Lombard
College Student Joins the Cavalry
by Rich Hanson
by Rich Hanson
Frederick W. Livingston was 27 years old and in the prime of life in 1862 when the call to adventure became irresistible. He was a student at Lombard College in Galesburg who had made his way west from his birthplace in Vermont. The 1861 Galesburg City Directory lists him as a student, and has him boarding on Cherry Street, the west side, the first door north of Waters. He dwelled with four other individuals, probably students as well, ranging from Daniel Wilson, aged 34, to J. C. Livingston, aged 21. In the Lombard records he is listed as a poet by the alumni association and as a member of Phi Sigma Fraternity. An 1863 edition of Illinois Teacher, a publication produced out of Peoria Illinois refers to his poem "The Battle of Life," which had been published in the December, 1862 issue of the magazine.
Frederick Livingston enlisted into Company A of the 14th Illinois Cavalry regiment on September 13th of 1862, but had to wait until enough men had joined before the regiment was mustered into service. He was part of the first two battalions which were mustered into service in Peoria on January 7th, 1863. The third battalion was mustered in on February 6th. Young Livingston evidently had some medical background, or else a sense of compassion that his comrades in arms recognized, as he soon assumed the function of a Hospital Steward. This was a responsible position as attested to by the regimental records. The 14th suffered 2 officers and 23 enlisted men who were either killed in action or died later from wounds suffered during battle. As was the case with most regiments though, pestilence was a deadlier foe than enemy fire. The regiment lost 190 enlisted men to various deadly diseases.
The 14th participated in the Siege of Knoxville in 1863 and in the decisive Union victory at the Battle of Nashville in the winter of 1864, a battle that decisively shattered John Bell Hood's Confederate army. These Tennessee battles are well documented. Perhaps the most interesting endeavor that Livingston’s Company A participated in was General George Stoneman’s ambitious raid that hoped to penetrate as far south as Macon, Georgia. Captain Albert R. Capron has written an interesting account of it. He was a young lieutenant in Company A at the time, and his father, Horace Capron Sr, was the commander of the regiment.
General Stoneman had approached General William Tecumseh Sherman with the idea for the raid. Its intent was to reach the prison camps in Macon and at Andersonville in order to release the Union soldiers held captive there. Both Stoneman and Sherman recognized that this would be a perilous undertaking, but the potential reward of the raid overrode the risk involved. Sherman voiced his support for the undertaking in a couple pieces of correspondence:
“I see many difficulties, but as you say, even a chance of success will warrant the effort, and I consent to it. If you bring back to the army any or all of those prisoners of war, it will be an achievement that will entitle you and the men of your command to the love and admiration of the whole country.”
“This is probably more than he can accomplish, but it is worthy of a determined effort.”
The expedition set out on the morning of the 27th of July, 1864. It consisted of two large contingents of men, a command of approximately 5000 horsemen led by General Stoneman and a command of some 4000 cavalry led by General Edward M. McCook.
General Stoneman’s route followed the Georgia Railroad. While making their way south they also had orders to burn and destroy the railroads and to put the torch to all the public property that they could find. The 14th did a thorough job of doing just that. As they neared Macon they intercepted train after train of goods and supplies. Lieutenant Capron writes of the destruction that was necessitated by the orders that they had been given:
“Train after train of cars came rushing along, loaded to their utmost capacity with costly furniture, printing presses and type, private carriages and horses; in fact, every conceivable form of moveable property. These were intercepted by our force, and, in the process of destroying the railroad and rolling stock, were necessarily swept out of existence. In speaking of this incident, my father says in his journal: ‘It is painful at this period to look back upon the terrific destruction of valuable property, but we were obeying orders; my best efforts were used to relieve it from the barbarities which so often followed in the wake of those raids by both parties to the contest.’
