The Forgotten General
by Diana Loski
General Alfred Pleasonton
(Library of Congress)
On February 19, 1897, a solemn crowd assembled at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington D.C. Many aging, prominent members of the former Army of the Potomac were among the guests, although the funeral was not a military one.
The deceased, 72-year-old Alfred Pleasonton, had requested a civilian funeral for personal reasons, although there was “a conspicuous show of respect” shown to the old soldier on that day. One might wonder what happened to cause the man who had served his country for so many years and with “distinguished bravery” to become so bitter at the end of his life, but the rancor he held for the government he had so faithfully served had been evident for many years.1
Alfred Pleasonton was born on July 7, 1824, in Washington, D.C., He entered the world as the middle child of a family of five siblings, to Stephen Pleasonton and his wife, Mary. Stephen had served as the private secretary to James Monroe, when the latter served as Secretary of State to President James Madison. During the War of 1812, the elder Pleasonton had saved the original copy of the U.S. Constitution when the British invaded Washington and President Madison had to flee the city, along with his cabinet. The Pleasonton family was well respected in the nation’s capital. It was not a surprise that Alfred, along with his elder brother Augustus, would be interested in following military careers.2
Through his father’s connections, Alfred secured an appointment to West Point Military Academy. He graduated seventh of twenty-five cadets in 1844, and served with the cavalry. He fought with distinction in the Mexican War, earning a brevet for gallantry at Palo Alto. In the years before the Civil War, Pleasonton, who remained a lifelong bachelor, made the army his life, serving from Florida to Kansas to the Utah expedition, to being the assistant adjutant general of the Department of Oregon. He was in command of a cavalry regiment in Utah Territory when the war broke out in the spring of 1861, and led the regiment back to Washington to enlist their services to the Union.3
Pleasonton began the war as the commander of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry. He was engaged at Yorktown and throughout the Peninsular Campaign of 1862. After the Seven Days’ Battles in Virginia, Pleasonton was promoted to brigade command, leading a unit of cavalry for the Army of the Potomac, mainly needed for the defenses of Washington. He received his brigadier star on July 16, 1862. He was in command of his brigade into the fall of the year, and participated in the Battle of Antietam, where he was wounded.4
Pleasonton spent his recuperation in Philadelphia, where his brother, Augustus, and his family lived. Alfred was back at the front in time for the Battle of Fredericksburg in December, and was conspicuous at the Battle of Chancellorsville. On May 2, 1863, in the twilight after the second day of significant fighting, General Thomas J. Jackson attacked the Union Eleventh Corps, surprising the men on the flank. The surprise assault sent the Union men running, and it soon became a rout. General Pleasonton, commanding a division of cavalry and some horse artillery, immediately took action. He placed his cavalry regiments in the vicinity at Hazel Grove and commanded the artillery under his command to fire upon the Confederates. His tactics worked, stopping the rout and giving the Confederate advance pause. Other Union units joined the defense, which saved Hooker’s army from complete disaster. Some historians later criticized Pleasonton, who had claimed that he saved the Union army that night. However, his actions did indeed help the situation, and significantly.5
After the Battle of Chancellorsville, both the Union and Confederate armies needed to reorganize. Because of his senior status in the ranks, Alfred Pleasonton was promoted by General Hooker to be the commander of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Many in the corps had hoped that the capable John Buford from Kentucky would head the cavalry, but Pleasonton outranked Buford by eleven days. As it turned it, it was fortuitous that Pleasonton had been in command at headquarters, and that Buford would remain a division commander in the field.6
