diadema Ford, whom he married in 1855. She probably was a student at Knox College at the time. Ramsey, the name she would always refer to him as, worked as a school teacher and perhaps accepted the added responsibility of serving as a Principal as well while he devoted himself to the study of Law in Lyndon, Illinois. He also undertook literary and editorial work. Soon their family was graced by the addition of two sons, Claude and Paul, and eventually the family moved to Morrison, Illinois.

Ramsey had nearly prepared himself for admittance to the bar when the Civil War broke out, and danger threatened the Nation’s capitol. Clendenin traveled to Washington DC and became a member of the Washington Clay Guards, who were assigned to help protect the Capitol and other government buildings from attack. After this early threat to the seat of government had abated the officers of Major Clay’s Guards sent the following missive to Secretary of War Simon Cameron.

“Sir: The undersigned, Officers of Major Clay’s Battalion, organized while the capital of the United States was considered in imminent danger from a civil invasion, would most respectfully represent that the battalion is chiefly composed of non-residents of this District; that they were organized on the 18^th instant; that since that time the battalion has been on duty day and night, sleeping on their arms, and have all times been ready at a moment’s notice to do any service required of them.

They number about three hundred men, and since reinforcements have arrived here, it is thought that it might not be necessary to keep up the organization. Should it be deemed necessary by the Department to continue the organization, the men composing it, most cheerfully tender their further services.

If such services are not needed, we would respectfully ask to be disbanded and honorably discharged by the Department.”

The Clay Guards were disbanded, having served their immediate purpose in helping to protect the Nation’s capitol until it could be garrisoned with regular army troops. Little did David Ramsey Clendenin realize as he was taking his leave of the Clay Guards, that he would be called upon to help to protect Washington again in the future, this time from a more dire threat. Having had a taste of military life, and eager to experience more of it, as well as to participate in quashing the Rebellion, he returned to Illinois and helped to organize troops for a company (C) of the 8^th Illinois Cavalry, which was recruited in Northern Illinois at St. Charles in Kane County. He was elected Senior Major of the regiment on September 18^th, 1861, the same day that the regiment was organized and mustered into service. In October the regiment proceeded to Washington, where the men were subjected to drill and discipline for a couple of months. Then the regiment was transferred to Alexandria, Virginia, where it spent the winter. In March of 1862, the 8^th, as part of General “Bull” Sumner’s division, joined the advance on Manassas, and saw their first fighting along the Rappahannock River in April of 1862. In May the regiment was moved to Williamsburg and became part of Stoneman’s Light Brigade. During the Peninsula campaign, the 8^th Illinois took part in the battles of Williamsburg, and had a stubborn fight against General Stonewall Jackson at Mechanicsville. The 8^th Illinois soon earned itself the reputation as one of the more experienced and better mounted units in the Army of the Potomac. General “Bull” Sumner perhaps paid them the highest compliment, although it may not have been meant as such. When on the Chickahominy River, a New York officer inquired of the General how far toward the front he should advance. The crusty old General replied “As far as you dare go, and you will find the 8^th Illinois Cavalry there ahead of you, stealing horses.”

The 8^th Illinois Cavalry was engaged in almost continuous skirmishes with the Rebels during McClellan’s change of base in 1862. It was one of the regiments chosen to cover the rear of the army as it moved away from the Confederates, and while beating back probing and reconnaissance attacks by the pesky Rebel cavalry, it saw hotly contested action at Malvern Hill, Gaines Mill and Dispatch Station.

As a letter to his sister Adeline attests on New Year’s Eve of 1862, Ramsey Clendenin quickly immersed himself in the varied tasks dictated by his new military responsibilities.

“I have been so busy since my return to the Regiment that I have not written as I have promised, but I have a few minutes leisure and will spend them in writing. Our regiment is on Picket some twenty miles below the main army. Chickens and turkeys are plenty, and we have been living in good style. The enemy occupy the opposite bank of the Rappahannock river and are in plain view. We captured two of them yesterday on this side. I was in Fredericksburg during the fight of the 13^th, but came off safe. {the 8^th had been forced to cross the makeshift pontoon bridge under heavy fire during the battle} It was a hard battle with no creditable result to us. The army will move from here before long but in which direction I cannot say. Everything indicates a movement.

My health has been very good since my return and I feel first rate. The negros are passing through our lines North in large squads with ivory shining and joyous anticipations. The weather is very fine and the roads good, the soldiers in good Spirits and well clothed. Old Stonewall Jackson is camped opposite us, and his campfires look splendidly at night.

I am in the hopes the Army will make an attack upon the rebels soon and become more successful than they were the last time. We ought to be doing something and not standing still.

I left Sophia at Francina’s and she writes me that she enjoys herself very much and likes the people of Penna very much. I knew she could not do otherwise with our friends there. I saw Uncle James and Hays folks etc. Mary is secesh. Hays too. Uncle James is alright. Jo. Is secesh and in fact most of the people there are unsound. The fact is I wish Stuart was in among them for a few days with his hungry Cavalry. I think that would cure them.”

