Background
Charles Griffin was born on December 18, 1825 in Granville, Ohio, the son of Apollos Griffin.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
https://www.amazon.com/Calumniously-Committed-Stoneleigh-Advertiser-Corrections/dp/B009REGWWA?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B009REGWWA
Charles Griffin was born on December 18, 1825 in Granville, Ohio, the son of Apollos Griffin.
He entered West Point in 1843, graduated in 1847.
Griffin was commissioned in the artillery. Sent at once to Mexico, he commanded a company under Gen. Patterson on his march from Vera Cruz to Puebla, but the campaign was already nearly over. He was promoted to first lieutenant in 1849, and served mostly on the frontier until 1860, when he was ordered to West Point as an instructor in tactics. His stay there was short, for in January 1861 he was directed to organize a light battery with personnel transferred from the detachments of enlisted men on duty at the academy, and it was immediately moved to Washington.
Known at first merely as “the West Point battery, ” it became Battery D of the 5th Artillery when that regiment was organized, and as such took part in the battle of Bull Run, where Griffin, who had been promoted to a captaincy in April, commanded it. It was heavily engaged, and at last was almost annihilated by a volley at short range from a Confederate regiment which had been allowed to approach, against Griffin’s protest, on the assurance of the chief of artillery that it was a body of Union troops. “It seemed as though every man and horse of that battery just laid right down and died right off, ” said a witness. Of its six guns only one was brought away. Until the next spring it remained at Washington.
He commanded his battery in the early part of the Peninsular campaign, and then, having been appointed brigadier-general of volunteers, June 9, 1862, was assigned to the command of a brigade of the V Corps, which he held through the remainder of the Peninsular campaign and at the battle of Antietam. At the second battle of Bull Run, his brigade was not engaged, though near at hand, and, as Pope reported, “Griffin himself spent the day in making ill-natured strictures upon the general commanding the action in the presence of a promiscuous assemblage”.
He was relieved from command, pending investigation, but soon restored - not “tried and acquitted, ” as is often said - and was shortly advanced to the command of a division, with which he fought at Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville. He was absent on account of sickness during most of the Gettysburg campaign, but arrived on the field on the last day of the battle. With his division he went through the whole Virginia campaign of 1864, and on April 1, 1865, the day of Five Forks, was put in command of the V Corps.
His commission as major-general of volunteers was dated the next day. He was one of the commissioners appointed to carry out the terms of Lee’s surrender. Mustered out of the volunteer service, January 15, 1866, he was appointed colonel of the 35th Infantry, July 28, 1866, and spent the short remainder of his life in charge of the military district of Texas, where he showed great zeal and vigor in carrying out the accepted policy of reconstruction. When yellow fever broke out in Galveston, he refused to leave the place, soon caught the disease, and died there.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
He was an ardent supporter of the Congressional policies of the Radical Republicans and of freedmen's rights, and controversially disqualified a number of antebellum state officeholders in Texas, replacing them with loyal Unionists.
Arrogant, self-confident, often perilously near to insubordinate, Griffin’s was not an attractive personality on the surface. “Quick to resent insult, fancied or real, ” says a friendly writer, “ his nature was bellicose”.
The picture of a brigade commander on the battlefield loudly demanding “what Pope had ever done that he should be made a major-general” is not a pleasing one. Morris Schaff tells of an occasion when Griffin “blurted out something mutinous” that was overheard by Grant. The latter asked Meade who the offender was, adding, “You ought to arrest him”; to which Meade “soothingly” replied, “It’s Griffin, and its only his way of talking”. It is usually safe to presume the incompetency of a commander of this type, but Griffin was an exception.
If he talked loudly, he also fought well. That he was an able leader of troops is proved by his steady progress upward, commanding a battery, a brigade, a division, and finally a corps, making good in each position before advancement to the next. He was popular, too, with his officers and men; it is to be supposed that he was more considerate of his subordinates than of his superiors. Finally, he was stern in his sense of duty, and the manner of his death was heroic.
Griffin was married on December 10, 1861 to Sallie Carroll, daughter of William T. Carroll of Maryland.