Background
James was born on July 29, 1817 in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Mellum and Margaret (Blair) Steedman.
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James was born on July 29, 1817 in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States, the son of Mellum and Margaret (Blair) Steedman.
He was left an orphan in childhood, and his education was limited to a few months in the district school. He learned the printer's trade.
He worked in newspaper offices in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, and Louisville, Kentucky. Later he served for a time in the Texan army and finally settled in Ohio. There he took an active part in politics; he was elected in 1847 to the state legislature, where he served two terms, and was frequently a delegate at party conventions. In the gold rush of 1849 he went to California but returned the next year to Toledo, where he made his permanent home, and resumed newspaper work. He was appointed public printer in 1857 during Buchanan's administration.
He entered the military service, April 27, 1861, as colonel of the 14th Ohio Infantry, which he raised in Toledo; he was mustered out, August 13, 1861, and again mustered in, September 1, 1861.
On March 1, 1862, Lincoln nominated him to be brigadier-general of volunteers, but objection to his confirmation was made in the Senate on account of an editorial in his newspaper, the Toledo Times, which presented arguments in favor of the right of secession. Though these arguments were published only that they might be refuted in a later issue, the incident caused a long delay in Steedman's confirmation, and it did not take place until July 17, 1862.
He commanded a brigade first in the (old) Army of the Ohio, and then in the Army of the Cumberland (Perryville and Murfreesboro), and finally a division in the latter (Tullahoma campaign). His greatest distinction was earned in the battle of Chickamauga, where he commanded a division of Granger's corps which came to the rescue of George Henry Thomas, standing as the "rock of Chickamauga" when all the rest of the army had been swept away.
In twenty minutes Steedman's division lost a fifth of its strength. Though his horse was shot under him and he was severely bruised, he retained command and himself headed the attack, carrying the colors of one of his regiments.
One moment he gave to personal concerns, when he directed a staff officer to see that the newspaper obituaries spelled his name Steedman and not Steadman, a form he hated. He was appointed major-general of volunteers, April 20, 1864. At the battle of Nashville he commanded a "detachment" of troops from various sources, the equivalent of a division.
Resigning from the army, August 18, 1866, he was collector of internal revenue at New Orleans, Louisiana, until 1869, when he returned to Toledo. He edited the Northern Ohio Democrat, served in the state Senate, was chief of police of the city, and was otherwise active in public affairs up to the time of his death in 1883.
A printer by trade, and then President of Public Works in Ohio, James Blair Steedman raised a ninety-day regiment that saw action in the early fighting at Philippi, Western Virginia (June 1861). Posted to the Western theatre, Steedman was credited with saving a whole division from being routed at the Battle of Perryville. At the desperate Battle of Chickamauga, he lent valuable support to General George Thomas, and his courageous acts were praised as the salvation of the remaining Union forces after their defeat. He reunited with Thomas at Nashville (December 1864), taking heavy losses at first, but playing a big part in the dramatic victory that ended the war in the west.
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A strong Douglas Democrat, he was a delegate at the Charleston and Baltimore conventions in 1860, and an unsuccessful candidate for Congress that year.
A man of great size and strength, he was aggressive, determined, fearless of responsibility, at his best in great emergencies.
Quotes from others about the person
Military historian Ezra J. Warner stated that "His heroism was virtually the salvation of the Union forces left on the field" at Chickamauga.
He was married three times: first, in 1838 at Napoleon, Ohio, to Miranda Stiles, recently of New Jersey; second, to Rose Barr; and third, September 16, 1878, at Monroe, Michigan, to Margaret, daughter of John Gildea.