David Ramsey Clendenin was serving as the Lieutenant Colonel of his regiment by 1864. His ascension to higher command hadn’t occurred without some difficulties along the way. Major John Beveridge, a jealous competitor for promotion in Clendenin’s regiment had leveled accusations of three instances of cowardice toward the end of June of 1863. Allegedly these allegations called into question Colonel Clendenin’s conduct during actions at Kelly’s Ford May 8^th), Beverly Ford (May 9^th) and Upperville (June 2^nd). Deeply angered and humiliated, Clendenin had to endure the shame of being ordered to Alexandria to command dismounted cavalry. These serious charges cost him the chance to participate in the Battle of Gettysburg, where his regiment, the 8^th Illinois, performed creditably. When his case was finally brought to trial, Colonel Clendenin was exonerated of all charges. He regained his command in time to participate in the 1864 campaigns.

Major General Christopher Auger had ordered the 8^th Illinois’ 5 companies out under Clendenin’s command to ascertain why telegraph communications between Harper’s Ferry and Washington DC had been severed. Clendenin’s troopers were only too eager to leave the monotony of provost, escort and picket duty behind them. The excitement of action soon degenerated to bone-weary fatigue though, after a march that covered close to twenty miles and didn’t see them bivouac until close to midnight.

On the 5^th of July his command made it to the point of Rocks and Nolan’s Ferry, points downstream near the mouth of Monocacy Creek. There they skirmished with some of John Mosby’s rangers. July 6^th began with more skirmishing with the Grey Ghost’s men who had wreaked some minor havoc on boats on the B&O Canal and had cut some telegraph wires. Receiving a wire from General Howe at Harper’s Ferry, Clendenin and his command were ordered to “repair to Frederick, Maryland and ascertain the force of the enemy reported to be in the vicinity of Boonsborough, west of South Mountain.”

When Colonel Clendenin and his men arrived at Frederick, an order was delivered to him by a messenger who had been sent by General Lew Wallace. The message asked that Clendenin report to him with his command.

Wallace writes in his autobiography……

“Colonel Clendenin did not disappoint me. He came in during the latter part of the night and waited upon me immediately. He appeared a very earnest man, fine-looking, tall and quick, and acceded to my suggestions without argument- orders I was not authorized to give him, General Halleck not having replied to my requests.”

Wallace sent Clendenin out to reconnoiter to attempt to discover exactly where and how

strong the enemy was. Meanwhile, Lew Wallace was eying a defensive position behind

Monocacy Creek as he waited anxiously to hear from the Illinois Colonel. Soon he had some answers.

“General – I met the enemy in about equal force halfway between here and Middletown, and drove them for half a mile, when they rallied and held their position, and finally drove us back to the pass [Catoctin]. They received reinforcements and had an equal number of guns and heavier caliber. Reinforcements still came in from the direction of Boonsborough, and they look like infantry in the distance. I can hold this position against a pretty heavy force if they do not flank me. A detachment of cavalry has moved over to our left, which I am watching. I will keep you informed as to what occurs.”

A half hour later a courier brought another message from Clendenin to Wallace.

“I have abandoned the pass. Am falling back toward Frederick. A strong skirmish line of two hundred fifty men advanced on my skirmishers, which I could not spare force to meet and protect my flanks at the same time. A mounted force of at least a squadron moved to the left and an equal force to the right to turn my flanks. I will report anything that may occur. I think a force has gone on through Harper’s Ferry Pike. I will be in Frederick in two hours.”

In his autobiography General Wallace is lavish with praise for Colonel Clendenin, giving

him credit for coolness and skill on his part and steadfastness on the part of his troops in

managing a retirement in the face of a superior force. Wallace described Clendenin’s delaying

tactics.

“Often as he halted in a favorable position to resume the fighting, his squadrons dismounted and guns in battery, his opponent also halted, wheeled his guns into battery, dismounted and deployed, and strove to make the most of his advantage in numbers by operating on the flanks. Often however, as the flankers reached ground in the least dangerous, Clendenin limbered up, remounted, and moved to the rear. In that way hours passed, the enemy making slow progress.”

No later than one o’clock Clendenin reached Frederick. There at the edge of the city he

found Colonel Charles Gilpin and his troops formed in a line of battle across the Hagerstown Road.

Resupplying his men with ammunition, he moved his men into position on the left, all

dismounted. At 4 pm the Rebels commenced a determined attack on Gilpin and Clendenin’s

position.

By 5 pm Colonel Gilpin sent a message to his commander, Wallace, that suggested that

holding Frederick for any length of time just wasn’t feasible.

“The enemy are pressing us and the 8^th Illinois Cavalry have expended all their ammunition. The telegraph operator has run away. What shall we do in the emergency?”

By 6:15 Wallace received a message from Gilpin that painted his troops deteriorating

position at Frederick in even bleaker colors. …

“Unless we are reinforced immediately, both in men and ammunition, we will be forced

to fall back on Monocacy. We are threatened on our left. The enemy are moving to our left and trying to get on the National Road.

PS – Send ammunition by all means for infantry, artillery and Sharp’s Carbines. Our men fight well.”

