Morrison family ties
17 January 2007
Rev. Robert Hall Morrison, DD (from Davidson College portrait)
The Reverend Doctor Morrison (1798-1889) was father-in-law to three Confederate general officers: D.H. Hill (m. Isabella S. Morrison 1848), Rufus C. Barringer (m. Eugenia 1854; she d. 1858, typhoid), and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson (m. Mary Anna 1857).
I know of no other patriarch of that distinction.
Hard core students of the American Civil War already know that D.H. Hill and “Stonewall” Jackson were brothers-in-law, though not always happily so. Most will probably not have seen how wide that family net spreads.
The other three of Reverend Morrison’s six daughters also married war-serving Confederates: Harriet Abigail to James Irwin, purchasing agent for the Confederacy, Susan Washington to Major Alphonso Calhoun Avery (family) of the 6th North Carolina, and Laura to Colonel John Edmunds Brown of the 42nd Regiment North Carolina State Troops.
Anna Morrison Jackson
Three of his four sons, too, were in Confederate States service. Oldest son William W. had worked for his mother’s brother, William Alexander Graham in the US Department of the Navy and was a Major by War’s end, but died in 1865. Joseph Graham Morrison served on the great Stonewall’s staff and witnessed first hand his mortal wounding at Chancellorsville, Virginia in May 1863. Robert H., Jr. was aide-de-camp to Generals Barringer and D.H. Hill, and was a physician after the War. The youngest, Alfred James, too young to fight, was later a lawyer and Presbyterian minister in his own right, but died early—at 26 years of age.
Papa Morrison had been born and raised in North Carolina in middle class surroundings. He was always a good student and graduated in 1818 from the University of North Carolina, third in his class. Number one that year was future US President James K. Polk.
Feeling a strong pull to evangelize, Morrison studied under local ministers, then traveled north for a year of work in theology at the College of New Jersey (later Princeton) 1820-21. Returning to North Carolina he embarked on a career as Presbyterian minister. In 1824 he married Mary Graham, daughter of Revolutionary War Major and later Militia General Joseph Graham. He married well. The General had been successful in the iron business and had large holdings of land and slaves.
In 1835 Rev. Morrison began raising $30,000 to build a school to help fill the gap he saw in trained Presbyterian ministers. In 1837, on land donated by his wife’s uncle William Lee Davidson, he launched and was first President of Davidson College. In 1839, however, he became seriously ill with bronchitis, to the point that he sought help from Dr. George McClellan in Philadelphia. You probably know Dr. McClellan’s son.
No treatment helped, however, so in 1840 Morrison resigned his post at Davidson for reasons of health, and retired to his plantation “Cottage Home” in Lincoln County, North Carolina: a legacy of the Graham family wealth. He preached near there, notably at the Machpelah Presbyterian Church until his death nearly 50 years later.
Joseph Graham Morrison
Third son Joseph Graham Morrison is actually the reason for this now out of control post. He’s the Antietam connection: at the time of the battle he was aide-de-camp to General Jackson.
Born in 1842, he was named for his maternal grandfather and destined to inherit the family manse Cottage Home as oldest surviving son. As the Civil War began Joseph was a student at the Virginia Military Academy (Class of 1865), but he left school and was commissioned Lieutenant and ADC on Jackson’s staff in June 1862.
Cedar Mountain in August …
was his first experience on the battlefield. His bearing was fearless and chivalric. He was riding one of the General’s horses, which, shot in the jaw, was rearing and plunging, sprinkling both his rider and himself with blood. It was suggested to the General that he had better call that youth in or his career would be a short one, but he replied that his example would not be lost upon the troops and he would learn more discretion after a battle or two. He would not permit him to be recalled. Morrison escaped that day but after the General’s death he was badly wounded twice and came out of the army with the loss of a foot. (H.K. Douglas)
After Chancellorsville, in July 1863, rather than transfer to General Ewell with the rest of Jackson’s staff, he joined General Ramseur. In September 1863 he transferred to the 57th North Carolina Infantry as Adjutant. By 1865 he was Captain of Company F, and lost a foot shortly after at Petersburg, while away from his regiment visiting General Hoke.
Also suffering from tuberculosis, Joseph spent the four years following the War in California recuperating. In 1869 he came home to North Carolina where he was a planter and ran the Mariposa Cotton Mills. He returned to claim the family home on his father’s death in 1889, and himself passed at Charlotte on 11 April 1906.
He is buried with his father and Grandfather Graham at Machpelah Cemetery.
