Notes & Queries

Notes & Queries EDITED BY BOYD B. STUTLER 517 Main Street Charleston, West Virginia an open forum for readers of Civil War History for questions on phases of the Great Conflict, and for illuminating notes on newly discovered and unrecorded sidelights of the war. Contributions are invited; address Notes and Queries Editor. NOTE Stonewall Jackson's Arm: At a meeting of the Civil War Round Table of New York some one asked what disposition, if known, was made of Stonewall Jackson's arm after amputation. No one had the answer, but now it is supplied by Dr. Roy Bird Cook, Charleston, West Virginia, author of Family and Early Life of Stonewall Jackson, ( three editions ) . Lieutenant General Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson was wounded by his own men in the evening of May 2, 1863, after leading the 2nd Corps, CSA, around Hooker's right flank at Chancellorsville, routing the right wing of the Federal army. He was removed to the Corps Field Hospital at Wilderness Tavern, where his wounds were dressed and his left arm amputated and on May 4, at General Lee's insistence, he was moved 27 miles to the Chanler home at Guiney Station, near Fredericksburg, where he died on May 10. The arm was buried in the old Ellwood burying ground, on a farm then owned by Leo T. Jones, near the site of the Corps Field Hospital. A marker was set up at the place of burial several years ago bearing the inscription: "Arm of Stonewall Jackson. May 3, 1863." QUERIES 4. Custer's Commission: I have read a statement that the commission as Brigadier or Major General issued to George H. Custer was sent him through an administrative error; that the officer intended for promotion was an entirely 181 182 different person. I can not remember the source of the statement, and can find no reference to such an error in the works about Custer which I have examined. Query: What is the source of the statement, and can such a charge be substantiated? Dr. Richard Reece Boone 5.Lincoln at Cooper Union: In her Life of Abraham Lincoln, vol. 2, p. 327 (Sangamon Edition, vol. 2, p. 157), Ida Tarbell says of Lincoln's preparation for his speech at Cooper Union, New York, on February 27, 1860: "In order that he might be sure that he was heard he arranged with his friend, Mason Brayman, who had come to New York with him, to sit in the back of the hall and in case he did not speak loud enough to raise his high hat on a cane." Query: What was Miss Tarbell's source or authority for this story? Carl Haverlin 6.Jeb Stuart's Death: In Lee's Lieutenants, (vol. 3, pp. 424 et seq.), Douglas S. Freeman presents a circumstantial and documented account of the wounding and death of General J. E. B. Stuart. In this account it is said that Stuart's death occurred a good many hours after he was shot; other historians agree that he was killed well-nigh instantly. Query: Approximately what period of time elapsed between the wounding and death of General Stuart? 7.Texas Cavalry Captain: Captain John Jacob Gragard, later of New Orleans, commanded a troop of Texas cavalry during the Civil War, believed to have been a unit of the 1st Texas Cavalry or 1st Texas Lancer Regiment (21st Cavalry ). Query: Can any one identify his command, or tell of his capture and imprisonment? John L. Sehon 8.Abram Lincoln, U.S. Army: Cadet Abram Lincoln was graduated from West Point Military Academy with the class of 1846, a classmate of Stonewall Jackson, but dropped from sight after a few years in the army. Query: What was his subsequent history; did he serve in the Civil War under Commanderin -Chief Abraham Lincoln? Roy Bird Cook ...