Anxious to buy time, General Wallace assured Colonels Gilpin and Clendenin that

reinforcements would soon be coming their way, urging them to hold out a little longer. He also

urged them, as a desperation tactic, to order their men forward, stating that a charge might succeed

in driving back dismounted cavalry troopers unused to fighting as infantry. They acted on his

suggestion; the audacious tactic surprised and scattered the Rebels, driving them back shortly

before dusk.

A grateful Wallace knew however, that this was just a temporary respite from the Confederate

advance, and that the fighting would be much heavier the next day. He did send effusive thanks

and congratulations to the men who had fought so hard that day.

“You have behaved nobly. Compliment Lieutenant-Colonel Clendenin and Captain Alexander for me. Endeavor to hold your ground. At 1am tonight eight thousand veteran troops will be here.”

The promised reinforcements didn’t arrive. Generals Wallace, Tyler, Ricketts, and their

subordinate commanders, including Ramsey Clendenin, had roughly only 5500 men to blunt the

driving advance of Jubal Early’s Rebels. General Wallace spent the evening issuing orders for the

deployment of his troops, including the following orders to Clendenin.

“Take your own command, and cross the river at the first ford below the wooden bridge on the Washington Pike, and hold it against the enemy tonight and tomorrow. I will return everything here to the east bank of the Junction {Monocacy} tonight, setting out immediately. Strong columns are moving down the mountains. They will attack us in force in the morning. Take care of my left the best you can.”

Jubal Early and his men began their serious push to cross the Monocacy at approximately 7pm

on July 9^th. Heavily outnumbered, Wallace realized that this fight would be a fight for time, and

that his troops would eventually be driven back.

By mid-morning the Confederate cavalry under the command of “Tiger John” McCausland, the

man who had ordered Chambersburg burned, had discovered a ford that allowed rebel troops to

cross the river. With the loss of this defensive position, Colonel Clendenin realized that his small

force wouldn’t be able to hold off the Confederate advance, that a fighting retreat was the most

judicious strategy to employ at this point. General Wallace has given a vivid account of their

fighting retreat and of Clendenin’s troops capture of the regimental flag of the 17^th Virginia

Cavalry, the “Night Hawk Rangers.” The Yankees were elated with the captured banner,

impudently embossed with Patrick Henry’s famous “Liberty or Death” declaration.

“His {Clendenin’s} men had been covering the ford dismounted. Taking to their horses, they began a retreat which was a marvel of cavalry maneuvering.

The road was by the Washington pike to Urbana, a village of nearly three hundred inhabitants, with one main street and intersections. The country on either hand was cultivated…Occasionally the rail fencing was broken by a stretch of open. The farm houses were unpretentious; and so accustomed had the people in the vicinity become to the coming and going of troops, that many of them, notified of the battle by the guns, now stood about their doorways, calm, curious and evidently impartial spectators of the passage-of-arms so obligingly brought to them by fortune. Past the open place Clendenin carried his men at full speed. Coming to stretches where his flanks were secured by the fencing, he formed his rear company into sections or platoons, as the width of the road permitted; so with equalized front, the carbine fire he opened upon the enemy checked his advance; then when the latter dismounted, had thrown down the rails right and left, he resumed the retreat. Where the dusty roadway crept up a height, he presented a line on the summit, and held the advantage until a flank was again menaced. His command was finely mounted, and composed of veterans tactically perfect and used to combat; so a tyro can understand how, in the absence of artillery, the game he played was easy enough, and as he, too, was fighting for time –

This to keep the Baltimore pike free for the passage of my column – the progress of his pursuers was necessarily slow and laborious.

At last Clendenin reached Urbana, and tore through it hard as his horses could go. On a slight elevation beyond the last straggling house he halted and faced the troops in the rear in columns and sections. The village lay fair to view, and to appearance deserted. There was no obstruction in the main street, not so much as a wagon. The day was hot; his horses were jaded, and the men were suffering with thirst. He knew that what was true of his own people must be true of the enemy. Nobody was pursuing them. They could stop if it suited them. Would they stop? Would they break ranks and scatter in search of water and something to eat? The presence of the Yankees was nothing. Had they not been hunting them all day? He saw them come in. Presently they filled the street; then they broke ranks and sauntered off among the houses. That was what Clendenin wanted, and waiting coolly until the opportunity was fully ripe, he led his eager squadrons, sabers drawn, back into the town. From the walk to the trot to the gallop, then at full speed, and, cheering, they charged down upon the gray and butternut medley.

One Confederate officer sat his horse in the middle of the street. He was the first to see the coming storm. A bugle at his signal sounded the assembly, and snatching a flag from a man nearby, the officer waved it, shouting lustily. The rush to the banner was general, but formation was impossible. There was not time. Into the paralyzed mob the Federals burst, knocking out riders and men afoot, overturning horses, yelling like mad, and cleaving with vengeful fury. Clendenin spurred toward the gallant fellow with the flag. A pistol-ball outflew him. His opponent reeled in the saddle, and the flag-staff in his dying hand fell forward, its point lodging in the flank of a horse. A moment after he measured his length in the dust; in another moment Clendenin, regardless of the press, dismounted and secured the trophy.

