Tag: women doctors

Wife of Union General Benjamin Franklin Butler Sarah Jones Hildreth was born on August 17, 1816, in Dracut, Massachusetts, the daughter of Dolly Jones and Dr. Israel Hildreth. Having shown considerable talent in dramatics, she was sent to Boston at the age of sixteen for formal training, after which she acted onstage to great acclaim in Boston, New York, Charleston, South Carolina and Cincinnati, Ohio. Benjamin Franklin Butler was born on November 5, 1818, in Deerfield, New Hampshire, the son of Captain John Butler, who served under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812 (during the Battle of New Orleans). After the death of his father in 1828, Benjamin moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, with his mother, Charlotte (Ellison) Butler, where…

Wife of Union General Daniel Sickles Born in New York City in 1836, Teresa Da Ponte Bagioli was the daughter of the wealthy and well-known Italian singing teacher Antonio Bagioli and his wife, Maria Cooke. During her youth, Teresa sometimes lived and studied in the household of her grandfather, Lorenzo Da Ponte, the noted music teacher who had worked as Mozart’s librettist on such masterpieces as The Marriage of Figaro. An exceptionally bright child, Teresa spoke five languages by the time she was a young adult. Daniel Edgar Sickles was born October 20, 1819, in New York City to Susan Marsh Sickles and George Garrett Sickles, a patent lawyer and politician. (Sickles’ year of birth is sometimes given as 1825….

Wife of General John Buford Martha (Pattie) McDowell Duke was born June 25,1830, in Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky, to James and Mary Duke. She was the first cousin of the famed Confederate raider, CSA General Basil Duke, with whom she was raised, and a second cousin of USA General Irvin McDowell. Martha was also the granddaughter of the youngest sister of Chief Justice John Marshall. This means she was closely related to Thomas Jefferson and all the Virginia Randolphs. Her maternal grandfather was Colonel Abraham Buford, a Revolutionary War hero. Image: General John Buford John Buford, Jr. was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, March 4, 1826, the first child of his father’s second marriage to Anne Bannister. John’s family had…

Wife of Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston Eliza Griffin Johnston, the second wife of General Albert Sidney Johnston, was educated at a prestigious school in Philadelphia. In addition to learning social graces, she became an accomplished artist and musician. As a wife and mother Mrs. Johnston painted watercolors of birds and flowers in her free time. Eliza Griffin was born in Fair Oaks, Virginia, on December 26, 1821, to a well-to-do family. She was the youngest child and the only daughter of John and Mary (Hancock) Griffin. Eliza’s parents died when she was four years old, and she was raised by her grandmother, Margaret Strother Hancock. After her grandmother’s death in 1830, she moved to Kentucky to live with her…

Wife of Union General Oliver Otis Howard Oliver Otis Howard met Elizabeth Ann Waite, daughter of Alexander B. Waite of Portland, Maine, in the summer of 1846. Engrossed with his schoolwork, he was taken by the beauty of the young girl, and fell madly in love with her. She would be his only sweetheart. Image: General Oliver O. Howard Oliver Otis Howard was born November 8, 1830, in Leeds, Maine. His father, Rowland Bailey Howard, died when Oliver was 9 years old. After studying at some local schools, Oliver entered Bowdoin College in 1846. When he fell in love with Elizabeth Waite he was sixteen; she was fifteen. He even quit cigar smoking for her. (He would be unable to…

Wife of Union General George Gordon Meade In letters home to Margaretta Meade during the Civil War, General George Meade commented frankly on every facet of the war. Two days after the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863, he wrote: “The army are in the highest spirits, and of course I am a great man. The most difficult part of my work is acting without correct information on which to predicate action.” Early Years Margaretta Sergeant, born June 26, 1815, was the daughter of Margaretta Watmough Sergeant and the Honorable John Sergeant, Henry Clay’s running mate in the 1832 presidential election.George Gordon Meade was born on December 31, 1815, in Cadiz, Spain, where his father, Richard Worsam Meade, was serving…

Wife of Union General Don Carlos Buell Don Carlos Buell, named for an uncle, was born on March 23, 1818, near Marietta, Ohio. He was the first son of Salmon D. Buell and Eliza Buell, born on the farm of his grandfather, Judge Salmon Buell. He was named after his uncle, Don Carlos Buell, who was a lawyer in Ithaca, New York. His father died in 1825, and Buell grew up with his uncle in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where he attended public schools, and proved himself a fair student. In 1837, Buell received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, and graduated in 1841, ranking 32 in a class of 52 graduates. Buell served in the military,…

Wife of Union General Philip Sheridan While a bridesmaid at a wedding in Chicago in 1874, Irene Rucker met General Philip Sheridan, who made his headquarters there. For the next few months, he courted her steadily, and contemporaries recalled the hero of the Civil War and “Miss Rucker riding down Wabash avenue in an open carriage.” Irene Sheridan was the daughter of Brigadier General Daniel H. Rucker, Quartermaster General of the US Army, and she spent all her life connected to the military. General Rucker’s first wife, Flora McDonald Coodey, was the daughter of Joseph Coodey, a half-blood Cherokee, and granddaughter of Jane Ross, a sister of the celebrated Cherokee Chief John Ross. Joseph Coodey was a well to do…

Wife of Union General Winfield Scott Hancock While stationed in southern California just prior to the Civil War, Almira and her husband, future Union General Winfield Scott Hancock, threw a party for the many friends they had made there. Almira Hancock later stated that six of the future Confederates who attended that party were killed by Hancock’s troops at the Battle of Gettysburg. Childhood and Early Years Almira (Allie) Russell was the daughter of a prominent merchant in St. Louis, Missouri, where Winfield Scott Hancock was stationed after the Mexican-American War. West Point classmate Don Carlos Buell introduced Hancock to Almira, and after a short courtship, they were married in 1850 and had two children. A career soldier, Major General…