”
Stoneman’s column got close to Macon, but the Rebels had burned the bridges that spanned the river at Macon, so Stoneman contented himself with shelling the town. Having heard that the Rebels had moved the prisoners further south as the Yankees advanced, and encountering heavy resistance, Stoneman attempted to retreat, using the same route he had advanced toward Macon on. By this time Confederate General Wheeler was pursing him with a force of 10,000 mounted troops. Stoneman was hoping that McCook’s force would unite with his to bring the odds close to even.
Outside of Clinton, Georgia, Stoneman’s men encountered the Rebels; a force that had set up defenses behind barricades. Colonel Capron sent the 8th Michigan Cavalry to drive them from their defenses. They succeeded, and the Rebels fell back from position to position until they joined with Wheeler’s main body of troops. Both sides prepared for the fight the next morning.
The Confederate force was comprised of mostly infantry and artillery. Once General Stoneman heard the heavy guns open up, he rode to the front to take personal command of the situation. He threw his whole force into a line of battle. The enemy moved forward and the fighting was quite brisk between nine and ten in the morning. During this time an orderly by the name of J. C. Hall rode over to Colonel Capron to deliver an order from General Stoneman. Placing his hand on the pommel of the Colonel’s saddle and leaning toward him in order to more effectively deliver the order amidst the noise of battle, a ball from one of the enemy sharpshooters that had been aimed at Colonel Capron struck the messenger’s arm and passed through the unfortunate courier’s body.
At this point in the battle it was evident that neither commander was certain as to the make up of the enemy force that opposed them. The Rebel assault was a probe meant to determine the strength of Stoneman’s force and draw them into the field of the enemy artillery. Once the Rebel probing attack was checked, General Stoneman took the opportunity to repair his battle line and bring every man forward. Colonel Capron and his force, which included the 14th Illinois Cavalry and F. W. Livingston was on the right of the Union line and exposed to an enemy flank movement if the Rebels spotted and chose to exploit the weakness. The Union command was also hampered by an inability to get a good idea of the enemy dispositions.
The Rebels had a clear view of the Union positions since Stoneman’s men were positioned on elevated ground. A road at the rear of the Union position exposed them to attack from that direction as well. To protect the troops from a surprise assault from this direction, a squadron of the 14th, led by Captain Sanford, had been placed about a mile down the road. The enemy had just begun another advance forward when Sanford’s men were seen coming down the road pursued by a rebel force. Colonel Capron quickly gathered a small body of men, and leading them in person, went to Sanford’s assistance. Seeing help coming, Sanford wheeled his men about and joined his Colonel in beating back the enemy attack. A lieutenant and several men were lost in this successful skirmish.
General Stoneman ordered the entire Union line forward. After several volleys were exchanged, suddenly the Confederate’s superior force burst forward in an unstoppable charge. One of the Union brigades broke, and the Rebels poured into the hole in the line. Just then one of General Stoneman’s staff officers rode up to Colonel Capron to report that Stoneman had decided that it was futile to attempt to cut their way out, but if anyone thought otherwise, they had his permission to attempt to do so.
“Stoneman surrendered?” was Colonel Horace Capron’s incredulous reply. “Never while I have a horse under me will I surrender.”
Cut off from General Stoneman and surrounded by the enemy, it was obvious to Capron’s command that their only hope was to cut their way to freedom by thrusting through the enemy. He ordered his son to call in Captain Lord from his outpost to follow their retreat. The battle by this time had degenerated into a disorganized mass of confusion, with many of the victorious Rebels more concerned with capturing horses rather than the remaining Federals. Many troopers lost their lives trying to keep their mounts from being taken away from them.
The Yankees who had managed to round up and keep their horses were eventually able to break through the looting greycoats. They were joined by some of Captain Lord’s men who had managed to fight their way through as well. Gradually their forces were replenished by men who rejoined them during the course of the retreat, which lasted all night. They had marched 60 hours in 24 hours before they felt secure enough to halt and rest.