The blow administered was so unlooked for and severe that the Confederates gave over the pursuit, and picking up their dead and wounded, and disposing of them, pushed on to Washington, leaving me to retreat unmolested.

The officer slain, while making good the motto on his flag, was Major Boggs of the 17^th Virginia Cavalry.

A few days after the battle Colonel Clendenin brought the flag to me. I declined it, saying that he had won it in combat against odds, and that he must keep it. He persisted, on the grounds that as I had made the fight in the first instance, the trophies belonged to me by right, and that I must take it and keep it as a lasting souvenir from him. He is now dead. In his Memoirs General Grant has been pleased to say that the engagement at Monocacy saved Washington City from capture by enabling him to get troops up into the defenses. He also speaks of the Federal forces there engaged as a “forlorn hope.” Be that as it may, certainly there was not a more fearless spirit in the action than Lieutenant-Colonel D. R. Clendenin, of the 8^th Illinois Cavalry.” (those of you who’ve enjoyed the above account, vividly penned by General Lew Wallace, may not be aware that he went on to win greater fame as a writer after the war. Ben-Hur, a Tale of the Christ, is a work of his that you may be familiar with.)

At the end of the day, Lew Wallace’s whole command was driven back in retreat, but they had

bought a whole day for Grant to bring up troops to protect the Capitol. General Grant, who had

borne Wallace some animosity for his failure to bring up his troops in a timely manner during the

battle of Shiloh, manfully acknowledged the debt that both he and the Nation owed Wallace and his

fellow commanders for the fight that they put up in Maryland. The following is an excerpt from

Grant’s Memoirs….

“In the absence of Hunter, General Lew Wallace, with headquarters at Baltimore, commanded the department in which the Shenandoah lay. His surplus of troops with which to move against the enemy was small in number. Most of these were raw, and consequently, very much inferior to our veterans and to the veterans that Early had with him; but the situation in Washington was precarious, and Wallace moved with commendable promptitude to meet the enemy at the Monocacy. He could hardly have expected to defeat him badly, but he hoped to cripple and delay him until Washington could be put into a state of preparation for his reception….

When Early arrived with his troops outside of Washington, he made a reconnaissance with the

plan of attacking the city the following morning. Upon examining the fortifications around the city

though, he found them to be formidable entrenchments that were very strong and now fully

. He at once commenced to retreat. As Grant summed up the affair in his Memoirs…

“There is no telling how much this result was contributed to by General Lew Wallace’s leading what might well be considered a forlorn hope. If Early had been one day earlier he might have entered the capitol before the arrival of the reinforcements that I had sent. Whether the delay caused by the battle amounted to a day or not, General Wallace contributed on this occasion, by the defeat of the troops under him, a greater benefit to the Cause than often falls to the lot of a commander of an equal force to render by means of a victory.”

Although the Monocacy Battle was the high point of both the history of the 8^th Illinois Cavalry and David Clendenin’s military career, the regiment had more adventures ahead of it. A number of clashes took place against the elusive troops led by Colonel John Mosby, and the regiment was also actively engaged in pursuit of Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth. The 8^th was finally mustered out at Benton Barracks, in Missouri, on July 17^th, 1865. That the 8^th Illinois had earned the respect of the army brass was attested to by the number of officers it supplied to other regiments; a large number of staff officers, twenty two officers, three colonels, majors, two surgeons and a number of Captains for other Illinois regiments, as well as two full Brigadier Generals and five Brigadiers by Brevet, one of them being David Ramsey Clendenin. Yes the 8^th Illinois Cavalry had given its “full measure of devotion” to the Union cause.

In a letter dated May 6^th, 1865, David Ramsey Clendenin received one of the most important letters that he’d receive during his life. It notified him of his appointment to sit on the military commission that would sit in judgment of the individuals accused of participation or complicity in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln and other high ranking Government officials. The commission was headed up by Judge-Advocate General Joseph Holt. Other members of the commission included Major General David Hunter, Major General Lew Wallace, Brevet Major General August V. Kautz, Brevet Major General Robert S. Foster, Brigadier General Albion P. Howe, Brigadier General T. M. Harris, Brevet Brigadier General James A.Ekin, Brevet Colonel C. H. Tompkins, Special Judge Advocate John A. Bingham, and H. L. Burnett, Brevet Colonel and Special Judge Advocate. No doubt the discussions between some of the commission members became heated as they debated the fates of the individuals who were on trial, but as befits a good soldier, Colonel Clendenin never left any records or has been recorded as offering any public opinions on the guilt or innocence of the individuals that were tried, the justice of the verdicts, the appropriateness of the sentences, or whether a military trial was justified over a civilian trial. In the seven week trial that took place at the Washington Arsenal Penitentiary, all eight defendants ( John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln’s assassin, had been shot at Garrett’s Farm, where he and David Herold had taken refuge) were found guilty. David Herold, who was captured at Garrett’s Farm, was sentenced to hang, as was Lewis Paine, who inflicted a vicious assault upon Secretary of State William Seward, George Atzerodt, who chose to get drunk rather than follow up on his assignment to kill Vice-President Johnson, and Mary Surratt, who ran the boarding house where the conspirators met and who was accused of knowledge of the plot. Dr. Samuel Mudd, who treated John Wilkes Booth’s broken leg, was sentenced to life imprisonment, as were Samuel Arnold and Michael O’Laughlin. Edward Spangler, who committed the heinous crime of holding Booth’s horse outside of Ford’s Theatre, was sentenced to six years of hard labor.

