behind AotW

If you are a student of US Naval Aviation, this 1911 photograph may be something like the holy grail.

Pictured is the Curtiss A-1 aircraft with Glenn H Curtiss at the wheel. Seated (L-R) are his students – young US Navy officers John Rodgers, John Henry Towers, and Theodore Ellyson – who qualified that summer as Naval Aviators #2, #3 and #1, respectively. The man standing at left is not identified, but is possibly Eugene Burton Ely (1879-1911), Curtiss’ pilot and a pioneer of Naval Aviation in his own right – the first man to take off from and land on a ship.

All of these men had tremendous flying stories and family histories – well worth a look when you have the time.

Rodgers (USNA 1903) and Ellyson (USNA 1905) were killed in plane crashes, in 1926 and 1928 respectively, but Towers (USNA 1906) had a 45-year Navy career culminating in 4-star Admiral’s rank (1945) and command of the US Pacific Fleet (1946).

Here’s Vice Admiral Towers (arrow) in a famous photograph of General Douglas McArthur signing surrender documents aboard USS Missouri (BB-63) in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.

Bringing this back home …

Towers’ grandfather, Colonel John Reed Towers, commanded the 8th Georgia Infantry from 2nd Manassas to Appomattox, including in action with G.T. Anderson’s Brigade in the West Woods and on Piper’s Farm at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

Here’s Colonel J.R. Towers, just after the Civil War.

Colonel Towers’ 2nd son and Admiral Towers’ father, William McGee Towers (1846-1912), was also a Confederate veteran. He served as an 18 year old cavalryman with General N.B. Forrest in 1864 and 1865. He lived to see his son fly.

___________________

Notes

More details of Admiral Towers’ Navy career are in a bio sketch from the Naval History and Heritage Command.

They are also the source of the Curtiss photograph above.

The 1945 photograph on the USS Missouri is online from the US National Archives.

The portrait of Colonel John R Towers is thanks to family genealogists via RootsWeb.

Brothers Charles A. (left) and William Decatur Mangham enlisted together as 2nd and 3rd Corporal, respectively, in the “Confederate Guards” – Company A, 13th Georgia Infantry – in July 1861, and had their pictures taken in their new uniforms.

Will was badly wounded in the arm at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862 and served afterward as a Lieutenant in a Reserve Company assigned as guards at Andersonville, GA.

Charles’ photograph is from Oh, For a Touch of the Vanished Hand (2000) by Col. Dana Mangham, who says Charles was also wounded at Sharpsburg. I’ve not found other evidence of that. Will’s picture is from Rosalee Mangham King as published in Rachel McDaniel’s Pike County (2011).

In a related find, here’s a Sharpsburg casualty list for Companies A and I of the 13th Georgia clipped from page 4 of the Savannah Weekly Republican of 4 October 1862.

The complete edition of that paper is online from Georgia Historic Newspapers, and it also contains extensive descriptions of the action at Sharpsburg and has similar lists for the 12th, 50th, and 61st Georgia, and 5th Florida Infantry (along with lists for the 9th and 11th Georgia at Manassas).

This fierce-looking young man is William Pinkney Irvin of Pike County, GA, and he probably posed for this picture shortly after he enlisted in Company A of the 13th Georgia Infantry in July 1861 at about 18 years old.

Sadly, he only got another year older. He was killed at Sharpsburg, MD on 17 September 1862.

This photo was shared by Rachael Weitnauer of Atlanta to accompany Keith S. Bohannon’s essay in The Antietam Campaign (1999), edited by Gary W Gallagher.

A wealthy young planter from Macon, GA, John Hill Lamar began the war as a Private in the 2nd Georgia Battalion and was Major of the 7th Georgia Battalion Infantry by April 1862. At that time Confederate authorities were adding troops to the Battalion to bring it to Regimental strength, and its commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Charles A. L. Lamar – probably not a close relation – resigned, reportedly because he was not likely to retain his commission in the new Regiment.

In this unusual letter, Major Lamar asked Brigadier General Hugh Weeden Mercer (1808-1877), then commanding the Military District of Georgia, to obtain the commission of Lieutenant Colonel and commander of the Battalion on his behalf. He noted that there was some urgency, citing the likely resignation of senior Captain James Y. McDuffie if the post of Major did not open soon.

