William B. Franklin

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William Buel Franklin
XIX Corps
Battles / wars

William Buel Franklin (February 27, 1823 – March 8, 1903) was a career

Eastern Theater of the Civil War
. He also distinguished himself as a civil engineer before and after the war.

Early life and military career

William B. Franklin was born in York, Pennsylvania, to Walter S. Franklin and Sarah Buel. His father was Clerk of the United States House of Representatives from 1833 until 1838. One of his great-grandfathers, Samuel Rhoads, was a member of the First Continental Congress from Pennsylvania.

Hughes, Sitgreaves, and Franklin's Map Showing the Line of March of the Centre Division, Army of Mexico, under the Command of Brigr. Genl. John E. Wool, from San Antonio de Bexar, Texas, to Saltillo, Mexico, 1846-1850

Future

first lieutenant after the Battle of Buena Vista.[2]

Upon his return from Mexico, Franklin was assigned various civil engineering duties in the War Department in Washington, D.C. In 1857, he received promotion to captain and was named the Army Engineer Secretary of the Light House Board with the task to oversee the construction of several lighthouses along the Atlantic Coast in New Hampshire and Maine.[3] In November 1859, he replaced Montgomery C. Meigs as the engineer supervising construction of the United States Capitol Dome. In March 1861, just before the outbreak of the Civil War, he was appointed as the supervising architect for the new Treasury Building in Washington.

In 1852, Franklin married Anna L. Clarke, a daughter of Matthew St. Clair Clarke who had preceded his father as Clerk of the House of Representatives. The Franklins had no children.

Civil War

Soon after the beginning of the Civil War, Franklin was appointed

12th U.S. Infantry Regiment, but three days later, on May 17, 1861, he was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers.[4]

Eastern Theater

Franklin became colonel of the 12th US Infantry on June 18, 1861. He commanded a brigade at

Northern Virginia Campaign
.

In the

Maryland Campaign, he saw action against Gen. Howell Cobb at the Crampton's Gap during the Battle of South Mountain. He cleared off the Crampton's Gap but did not advance further in order to strike the rear of the Stonewall Jackson's troops that were laying siege to Harpers Ferry, which contributed to the factors causing the largest surrender of Federal forces during the Civil War that happened at the Battle of Harpers Ferry
.

During the

Edwin V. Sumner to allow his corps to exploit a weak point in the Confederate center, but Sumner, who outranked him, refused.[5]

William B. Franklin in 1861, by Alfred Waud

Franklin was a staunch ally of Major General

Ambrose E. Burnside blamed Franklin personally for this failure, although he appears to have executed his orders exactly.[9] Others who were there would disagree that Franklin executed his orders exactly. "Had the left grand division vigorously performed its part in the earlier movement, can any one doubt the result? I cannot think so. Had Meade, Reynolds, or Hancock been in command on the left that day, I feel confident that Fredericksburg would have been recorded a glorious victory instead of a horrible slaughter."[10]

As political intrigue swept the Union Army after the Battle of Fredericksburg and the infamous

Granville Haller
in developing plans for the defense of the region against an expected enemy attack.

Trans-Mississippi Theater

Eventually, Franklin was reassigned to the Department of the Gulf in New Orleans under Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks. In September 1863, he tried to capture Sabine Pass during the Second Battle of Sabine Pass. The operation ended abruptly after the combined Union Army and Navy invasion force of four gunboats and seven troop transports under Franklin's command lost two warships.[11]

In March–May 1864, Franklin participated in the ill-fated

Red River Campaign under Banks to occupy eastern Texas as commander of XIX Corps. On 8 April 1864, he was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Mansfield in Louisiana but stayed with the troops. After the Battle of Pleasant Hill he was replaced by Maj. Gen. William H. Emory as his condition grew steadily worse. In July 1864, being on medical leave, he was captured by Maj. Harry Gilmor's Confederate partisans in a train near Washington, D.C., but escaped the following day. The remainder of his army career was limited by disability from his wound and marred by his series of political and command misfortunes. He was unable to serve in any more senior commands, even with the assistance of his West Point classmate, friend, and future president, Ulysses S. Grant
.

Postbellum

Following the Civil War, General Franklin relocated to Hartford, Connecticut, and became the vice-president of the Colt Firearms Manufacturing Company[2] serving in that capacity until 1888, as well as serving on the boards of several other manufacturing companies, including being a vice president of a Hartford area insurance company. Between 1872 and 1880, he supervised the construction of the Connecticut State Capitol, and served on other commissions, where his engineering experience proved helpful for the public. He contributed to expanding Hartford's public water service, among other engineering achievements. For two years he also served as adjutant general of the Connecticut state militia.

In 1872, Franklin was approached by a Pennsylvania and New Jersey faction of the Democratic Party to run against Horace Greeley for the party's nomination as President of the United States, a task he declined, citing a need for party unity. He was a delegate to the 1876 Democratic National Convention. During the 1876 presidential election, he served as elector for Samuel J. Tilden. In June 1888, after his retirement from Colt Firearms, he was named as the U.S. Commissioner-General for the Paris Exposition of 1889, when he was made a grand officer of the Legion of Honour. Between 1880 and 1899, he was president of the Board of Managers of the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers.[2]

William Franklin died in Hartford, Connecticut, on March 8, 1903, of complications of senility and was buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery (York, Pennsylvania). He was one of a relatively few general officers in the Civil War to live into the 20th century.

Recognition

In 1861, Franklin was elected a Hereditary Member of the Pennsylvania

Society of Colonial Wars. The York County History Center [12]
in York, Pennsylvania, preserves many of his papers and personal effects from the Civil War.

See also

References

  1. ^ Franklin, William B. March to South Pass: Lieutenant William B. Franklin's Journal of the Kearny Expedition of 1845.
  2. ^ a b c Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Franklin, William Buel" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 33.
  3. ^ William B. Franklin, United States Lighthouse Society
  4. ^ Snell, Mark A. (2002). From First to Last: the Life of Major General William B. Franklin. New York: Fordham University Press.
  5. ^ McPherson, James (1981). Ordeal by Fire: The Civil War and Reconstruction. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 285.
  6. ^ "From Gen. Burnside's Army. Important General Orders. The Army Divided into Three Grand Divisions. The Right Commanded by Gen. Sumner, the Left by Gen. Franklin, and the Centre by Gen. Hooker. A Reserve Division Commanded by Gen. Sigel". The New York Times. November 16, 1862.
  7. ^ Greene, Jacob L. (1900). Gen. William B. Franklin and the Operations of the Left Wing at the Battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862. Hartford, CT: Belknap and Warfield.
  8. doi:10.1086/ahr/97.4.1285
    .
  9. ^ Warner, Ezra J. (1964). Generals in Blue: Lives of the Union Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press. p. 452.
  10. ^ Hitchcock, Frederick L. (1904). War from the Inside. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott. p. 135.
  11. ^ Battle Summary: Sabine Pass II, National Park Service
  12. ^ General William Buel Franklin Collection Archived 2016-04-18 at the Wayback Machine, York County Heritage Trust

Further reading

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Buel Franklin.
Military offices
Preceded by
none
 Commander of the
VI Corps

May 18, 1862 – November 16, 1862 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Connecticut Adjutant General
1877–1878 		Succeeded by
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