Even at the time the trial was controversial. There were many who believed that Mary Surratt should not have been put to death. Others believed that a military commission had no right to try the assassins, that in a democracy the defendants, no matter how heinous their crime, deserved a trial by their peers in a more conventional courtroom situation. Edward Bates, Lincoln’s former Attorney General, wrote in his diary that

“Such a trial is not only unlawful, but it is a gross blunder in policy. It denies the great fundamental principle that ours is a government of law and that the law is strong enough to rule the people wisely and well.”

It’s a generally accepted view among historians and legal experts that the trial was irregular, at

best. Alan Dershowitz, in his modern introduction to a reprint as part of the “Great Trials Series” of Moore and Baldwin’s The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators, published in 1865, is highly critical of the trial.

“The trial itself was conducted not by a court of law, but rather by a military commission convened by President Andrew Johnson. It was far from a model of justice, and contemporary jurists will squirm with discomfort at the process as well as some of the outcomes. Indeed, since the Civil war was realistically over by the time of the assassination—Lee had surrendered to Grant on April 9^th, 1865, and Lincoln’s murder took place a week later—there is a grave doubt about the jurisdiction of a military tribunal to try the civilian defendants. But the trial went forward under tight security and military rules. There was no jury”…….

Although Professor Dershowitz admits that the evidence against Booth, Herold, Atzerodt and

Paine was overwhelming, he has grave problems with the evidence against the alleged accessories

to the crime, in particular Mary Surratt’s and Samuel Mudd’s complicity in the conspiracy. He

notes that evidence that would have tended to exculpate the accessories—for example, the diary

entries penned by John Wilkes Booth—were suppressed by the military while evidence that was questionable at best was accepted uncritically by a Commission determined to justify the actions of the military in bringing charges against the conspirators that had been arrested.

Owen Muelder however, a Galesburg historian interested in the trial whom Janet Saunders quoted in a 1995 feature article about David Clendenin that appeared in the Galesburg Register-Mail, asks us to consider the trial in the context of the times. Over those past four years the nation had been run as more of a military state. The people had become used to this, as well as such assaults upon their rights as the suspension of Habeus Corpus and the suppression of “treasonous” newspapers. Given the post-assassination hysteria that gripped the Nation and the rumors that the attacks on Lincoln and Seward had been part of a larger conspiracy hatched by the Confederate government, people were more accepting to the thought of letting the military pursue, arrest and punish these traitors as well.

Regrettably, suppression of evidence, and the fact that the defendants were hooded and deprived of the ability to speak in their own defense, has lead to countless conspiracy theories and rumors of Booth’s escape. This is perhaps the harshest criticism that one can level against the way the trial was conducted by the military tribunal. Even if the verdicts that were arrived at were true and just, the fact that so much of the trial was conducted behind closed doors lends itself to question whether there were unresolved questions and uncertainties that were just swept under the rug.

On July 11^th, 1865, Lieutenant Colonel David Ramsey Clendenin received official notification that he had been appointed a Brevet Brigadier General of Volunteers. This was justified for “meritorious services during the war,” and although not stated, no doubt for his services during the Military Tribunal as well, given the letters of recommendation for his promotion that were submitted by Major General Lew Wallace, Brevet Major General August Kautz, Brigadier General Albion P. Howe, Brevet Brigadier General James A.Ekin and Brevet Major General Robert S. Foster, all of whom sat with him on the Military Tribunal. This recognition of his military services occurred shortly before he was mustered out of the volunteer service on July 17^th, 1865.

An explanation of the difference between a Brevet and a regular military rank should probably be explained here. When the Civil War broke out, the United States had a relatively small standing army. Suddenly tens of thousands of new recruits were being brought into the military. They needed officers to command them. Recognizing that this massive build-up in the military would be temporary, brevet ranks were given. These would be in force as long as a large command structure would be needed, but once the war ended, it was understood that the men who remained in the military would revert to their regular army rank in proportion to the reduction in the military. Thus Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer, who attained the rank of Brevet Major General at the young age of 25, died a Lieutenant Colonel at the Battle of Little Big Horn 21 years later. Brevet ranks were also awarded for bravery and/or meritorious services. Many individuals were addressed by their Brevet rank, thus “General” Custer, regardless of their regular army rank.

This explains why David R. Clendenin was appointed “Major” of the 8^th Cavalry, U.S. Army

on January 22^nd, 1867; it was not a demotion. This was simply his regular army rank in a post-war military that had been greatly reduced in manpower.