It appears that Pleasonton was a better fit for fighting than for organization, and he would soon prove himself at the next cavalry fight, as both armies made their way northward toward Pennsylvania in June. Pleasonton attacked his Confederate counterpart, Jeb Stuart, at the Battle of Brandy Station, an area located in Culpeper County in northern Virginia. General Hooker, who was still in command of the Union army, sent Pleasonton with the intent to start a fight, and to ascertain the whereabouts of Lee’s army. Hooker gave Pleasonton three thousand infantry troops in addition to his cavalry, and his units of horse artillery. In all, over eleven thousand troops were under Pleasonton’s command as they crossed the Rappahannock River, looking for the men in gray. When Stuart’s troops were found, Pleasonton attacked on June 9, 1863 – and the conflict became the largest cavalry fight of the Civil War. Pleasonton pressed his advantage, and “gave the Confederates a good scare.” Never had the Union horse soldiers fought so well and so aggressively. Learning that some of Lee’s infantry were in the vicinity and approaching, Pleasonton backed off – and Stuart, who had also had enough, backed off as well, causing the fight to end in a draw. However, the Confederates, hoping to sneak northward into Pennsylvania, were disappointed as the element of surprise was lost. Additionally, the Union cavalry forces, heretofore inferior to the South, showed their true mettle. They had vastly improved.7
Pleasonton was not the only one new to high command. On June 28, General George Meade was ordered to take command of the Army of the Potomac, replacing Joe Hooker. Meade and Pleasonton conferred about promotions within the cavalry. Pleasonton recommended three men with the rank of captain who had proven to be excellent fighters worthy of advancement. Taking his advice, Meade promoted George A. Custer, Wesley Merritt, and Elon Farnsworth to brigade command – just in time for the next battle, at a place called Gettysburg.8
The Battle of Gettysburg was actually a fight that happened by accident – at least to the time and place of the battle. Pleasonton, knowing that Meade had planned to scout the area around Pipe Creek in Maryland for a possible place for engagement, sent Buford north into Pennsylvania, and toward Gettysburg, as rumblings of possible Confederate sightings were in that area. Buford did so, and noticed that Lee’s entire army was nearby. He sent a missive to General John Reynolds, a wing commander and leader of the Federal First Corps, who were the closest infantry troops to Gettysburg.
It is one of the serendipitous occurrences for the Army of the Potomac that John Buford was in the field west of Gettysburg on the evening of June 30 and the morning of July 1, 1863. A 38-year-old West Point graduate, born in Kentucky and raised in Illinois, Buford had graduated from the military academy four years later than Pleasonton. His expertise, combined with a quick ascertainment of what would likely occur, made his division of cavalry engage the leading corps of unsuspecting Confederate infantry on the morning of July 1, 1863. While Buford certainly deserves credit and accolades for his actions that day, it was Alfred Pleasonton who sent him to Gettysburg. While no written orders survive, the order was likely oral – and Pleasonton was the only living witness after the war to corroborate the reason why Buford was at Gettysburg on June 30, 1863.9
Meade kept Pleasonton close to him during the Battle of Gettysburg. When Pleasonton relieved Buford’s men after their long day of fighting July 1, he did not replace them with troops to guard either flank of the Union line – a definite faux pas. However, Pleasonton did send Custer and Gregg south of town to ascertain Confederate movements there on July 2. The two commanders fought a cavalry battle at Hunterstown on July 2 and at East Cavalry Field on July 3, reigniting the same fight that had occurred at Brandy Station. While Lee’s infantry assaulted the Union center on July 3 with Pickett’s Charge, Jeb Stuart and his cavalry had been held up by the Union cavalry forces south of Gettysburg. Both engagements were clear Union victories.
Some historians criticize Pleasonton for not being visible at Gettysburg. Equally, some criticize George Pickett for not being visible during his charge. Those in high command – including division commanders like Pickett and corps commanders like Pleasonton – are not supposed to be in the front lines, charging with their troops. In Pleasonton’s case, especially, his duty was more administrative, and he capably performed those duties at Gettysburg.