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Bonus Mystery
The VMI archives have a fine photograph identified as “Dr. Samuel B. Morrison, CSA, who attended Stonewall Jackson after his wounding in May 1863. He was the brother of Mrs. Jackson (Mary Anna Morrison)”. I found no reference to a missing son named Samuel, though I did see that Robert Hall Morrison Jr had a career as a physician post War. I dug a little and did find a roster mention of a Samuel B. Morrison, Surgeon of the 3rd Maine Infantry.
The picture looks like a man in Confederate uniform. So, who is he?
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Notes
See also Sarah Marie Eye’s lovely 2003 master’s thesis from Virginia Tech on the contradictions apparent in the life of R.H. Morrison, especially in his views on slavery and secession. Also source of some of the fine-grain detail mentioned above.
Rev. R.H. Morrison’s papers are in the Southern Historical Collection of the Library of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the online finding aid includes additional biographical and cultural background on the family.
The photos of Joseph Graham Morrison and Mary Anna Morrison Jackson are from a Jackson exhibit at the archives of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI).
Special thanks to Bill Torrens, who popped J.G. Morrison up onto my radar, and provided the anecdote and service data I used here. His sources were Douglas’ I Rode with Stonewall, Jones’ Campbell Brown’s Civil War, and Krick’s Staff Officers In Gray. Bill has spent years writing biographical sketches for nearly all Confederate officers, and posts samples on the History Forums board as “Collett Leventhorpe”.
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added 2 Feb 2007
On his North Carolina and the Civil War blog Michael C. Hardy has written a nice post about Mary Anna Morrison, on the occasion of the 183rd anniversary of her first husband’s birth.
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February 17th, 2007 at 8:01 pm
I was just forwarded “Morrison Family Ties” by my daughter Laura Morrison, who found it on the internet. I am the great grandson of Joseph G Morrison. I enjoyed the article on the family and am sending it to my dad, Joseph Graham Morrison,III, age 95, in Wilmington, NC.
I don’t know anything about blogs, so I don’t know if this is the right communication or even whom I am communicating with, but I assume it is whoever posted the Morrison article. Please let me know. Thanks,
Joe Morrison
February 18th, 2007 at 11:31 am
[Responded also to Mr Morrison by email] This is fantastic. It’s a very great honor to hear from the family.
February 21st, 2007 at 7:18 pm
[…] I was knocked out to get comments this week on the Morrison article from Joseph Graham Morrison IV. His daughter clued him to it. He’s passing it along to his 92 year old father (JGM III), the grandson of one of our subjects. Now that’s what the Internets is all about. […]
June 24th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
with respect to the slaves of the Morrison Plantation, what became of them following emancipation?
June 25th, 2007 at 11:12 am
Hi Roland - intriguing question to which I don’t have an answer. Not direct help, but by way of setting the stage, in her thesis Ms Eye noted:
June 25th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Brian,
Thank you. My mother is a Morrison, descended from slaves at Cottage Home, as it was passed down via oral history. She is 78 years old and intriqued with this information. I am interested in digging deeper as I am a documentary filmmaker. Her father and his father before him settled in Iredell County, where family land still runs along the Catawba River (now called Lake Norman).
July 6th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Ancestry.com’s Civil War Service records site lists a Samuel B. Morrison with the rank of Surgeon, in the 58th Virginia.
There’s another, S.B. Morrison, listed as a Confederate Surgeon, with no unit specified.
Hope this is helpful.
July 6th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
Now we’re getting somewhere — thanks Dan!
A surgeon with the 58th Virginia sounds plausible for “attending” Stonewall Jackson, though I still don’t believe he’s of these Morrisons.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
In the Morrison part of my family tree, I have a Samuel Morrison who was the brother of Mary Ann (Anna?) Morrison. He was the son of John I. Morrison and Jane Neeley. John Morrison was the son of John Morrison and Jane Storey. This John was born in Ballynahinch, Co. Down, N. Ireland in 1752 and died in Goshen, New York in 1815. I don’t have the dates or locations yet for the children and grandchildren, but it seems about right for Samuel to have been in the Civil War.
My branch of the Morrisons were in South Carolina, but it was a large family and they settled in various states.
January 13th, 2008 at 5:51 pm
Thanks for the family details, Ned!
January 27th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
For information on the Morrison family of Lincoln County, NC, read “They Married Confederate Officers…the intimate story of Anna Morrison, wife of Stonewall Jackson and her five sisters….” by Kathy Neill Herran published by Warren Publishing, Inc., in Davidson, NC.
January 27th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Thanks Kathy! Your website looks like a good place to learn about the book. Great stuff!