Having chosen to pursue a career in the military after the war, David Ramsey Clendenin chose a life that would keep him and his family on the move like nomads from post to post, often in lonely desert outposts where monotony and boredom were greater enemies than any hostiles. His postwar career assignments took him to Army posts in Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, to Walla Walla, Washington, and to San Francisco. His wife, Sophia, accompanied him as often as she could, and the few letters from her that survive in the Knox College archives show that she was a diligent correspondent, striving to keep in touch with her family in Illinois while she was at distant posts with her husband. Excerpts from the following letter, dated September of 1869, has Sophia writing to her sister Adiline, giving her impressions of California….

“Our stay in San Francisco has been prolonged as you will see by this date, and it has been very agreeable for us to have it so extended. I like California very much, and if my friends were all here I could be very contented here”…..

“We took a carriage and went to San Juan, pronounced San won. Oh dear these Spanish names. They puzzle me. It was distant from Gilroy 12 miles. Over a very dusty road but we saw splendid great wheat fields lately harvested and magnificent oaks which are always green and spread their branches laden with foliage to form a delightful shade.”….

“I do not find the climate here as healthful as I supposed. Rheumatism prevails very much and many I am told come from the East and by not taking suitable precautions take cold and lose their voice and health. It is a very trying climate they say for weak lungs and throat difficulties. It however acts differently on different individuals. Some it stimulates and strengthens and others it depresses. The climate in the interior, away from the coast, is milder. In Santa Clara valley we found the weather very delightful, and I’m told that Nappa valley is a paradise.”….

“Ramsey goes the 15^th down the coast on duty, which will occupy him a week or two. I do not know whether he will take us or not. Please write soon to this city and address. Major D. R. Clendenin care Hdqrs. Dept. of Cal., San Francisco, California. If we go to Wilmington or elsewhere it will be forwarded to us.”…

“I find that the people here were very much startled by that earthquake last fall and fear a repetition this fall. Many now cannot speak calmly of that experience where half the people rushed wildly into the street in their excitement and exposed their lives to topling chimneys and falling cornices. But there are no tornadoes to fear here and I have not seen a flash of lightning or heard a roll of thunder all summer.

Has Mrs. Cottwell returned to California? There is no place like dear old Galesburg after all, I think, and Illinois is to me the garden of the world. Please write soon.”

Her husband agreed with her impressions of the climate, calling the California weather “delightful,” but he had little use for the Californians that he encountered, stating that the people there were mostly Rebel sympathizers who do not like the army except to get their money. Getting to California had been an arduous adventure for him. He penned to Sophia in 1867 a vivid account of a storm at sea that he had to weather aboard the steam ship Constitution near Acapulco, Mexico.

In 1870 Clendenin was accused of gambling by several officers at Fort Whipple, Arizona. Cards were a way to alleviate boredom, and a man who had seen action in the military, perhaps found an outlet for risk-taking and reading his opponents, for strategy, bluffing and feints by indulging his cardplay, perhaps a bit too seriously and often.. An account of Army life in the Southwest written by Constance Wynn Altshuler reported that Clendenin “gambled habitually,

did not maintain good discipline, and was unfit for command.” Clendenin was also reported to have been a “habitual drinker” by his Texas commander, General David S. Stanley, but in Clendenin’s defense, Stanley was an acerbic individual who had little trouble voicing harsh opinions of many of his fellow officers. For instance, in his memoirs he describes Custer thus:

“I have seen enough of him to convince me that he is a cold-blooded, untruthful and unprincipled man. He is universally despised by all the officers in his regiment excepting his relatives and one or two sycophants. He brought a trader in the field without permission, carries an old negro woman, and cast iron cooking stove, and delays the march often by his excessive packing up in the morning.”

It’s doubtful that Ramsey’s drinking or gambling ever progressed beyond an irritant to those posted with him in remote outposts, where close proximity and constant contact with people one would otherwise not choose to associate with causes character flaws to be magnified by fellow officers or subordinates looking to find fault. The love and loyalty that Sophia demonstrated toward him throughout her life is the best testimony in his behalf, as is the official fact that he was twice exonerated against all such charges against his conduct.

A letter written by David Ramsey Clendenin to friends from his 1874 posting in Fort Stanton, New Mexico, shows him as a commander well aware of and ready to address problems with Indians, desperados, horse thieves and feuding Texans and Mexicans...

“Dear Brother and Sister,

I (received) yours of the 11^th Jan a few days since and was very glad to hear from and that you were all well and prospering. Since writing you last I have changed station from Fort Selden to Fort Stanton where we are surrounded by high mountains. All the cavalry has been removed from Fort Selden and this has been made a Cavalry Post. We have an Indian reservation adjoining us, and the agency is within 200 yards. The Indians are the Mescolero Apaches.

We left Selden on the 8^th on January and arrived here on the 13^th. For two weeks we lived on Wild Turkies and Venison, tasting no other meat, but we got tired of it and fell back on beef. We pay 50 cts a piece for turkies and $2.50 a piece for Deer, so you see it is cheap food.