The Confederates continued the pursuit of the remaining Union cavalry, first to Athens, Georgia, where bridges had been destroyed forcing the tired and beleaguered Yankees to make a disheartening detour in search of an avenue of retreat. Eventually the Rebels caught up with the exhausted remainder of the Union cavalry. A furious attack was launched; one in which cries of “surrender!” came from the triumphant rebels. In the confusion, Colonel Capron and his young 18 year old son plunged into a thicket along with other soldiers desperately attempting to escape. One by one they were rounded up, with the exception of the Colonel, his young son, and a lieutenant of the 8th Michigan, the three of whom reached Marietta, Georgia and the Union lines and safety a week later.
The Colonel’s other son, Lieutenant Albert Capron, had been stationed with 75 men to guard the fork of two roads toward the rear of the command. They attempted to fight their way out, but were surrounded and captured and the Lieutenant was sent to Macon where he found General Stoneman already a prisoner. Other captives were sent to that hell of a prison known as “Andersonville.”
In a 1901 article, the Lieutenant, who by the end of the war had risen to the rank of Captain, summed up his feelings about the unsuccessful affair. “In looking back from this point of time, how easy it is to understand the reasons of this sad failure; but, I’m sure, that no one who went through those dark days, but feels the bitterest disappointment that General Stoneman was not able to carry through his noble undertaking to a success.”
No doubt young Frederick Livingston was one of the Yankees who was captured and sent to a southern prison as well, as he was not recorded as one of the resolute soldiers who eluded the enemy to wend his way back to the Union lines. He survived his captivity though, and was mustered out of service on July 31st, 1865.
An 1865 Issue of The Illinois Teacher mentions Mr. Livingston in glowing terms: “Mr. F. W. Livingston, who served his country honorably as a member of the 14th Illinois Cavalry, and is said to have risen to the rank of Lieutenant, has resumed his profession of teaching as Principal of the Keithsburg Union Graded School. Mr. Livingston holds a State Diploma and stands high in regard as a teacher. The people of Keithsburg are fortunate in securing his services.”
In 1866 we read mention of Principal Livingston again in the Illinois Teacher. During a gathering of the Mercer County Teacher’s Association, the minutes indicate that he entertained his fellow teachers by giving a reading of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Old Clock on the Stairs.” He is also mentioned as leading his students through a reading drill for the edification of those assembled, and later mentioned as reading the assembled crowd a copy of one of his own poems, a work entitled “True Courage.” He married his wife, Mary, in 1869.
Principal Livingston eventually rose to become a Superintendent of Schools in Mercer County. That should have been the pinnacle of his career and a fitting crown to a life devoted to teaching, but wanderlust, ambition or perhaps opportunity led him to forsake Illinois to head west to California. A life that had begun in Vermont had taken him across a continent. In 1900 we find him and his wife of 31 years listed on the U.S. Census as living in San Diego, California. He is still employed as an educator. He and Mary at this time have two daughters, Anna, age 23 and Nellie, age 15, living with them.
Frederick W. Livingston died in San Diego on May 28th, 1908, at the age of 74. He was laid to rest in Mt. Hope Cemetery, in San Diego. His simple white Grand Army of the Republic headstone, which has toppled and is lying on the ground face up, is very weathered, but still readable. On it he is listed as an Assistant Hospital Steward with the 14th Illinois Cavalry. Nothing more.
The education that he received at Lombard served him in good stead. It was a gift that he returned many times over to his students in both Illinois and the West Coast. In his works, Lombard legacy brought rich returns.
Bibliography:
Mlitary Essays and Recollections “”Stoneman Raid to Macon, Georgia in 1864” by Captain Albert Banefield Capron
Civil War Veterans of Knox County internet website
Illinois Teacher 1862, 1865 and 1866 Issues of the monthly magazine published in Peoria by N C Nason
1860 United States Federal Census
1900 United States federal Census
California Death Index, 1905 – 1939
U.S, City Directories, 1821- 1989
14th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Cavalry Wikipedia
Find a Grave website entry for F. V. Livingston, Mt. Hope Cemetery, San Diego, CA.