Here’s my transcription:

Camp at Bethesda [GA]
April 7th 1862

Brig Genl H.W. Mercer

Genl:

I received on yesterday the official notification of the acceptance of Col Lamar’s resignation. Will you do me the favor to make application for my commission as Lt Col, as I believe I rise to that position by promotion. Capt McDuffie is the senior Capt and has conceived an idea of resigning, and until he decides what he will do, it will be useful to take any steps as regards the Majority. I am this precipitate in asking you make application on my behalf, from the fact, of not having received my present commission until a few days ago, and without your action in the premisses [?], it is doubtful if I get the commission as Lt Col for months to come.

I am Genl
Very Respectfully
Your Obt Servant

JH Lamar
Maj Comdg 7th Ga Batt

Lamar did in fact quickly get the commission as Lieutenant Colonel of the Battalion and later as Colonel of the new 61st Georgia. He commanded the regiment, and at least briefly Lawton’s Brigade, at Sharpsburg in September 1862. He was killed at Monocacy, MD in 1864.

Captain McDuffie did not resign, and was soon after appointed Lieutenant Colonel. He was wounded at Sharpsburg and resigned due to his health that October. He died in 1863, cause unknown.

This letter is from J.H. Lamar’s Compiled Service Record file at the US National Archives, online from fold3.

This clip about Colonel Marcellus Douglass, late of the 13th Georgia Infantry, is from a lengthy Campaign narrative published on the front page of the Savannah Republican of 1 October 1862. The complete page is online courtesy of Georgia Historic Newspapers.

Thanks to Laura Elliot for the pointer to that piece. It was submitted from Shepherdstown, VA by correspondent “V.A.S.P.” – the initials of Virgil A.S. Parks, then First Lieutenant of Company D, 17th Georgia Infantry.

Thanks to Mike Brasher for finding and sharing this photograph of John Silas Mask of the 2nd Mississippi Infantry. It looks like it was taken just after he enlisted, probably in 1861.

Lieutenant Colonel Jacob Eugene Duryée led his regiment, the 2nd Maryland Infantry, in their attack on the Lower Bridge (Rohrbach’s, later Burnside’s) at Antietam on 17 September 1862. That was the highlight of his military career – he resigned his commission a few days later, probably to avoid the new Colonel, soon to arrive.

Here he is about 36 years later, in 1898, soon after his grandson Harvey Hoag Duryée, Jr. was born. That’s Junior in the middle, Jacob standing behind, Jacob’s mother Caroline E Allen Duryée (1820-1905), and his son Harvey Hoag Duryée (1871-1924). Sadly, little Harvey died at age 9 in 1907.

This lovely photograph was contributed to Findagrave by Kent Duryee. Thanks to Kent, also, for catching my error with Junior’s first name and for helping date the photograph:

Harvey Jr. was born on December 3, 1897, and he looks much older than one month, so the picture had to have been taken in 1898. Also, Jacob and his son Harvey and their families moved from New York to Los Angeles in late 1898. Caroline, Jacob’s mother who is in the picture on the left, remained in New York.

Hiram Durkee, a 21 year old farmer from Lorain County, OH was killed in the battle at Fox’s Gap on South Mountain on 14 September 1862. He was a Private in Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes’ 23rd Ohio Infantry.

This image of him is from a copy of an ambrotype he had taken at Judd C. Potter’s gallery in Elyria, OH just before he enlisted in May 1861. This copy, made by the family in 1863, was passed down through the generations and was kindly supplied by R.C. Durkee.

As I’ve done on my last several trips to the battlefield, I stopped to visit a few stones in Antietam National Cemetery this past week. Starting at the “back” – the south wall of the cemetery – I noticed particularly the rows of markers for the many unknown soldier buried there …

Dr. James Alfred Long returned to the practice of medicine in La Grange, GA after the war. He’d been at least briefly in command of his regiment, the 13th Georgia Infantry, at Sharpsburg in September 1862 while Captain of Company K.

This clip is from the front page of the La Grange Reporter of 22 December 1865, which is online thanks to the Digital Library of Georgia.