The climate is much colder here than on the Rio Grande. The elevation being about 7000 feet above the level of the sea. The surrounding mountains are much higher, and covered with snow. My wife’s sister is stationed here so that it makes it pleasant for both of them.

The Indians are now peaceable but were troublesome last summer. About 300 of them having started off and they are now in Old Mexico.

Claude shot three wild ducks yesterday, but has not yet been turkey hunting. He frequently brings in Duck and has shot one deer. He enjoys the country well & is improving in health.

I often look back on last summers visit with the greatest pleasure. I enjoyed myself so much in seeing you all & hope I may again enjoy a similar pleasure. I wish I could have some of you with me. I could make it interesting for you for a few months and show you some of the wild forests of the great west.

We have a little civil war going on down the Rio Bonita between the Texan and the Mexican settlers, and some thirty have been killed. As yet I have taken no part in it, and I am unable to act until called upon by the civil authorities.

Both parties came to me begging for assistance but I tell them to call on the Governor of the Territory, and that upon his requisition, the troops will be used. Meanwhile the killing goes on and the country is getting rid of a few desperados and horse thieves. Once in awhile an innocent man suffers, which is to be deprecated. Civil law is really powerless and no court was held last term.

I have not heard from Nick and Mary (Wells) since I came to New Mexico only through your letters, nor have I heard from Adaline since my last letter to you.

Wife joins in kind regards to yourself and family. Please remember kindly to all the friends,

particularly to David & Bell Ramsey. I wish I could send each of you a wild turkey or a ham of venison.

In 1880 Clendenin ran afoul of a civilian employee at Fort Ringgold, Texas, who accused him of taking up with a Mexican prostitute. As with other charges leveled against him, this one probably was nothing more than malicious gossip. It certainly didn’t affect Sophia’s regard for him. The Clendenins celebrated their 25^th wedding anniversary the same year. Sophia’s sister. Mary Hennisee, of Galesburg, was present, and she wrote her (and Sophia’s) parents that the anniversary party featured a “most elegant repast” and that her sister and Ramsey resided in “the most elegant home in the post.” A letter from Adiline Ewing to a friend in Galesburg briefly discussed the Clendenins family situation. By this time Sophia had taken ill and had returned to Illinois to recuperate and to spend some time with her parents and then travel to see her son Paul, who resided out East. Paul had married a Galesburg girl, Susan Cornelia Dunn, and the two of them had moved out East where Paul was a clerk in the Treasury Department. While in Washington he studied medicine, and eventually became an army surgeon. Regrettably, Susan died young and left him with two young daughters. They would become an important part of Sophia’s life, and no doubt brought their grandfather much pleasure as well.

“Ramsay has not come home yet. Do not look for him now. The headquarters of the regiment has been moved to San Antonio, but he with part of it remain at {Fort} Ringgold. Mr. Hennissee being adjutant had to move with the regiment. Mary had been home all summer & had just returned when the order came to move. She had just gone from Galveston down to Brownsville the next trip after that terrible storm, and such a time getting there. They dread the trip across the gulf more than anything else, but they got back safely & seem much nearer home now. Sophia has been here considerably this fall, but is now at Oneida at her fathers. Her health has improved some since she came home, but she is far from well. She is going to see Paul, will start in two or three weeks, or expects to. May spend the winter in Washington.”

In 1882 Ramsey earned a regular army promotion to Lieutenant Colonel of the 3^rd Cavalry. In 1888 he was promoted to full Colonel of the 2^nd Cavalry.

Sophia began to keep a personal diary in 1889 while she and Ramsey were posted at Fort Walla Walla in the Washington Territory with her husband in command of the 2^nd Cavalry there. During this time Sophia writes chattily of her daily activities and the many duties that fell to her due to her being the commanding officer’s wife. Even in such a remote post as Fort Walla Walla, the Clendenins maintained a very active social life and attempted to maintain many of the customs of society one would find in an Eastern city. Even when not feeling well it was Sophia’s responsibility to make others feel at home and appreciated. Sophia set up a rigidly structured social calendar. She had a particular day of the week set aside so that visitors could pay their respects to her, and during the rest of the week she and a couple of her close lady friends would go call on which other ladies at the fort were accepting callers that day. Linda Early Mesiner’s family history, from which the above information about Sophia was taken, also said that Mrs. Clendenin always attended church on Sunday and was active in organizing everything on the post from Sunday school classes to dances and parties. While at Fort Walla Walla in 1890, perhaps recognizing that his health was failing, Colonel Clendenin took the time to write a last will and testament. In it he bequeathed to Sophia, all the property, real and personal—of which I may die possessed—to have and hold in her own right, and do hereby appoint her sole executor of my estate.”

By 1891, David Ramsey Clendenin was definitely suffering from ill health. Realizing that he could no longer physically address the responsibilities of command, he asked to be, and was retired from active service on April 20^th, 1891.