In 1864, with the rise of Ulysses S. Grant and his promotion to commander of all Union armies, Grant knew that Lee was the one to beat. Grant preferred the fiery Philip Sheridan to lead the Union cavalry, and Pleasonton was transferred to command the Union cavalry in Missouri. Later that year, Pleasonton, who had always preferred fighting to administration, drove the Confederates from the state of Missouri in the Battles of Bryan’s Ford and the Battle of Marais des Cygnes. The latter fight, which occurred near Kansas City by the river called Marais des Cygnes (French for the Swamp of the Swans), the Confederate forces, led by the elderly general Sterling “Pap” Price, were forced across the river and into Kansas. It was a decisive victory for Pleasonton, but it was overshadowed by the great victories achieved by Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan in the eastern theater. Pleasonton spent the remainder of the war in Missouri.10
After the war, there were far too many generals to remain on the army rolls with that rank. Men who had been general officers were now demoted in order to stay in the regular army. Pleasonton, who had no family except his siblings and their children, had hoped to stay with the army. He was one of the demoted, which rankled him after enjoying the rank of major-general. With Lincoln’s death, and later, with Grant in the White House, Pleasonton was not only ignored, he received the punishing rank of major, with its accompanying pay. While some may argue he had not been as dashing and victory laden as men like Sherman and Sheridan, he nevertheless had accomplished his duty, and felt he deserved more. Other generals had suffered the same fate, such as the sterling Gouverneur Warren, who had been dismissed from the army by Phil Sheridan for mistakenly believing Warren had not followed his orders days before Appomattox. Other generals who had not been decisively heroic, such as Oliver Howard, still received their general’s rank and corresponding pay.
Pleasonton worked for a time at the Office of Internal Revenue, then branched out to manage the Terre-Haute and Cincinnati Railroad. An inheritance from his sister helped him to make ends meet. He returned to the nation’s capital and rented an apartment there, where he spent the rest of his life.11
By the year 1890, Pleasonton practically lived the life of a hermit in his apartment at Gleason House on Eleventh Street. He began to suffer with ill health, which included a fistula on his ear. Only close friends and family were permitted to visit, though Pleasonton continued to be a “brilliant and entertaining conversationalist” to those who saw him. Soon he developed throat trouble, and required continuous care from a nurse. He hired Henrietta Roane, who remained near him until the end. He also employed a private secretary by the name of Murphy, who helped him with his correspondence.12
On the night of February 16, 1897, Alfred Pleasonton went to his bed, feeling severely ill with congestion that had worsened into pneumonia. He never awoke. The next morning, February 17, his nurse, Henrietta Roane, found him deceased in his bed.13
At Pleasonton’s request, there would be no military funeral. His namesake nephew from Philadelphia made the arrangements. Still, many old veterans attended the ceremony at St. John’s Episcopal Church to pay their respects to the old commander. They recognized him as “one of the most distinguished cavalry commanders of the late war.” He was buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C. – the city where he had been born over seventy years earlier.14
With no posterity to remember his deeds of bravery, little has been recorded of Alfred Pleasonton. A memorial to his leadership at Gettysburg, however, has been preserved. On the Pennsylvania State Memorial, which was dedicated on September 27, 1910, six Union generals are preserved in bronze. One of them is Alfred Pleasonton, who lived a portion of his life in the Keystone State while staying with his extended family. It is a fitting tribute to one who followed in the footsteps of the father who helped to preserve the Constitution of the United States – from one war to another.
Pleasonton Statue, The Pennsylvania Memorial
(Author photo)
Sources: American Civil War General Officers File, Ancestry.com. Coddington, Edwin B. The Gettysburg Campaign: A Study in Command. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1968. Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: The First Day. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. The National Tribune, Feb. 25, 1897. The Seattle Post Intelligencer, Feb. 18, 1897. The Washington Post, Feb. 19, 1897. Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge and London: the Louisiana State University Press, 1964. Historic newspapers accessed through newspapers.com.
End Notes:
1. The Washington Post, Feb. 19, 1897. The Seattle Post Intelligencer, Feb. 18, 1897.
2. Ibid. Augustus Pleasonton also served the Union in the war, as a general of militia. He is better known as an author of nine books. Born in 1808, he was significantly older than his younger brother, Alfred.
3. American General Officers File, Ancestry.com. Warner, p. 373.
4. Ibid.
5. Washington Post, Feb. 19, 1897. Coddington, p. 260. Warner, p. 373. Augustus, because of his duty with the militia, was often home in Philadelphia, or nearby.
6. Coddington, p. 44.
7. Pfanz, p. 5. Coddington, pp. 58, 63.
8. Coddington, p. 220.
9. Warner, p. 53. Pfanz, p. 59.
10. The Washington Post, Feb. 19, 1897.
11. The National Tribune, Feb. 25, 1897. The Seattle Post Intelligencer, Feb. 18, 1897.
12. The National Tribune, Feb. 25, 1897. The Washington Post, Feb. 19, 1897.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