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I’m interested in finding more about Mary Anna Morrison Jackson life after her husband’s death. There is somethings well known like her moving back first to Cottage Home then to Charlotte, then losing marrying having children then dying in richmond of Typhoid and of course becoming a local UDC chapter president. But I’ve also heard there were hard times too (the selling of “Little Sorrel” does anyone have any more substantial information.
February 3rd, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Hi Tom,
For starters, you might try Ms Herran’s book, or contact her via the link above … I also hope other knowledgeable folks will weigh-in on this for you.
February 9th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Interest in Samuel Morrison, Dr. S.B.Morrison CSA surgeon was present at Jackson’s death and was called as a surgical consult by Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire,(surgeon for Jackson). He is called a “relative” by Mary Anna Morrison in Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson on pg 453, and also was the one who spoke with her concerning the graveness of the situation with her failing husband. She also lists the 10 children of her parents (father Rev.Robert Hall Morrison) early on in the book. Believed to have been uncle relationship to her, although can not locate this information yet. Dr. McGuire known to be surgeon general of Gen Jubal Early’s Corps and in memoirs of Archibald Atkinson Jr. gave orders to him work with S B Morrison at battle of Rappanannock Bridge. He knew SB from University of VA,no year. On July 3,1864, in another memoir, S B Morrison,surgeon mentioned in Smithfield, WV. Located S B Morrison of Rockbridge County, in years following war, noted physician in VA Medical Society, ran sanatorium in Rockbridge Alum Springs, VA for 25 years. This SB is Samuel Brown Morrison,doctor in CSA and registered marriage of son Clark to Sarah Owens, his wife was Susan Christian. Anna Morrison’s child Julia marries a Christian as well. Not verified these 2 S. B. Morrisons as same, believe they are.
February 10th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Thanks Liz - it may be starting to come together here! Uncle makes sense. Lots of good connections to look into …
Anna’s Memoirs of Stonewall Jackson (1895) is online in its entirety thanks to GoogleBooks.
Google found a reference in the Virginia Medical Monthly journal (Feb 1953) to an article titled Samuel Brown Morrison, 1828-1901; Stonewall Jackson’s physician. Supports your supposition. He’s also listed in the Catalogue of the Officers and Alumni of Washington and Lee University (1888), if that offers another thread for investigation.
The Virginia Historical Society, Richmond apparently has:
An 1884 biographical sketch (scroll down) from Hardesty’s offers further details, thanks to a transcription on RootsWeb. Given that the 58th Virginia Infantry was at Sharpsburg, but General Ewell wasn’t, I can’t tell yet if this Dr. Morrison is one of “my boys”.
More later, as time allows.
February 11th, 2008 at 7:11 pm
I found a wonderful Morrison lady who is probably a very good connection for many other Morrisons. She and her sister have a published geneology of the Morrisons and through her I was able to find out the connection with Anna Morrison. S B and Anna shared the same great-great grandparents. R H Morrison had the same great grandparents, but from them , his grandfather Morrison was Robert Morrison and the line SB came from was from a brother James Morrison, his father James’ grandfather James Morrison. SB was her cousin and only 3 years older than Anna, her father RH was 30 years older than SB himself. SB would’ve grown up with her and known her through family functions and visits. He was obviously slighted by Gen Jackson not being appointed his medical director or surgeon, as was Hunter McGuire. It must’ve been a slap in the face to S B Morrison,a physician of good repute.
Janet and her sister have their book available for sale, and they also have a Morrison reunion of the Rocky River Morrisons, there is another sect she is involved with as well. She is available at morrison@dialpoint.net and is a wealth of information.
Thank you for the info I am looking it over and would love to see the letters of SB Morrison. I will inquire about them.
Liz
February 17th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
This is all great information. I am the great, great granddaughter of Dr. Robert Hall Morrison and the great granddaughter of Joseph Graham Morrison. My grandfather, father, brother and nephew were all named Robert Hall Morrison. I have been interested in knowing whether there is a reunion of the descendants of Dr. RHM. Hello to Joe Morrison. Our dads would have been first cousins.
February 19th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
Hi Anne! I’m amazed how many of you there are and how carefully you preserve your family history. Most impressive.
Also, at least one Virginia Garber was at Sharpsburg in 1862 … any relation?
February 19th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I don’t know of any connection of my husband’s family and A. W. Garber. I’ll keep the article, though. Thanks.
March 7th, 2008 at 12:10 am
This is very cool stuff. I am the great, great, great grandson of Dr. Robert Morrison and great, great grandson of Joseph Graham (Anne above is my aunt!) I just read aloud to my daughter the account of Joseph Graham Morrison’s acquittal in his first battle, and of Jackson’s rather terse response- we both had to laugh. I greatly enjoyed this- outstanding work. Thanks!