Bright’s Disease was the enemy that the old fighter could not hold at bay. It had to be frustrating to a man who once had a strong and robust physique that had enabled him to endure a life on the frontier with all its hardships and deprivations to spend his last years as an invalid, but

The Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States In Memoriam tribute to David Ramsey Clendenin talks of him spending a very patient four years as an invalid at his home in Oneida, Illinois, “receiving the untiring care and devotion of a loving and faithful wife in the long illness that preceded his demise. He died at their Oneida home on March 5^th, 1895. The MOLLUS tribute cited above, ends with a moving summation of Brevet Brigadier General Clendenin’s life….

“A patriot, whose entire manhood, with a very brief exception, was given to his service of his country in the military branch, who followed the revered emblem of our Nation’s supremacy through the ever-reoccurring dangers and vicissitudes of angry and hotly-contested engagements,

a man whose bravery evoked the unstinted praise and admiration of his comrades, a commander well-versed in tact and strategy, he goes to his final reward with all of life’s battles well fought and the victory fully won. Born and reared within the shadow of the immortal bell that proclaimed liberty to all mankind, and educated in surroundings of intense loyalty to flag and country, his later life accorded with his earlier, and his gallant record is one in which this Commandery may take a just pride. His ear is deaf to the bugle’s shrill call “to arms;” his once good and strong right arm will no more raise the trusty blade in defense of truth, honor, justice and human equality; his body lies moldering with its common clay, but his spirit freed from mortal thralldom goes marching on in the enjoyment of a well-earned and blissful eternity.”

Sophia moved to Galesburg, Illinois, where she resided until her death on February 22^nd, 1912. She took great pride in her son Paul, who as an army surgeon, was the first to tend to the casualties of the explosion of the battleship Maine, in the harbor of Havana, Cuba. He’d allowed his young daughters to join him in Cuba when he was posted there. On a trip to Santiago, Cuba, he died, so Sophia took her granddaughters in to live with her in her Galesburg home.

I made the pilgrimage to the Oneida Cemetery where David Ramsey Clendenin and Sophia Diadema Ford Clendenin are buried side by side, as close as they were in life. The cemetery is visible from Highway 34, to your right as you’re driving north. Despite the nearby railroad tracks, the pines that have been planted around the edge of the cemetery wrap the cemetery in a protective cocoon of tall greenery. (Just as a note of interest, another Civil War Brevet Brigadier General, Franklin C. Smith, is buried in this cemetery as well.) From a distance Ramsey’s gravestone looks like a bedroll with a cavalryman’s crossed swords below it. Sophia’s stone is more conventional, with no indication of the years that she spent following her husband to lonely military outposts.

Colonel Clendenin’s descendents have been kind enough to honor the man and his ties to Knox County, by donating some of his Civil War artifacts to the Knox County Historical Museum, which is located in Knoxville, Illinois. Items on display include his epaulets, uniform buttons, saber belt, spurs, and a tin and brass box with his name on it, as well as some other items relating to him. If this article has piqued your interest in Ramsey and Sophia, both the cemetery and the museum are well worth a visit.

Notes and Sources

I decided early to try to make the colonel and his wife come alive rather than devote an overabundance of description to the Battle of Monocacy and the trial of the Lincoln assassins. There are entire books devoted to the above two subjects. I strove to keep my emphasis on Clendenin and his relation to those two important episodes in American history rather than give a detailed account of both events. I’ve also chosen not to correct any misspellings or grammatical errors that exist in any of the letters that I’ve used in the article. I believe that if I had done so, you’d be getting less of a flavor of the individuals and too much of the author.

I have both Phil Reyburn and Knox College to thank for many of the primary sources that I consulted….

Colonel Clendenin’s Last Will and Testament.

Letters from Knox’s Adiline Clendenin Ewing Collection

The March 9^th, 1895 issue of the Galesburg Republican Register

The MOLLUS Memorial to Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General David R. Clendenin

D. R. Clendenin’s Graduate Record Sheet from Knox College

A Family History of the Clendenin Ford and Dunn Families as compiled by Linda Early Mesinar, and other papers from the Knox archives and Phil Reyburn’s collection. Phil was also kind enough to make me copies of four photographs he had of Colonel Clendenin that he had, pictures of the Colonel by himself or with members of the Military Tribunal that tried those accused of complicity in the Lincoln assassination.

I found Janet Saunder’s excellent feature article “Lt. Col. David Clendenin: An old soldier’s story,” in an April 1995 issue of the Galesburg Register-Mail, to be very well written. It prompted my initial interest in the Clendenins. Both Terry Wilson and Owen Muelder from Knox College provided her with information in the article that I found extremely useful.

I also consulted several other sources in putting together this article, including Roger D. Hunt’s Brevet Brigadier Generals in Blue, The Autobiography of General Lew Wallace,

Monocacy, the Battle that Saved Washington, by Benjamin F. Cooling, an excellent account of the battle, Lew Wallace: Militant Romantic, by Robert and Katharine Morseberger, Shadow of Shiloh, Lew Wallace in the Civil War, by Gail Stevens, the Personal Memoirs of David S. Stanley, the Memoirs of U.S. Grant, and The Assassination of President Lincoln and the Trial of the Conspirators, an 1865 volume, reprinted as part of the Great Trials Series with an introduction by Alan Dershowitz.