A Young General and the Fall of Richmond: The Life and Career of Godfrey Weitzel

A Young General and the Fall of Richmond: The Life and Career of Godfrey Weitzel

by G. William Quatman
A Young General and the Fall of Richmond: The Life and Career of Godfrey Weitzel

A Young General and the Fall of Richmond: The Life and Career of Godfrey Weitzel

by G. William Quatman

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Overview

A History Book Club Reading Selection

Despite his military achievements and his association with many of the great names of American history, Godfrey Weitzel (1835-1884) is perhaps the least known of all the Union generals. After graduating from West Point, Weitzel, a German immigrant from Cincinnati, was assigned to the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans. The secession of Louisiana in 1861, with its key port city of New Orleans, was the first of a long and unlikely series of events that propelled the young Weitzel to the center of many of the Civil War's key battles and brought him into the orbit of such well-known personages as Lee, Beauregard, Butler, Farragut, Porter, Grant, and Lincoln. Weitzel quickly rose through the ranks and was promoted to brigadier general and, eventually to commander of Twenty-Fifth Corps, the Union Army's only all-black unit. After fighting in numerous campaigns in Louisiana and Virginia, on April 3, 1865, Weitzel marched his troops into Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy, capturing the city for the Union and precipitating the eventual collapse of the Southern states' rebellion.

G. William Quatman's minute-by-minute narrative of the fall of Richmond lends new insight into the war's end, and his keen research into archival sources adds depth and nuance to the events and the personalities that shaped the course of the Civil War.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780821421420
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Publication date: 02/13/2015
Pages: 368
Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

G. William Quatman is an architect and attorney in Kansas City, Missouri, and the author of several books and articles on the legal aspects of design and construction. This is his first historical biography.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Prologue xiii

Acknowledgments xix

1 Over-the-Rhine 1

2 Welcome to West Point 7

3 No Longer a Plebe 21

4 Early Career in New Orleans 30

5 Lincoln's Inauguration and War Begins 44

6 From Cincinnati to New Orleans 53

7 The Capture of New Orleans 62

8 Occupation of the Crescent City 71

9 The Lafourche Campaign 84

10 Fighting in the Bayous 99

11 Commanding Black Troops 116

12 Destroying the J. A. Cotton 125

13 Battle of Port Hudson 136

14 Thibodeaux and the Sabine Pass 152

15 Reunited: Drewry's Bluff and the Spring Campaign of 1864 166

16 Fort Fisher and Ben Butler's Powder Boat 183

17 Christmas Day 1864: Attack on Fort Fisher 196

18 The Trial of Benjamin F. Butler 209

19 Final Days of War 218

20 The Fall of the Confederacy 232

21 Entry into Richmond 242

22 Lincoln in Richmond 252

23 Political Troubles 265

24 Good Friday-Black Friday 278

25 Postwar Life of the Young General 285

Notes 297

Glossary 327

Bibliography 329

Index 333

About the Author 337

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