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Following are short entries on various
Union Alphas
George Bliss, A 1851.
Capt. H Co. 4th NY Vol. Arty. Bliss also raised the 20th,
26th and 31st Colored Volunteer Infantry Regts. After the
war he became a US District Atty. for the Southern District
of NY.
Samuel Abbott Green, A 1851.
24th Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry. Brother Green ended
the war as a Brevet-Lieutenant Colonel having started as the
regiment’s surgeon. A notable action for the 24th was the
siege of
Fort Wagner and Charleston Harbor, Morris
Island, July 18-September 7. Assault on Rifle Pits August
26. Capture of Forts Wagner and Gregg September 7.
Francis W. Winthrop Palfrey, A
1851. Brother Palfrey volunteered for the 20th Mass
as a Lt. Col. and was brevetted to Brigadier Gen. 1864. The
20th Mass know as the “Harvard Regt.” saw plenty of action;
was involved in several key battles such as
Antietam,
Fredericksburg and
Chancellorsville, not to mention
Gettysburg and
Appomattox Court House.
 Brother
Palfrey wrote a book called
The Antietam and Fredericksburg. A review states
“On September 17, 1862, the single bloodiest day of the
Civil War, the Army of the Potomac under Gen. George B.
McClellan clashed with Lee's invading Army of Northern
Virginia at Antietam Creek. General Francis W. Palfrey
(1831-1889), then lieutenant colonel of the 20th
Massachusetts and later a founding member of the Military
Historical Society of Massachusetts (along with another
Alpha Psi U Theodore Lyman), was severely wounded in the
savage struggle that forced the Confederates to retreat
across the Potomac. The Union victory, though costly and
indecisive, was enough for Lincoln to issue the Emancipation
Proclamation. But less than three months later, the Battle
of Fredericksburg (where droves of Union soldiers were
slaughtered in Gen. Ambrose Burnside's vain, reckless
attempt to storm the impregnable Confederate positions on
Marye's Heights) ended the year with a resounding, grisly
defeat. The Antietam and Fredericksburg (1882), part
of the landmark Campaigns of the Civil War series, is
invaluable for Palfrey's unique eyewitness perspective; his
unsparing, provocative appraisals of Generals McClellan,
Burnside, Hooker, and others; his careful, detailed
description of the Antietam terrain (vastly altered over
time); and his incisive analyses of the folly and fighting
that determined two of the most pivotal, murderous battles
of the Civil War. ”
Alfred Moore Rhett, A 1851. Was
a South Carolina planter before the war and was the Colonel
of the 1st South Carolina Arty. and Commander of
Fort Sumter. He commanded Ft. Sumter when a Union Naval
attack under Admiral du Pont was repulsed. A poem by W.
Gilmore Simms praised his bravery on April 7, 1863 at Ft
Wagner that was attacked by a Psi U from his pledge class at
Harvard, Samuel Abbott Green.
Josiah Collins, A 1852. Brother
Collins received both an AB and AM in Law from Harvard and
became a lawyer in Hillsborough, NC. He ended the war as a
1st Lt. in the 10th Battalion, North Carolina Heavy
Artillery
Calvin Gates Page, A 1852.
Brother Gates received three degrees at Harvard and enlisted
as a Surgeon in the 39th Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry,
he died shortly after the war in 1869.
39th Regiment, Massachusetts
Infantry
SERVICE - Duty in the Battles of the
Wilderness,
Cold Harbor,
Mine Explosion, Petersburg, July 30, 1864 (Reserve). Pursuit
of Lee April 3-9. Appomattox.
Charles E. Stedman, A 1852. Also
received three degrees at Harvard and enlisted as a Surgeon
in the US Navy 1861-65. No records of the ships or bases he
served on have been found.
Robert Ware, A 1852. Received
two degrees at Harvard and enlisted as a Surgeon. From
1861-65 he was a surgeon with the 44th Mass. Militia Regt.
Brother Ware died of typhoid pneumonia in 1863.
William Fiske Wheeler, A 1852. A
Charter Member of the Alpha joined the army as a 1st Lt. in
the 51st Regiment, Massachusetts Infantry (Militia).
Horatio Hancock Fiske Whittemore, A
1852. Received two degrees at Harvard and enlisted as a
Surgeon. From 1861-65 he was post surgeon at several forts
in Massachusetts.
Charles Dexter Gambrill A 1853,
“died by his own hand from overwork and temporary insanity.”
He was an architect and did not serve but the entry caught
my eye. This entry just caught my eye for being so macabre.
Benjamin Joy Jeffries, A 1853.
Brother Gates received three degrees at Harvard, taught at
the Med school and enlisted as a Surgeon US Army 1861-65
after enlisting in the Boston Cadets, Massachusetts Infantry
(Militia). Brother Jeffries went on to become a noted eye
surgeon.
Robert Henry Renshaw, A 1853.
Was a Capt., and A.Q.M in the Lee’s Army of N. Virginia.
Henry Van Brunt, A 1853. Served
in the Navy through February 1864. Served on the Staff of
Rear Admirals Lee and
Goldsborough (check into these two). Brother Van Brunt
went on to be a noted architect and designed the Memorial
Hall at Harvard. |
