Category: Generals Wives

Agnes Maxwell Kearny: Wife of the One-Armed Devil Agnes Maxwell Kearny Agnes Maxwell was born sometime in 1833, daughter of the customs collector for the port of New York City. Her affair with Philip Kearny, who was nearly twice her age, caused quite a scandal in both Paris and New York City. Agnes broke all societal customs by living with Kearny several years before they were married. Philip Kearny (pronounced CAR-nee) was born June 1, 1815 in New York City, the only child of a wealthy couple, Philip and Susan Watts Kearny. Young Philip lived a privileged childhood, but it was touched by tragedy with the untimely death of his beloved mother when he was eight years old. When his…

Wife of Union General Edwin Vose Sumner Early Years and Marriage Hannah Wickersham Forster was born January 31, 1804 in Erie, Pennsylvania. Edwin Vose Sumner was born in Boston, Massachusetts January 30, 1797 and entered the United States army as a career soldier in 1819. He fought in the Black Hawk War (1832) and various campaigns against Native Americans, and with distinction in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848). General Edwin Vose Sumner and His Civil War Staff Sumner and his son Brigadier General Edwin V. Sumner Jr. are knee-to-knee in the center of this colorized image. Seventeen-year-old Hannah Wickersham Forster, daughter of an army officer, married Edwin Vose Sumner March 31, 1832 in Sackets Harbor, New York. The couple had six…

Wife of Confederate General John C. Pemberton Martha Thompson was born May 17, 1827 in Norfolk, Virginia. Little is known about her life except through her husband’s activities. She likely moved with John to many posts during his career in the United States Army in the East and the West, especially in the 1850s. John Clifford Pemberton was born August 10, 1814 to Quaker parents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. As a teenager, John decided that he wanted and college education and began preparing for the entrance exam at the University of Pennsylvania. While at UP, Pemberton decided to study engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Using his family’s connection to President Andrew Jackson to secure an appointment.,…

Wife of Confederate General Robert Toombs Early Years Julia Ann Dubose was born May 15, 1813, in Lincoln County, Georgia. Her husband, Robert Toombs was born near Washington, Georgia, and the couple made their home in a stately mansion there for the rest of their lives. Robert was the first Secretary of State for the Confederate States of America and fought for the South as a general in the Civil War. Robert Toombs entered Franklin College at the University of Georgia in Athens when he was fourteen years old; he was expelled for bad behavior in 1827. He then enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he graduated in 1828 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. The following…

Bride-To-Be of Stonewall Jackson of the West Susan Tarleton was born January 6, 1840 in Talladega County, Alabama. She was the daughter of a cotton farmer in Mobile, Alabama. She attended Barton Academy there and was accomplished in music and literature. Best Man and Best Woman Confederate General Patrick Cleburne served as Best Man at the wedding of his friend General William Hardee in Demopolis, Alabama on January 13, 1864. Susan Tarleton, the 24-year-old daughter of an Alabama planter, was the Maid of Honor for Hardee’s bride, Mary Foreman Lewis. There Cleburne met Susan and immediately fell in love with her. He received permission to visit her the following day, and then the two traveled with the wedding party to…

Wife of Confederate General Sterling Price During the Civil War, Martha Head Price left Missouri and settled in Washington, Texas. In the spring of 1866, she joined her husband in Mexico, and returned with him to Missouri the following year. Early Years Born May 2, 1810 in Orange County, Virginia, Martha Head was the daughter of Judge Walter Head, a wealthy planter who emigrated to Missouri in 1830 from Orange County, Virginia. Sterling Price was born on September 11, 1809, in Prince Edward County, Virginia, into a wealthy planting family. He received his education at Hampden-Sidney College. At the age of 22 went to Missouri with his father in 1831, first settling in Fayette, where Sterling worked in the tobacco…

Wife of Union General Alexander Hays Annie Hays suffered the long separations from her husband that all wives of Civil War generals endured. However, letters from the front inspired these women to continue raising children, caring for homes, running farms, and operating businesses. Unfortunately, Annie’s husband never made it home. He was killed at the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864. Image: Into the Wilderness by Keith Rocco Annie Adams Farrelly was born March 15, 1826 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Two months earlier, her father, U. S. Representative Patrick Farrelly, died while en route to Washington to attend Congress. In 1835 her mother married John Birch McFadden, a Market Street jeweler in Pittsburgh. Alexander Hays was born July 8,…