Union General Judson Kilpatrick
Hugh Judson Kilpatrick was born January 14, 1836, on the family farm near Deckertown, New Jersey. He was the fourth child of Colonel Simon Kilpatrick and Julia Wickham. Like many rural children of the era, Kilpatrick quit school after the primary grades.
In 1856, it took him a while but he managed to gain admittance to the United States Military Academy at
West Point, where he dropped his first name. Graduating
17th in a class of 45 cadets in May 1861, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Artillery.
Major General Judson Kilpatrick
Kilpatrick in the Civil War
Ardently pro-Union and antislavery, Kilpatrick realized that the quickest road to promotion was with the volunteers, and rushed into service as captain of the flashy 5th New York volunteer regiment. It took just one month for his name to appear in the headlines - at Big Bethel on June 10, 1861, he was hit in the buttock by a grapeshot. He was praised in Northern newspapers, and was touted as the
first Union officer to be wounded in the war.
Physically, Kilpatrick was a candidate for least heroic-looking of any general in the army.
Only twenty-seven years old, a fellow officer described him as "A wiry, restless, undersized man with black eyes [and] a lantern jaw." He sported huge, stringy sand-colored sideburns, had bandy legs that gave him a rolling gait, and spoke in a shrill voice. He constantly attempted to advance himself by aggressiveness and bluster.
On September 25, 1861, Kilpatrick was commissioned a lieutenant colonel in the
2nd New York Cavalry, which he helped to raise. For the next several months, while the war was largely inactive in the East, he served as a staff officer and took part in cavalry skirmishing in Northern Virginia.
When the Second Bull Run Campaign began in August 1862, Kilpatrick seized all opportunities for self-promotion. He made a successful raid on a Confederate railroad early in the campaign. When the climactic battle began at Bull Run, he ordered a cavalry charge in the twilight at the end of the first day's fighting which succeeded only in annihilating a squadron under his command.
Kilpatrick was
aggressive, fearless, ambitious, and blustery. In his mid-twenties, he was a master of using political influence to get ahead. His men had little love for him and his willingness to exhaust men and horses and to order suicidal mounted cavalry charges. Yet he received the attention he wanted, and was promoted to colonel of the 2nd New York in December 1862.
In February 1863, General Joseph Hooker created a
Cavalry Corps in the Army of the Potomac, commanded by General George Stoneman. Kilpatrick assumed command of the First Brigade, Second Division.
In the
Chancellorsville campaign in the spring of 1863, Kilpatrick led a successful raid into the rear of
General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. Although the expedition failed in its goal of throwing Lee into a retreat toward Richmond,
Kilpatrick achieved fame by aggressively capturing wagons, burning bridges, and riding around Lee, almost to the outskirts of Richmond, Virginia.
When Stoneman was relieved after Chancellorsville, Hooker named General Alfred Pleasonton as his temporary replacement. The new cavalry commander was looking for a fighter to lead the new cavalry division he had stolen from Hungarian commander, Major General Julius Stahel, and he chose Kilpatrick.
At this moment of triumph for Kilpatrick, there were many misgivings and unanswered questions about him. First was his
reckless disregard for the lives of soldiers under his command. He had shown a tendency to take off on wild goose chases without a thought to the waste of horseflesh such adventures involved, and to order reckless charges which slaughtered his troopers, as he had at Second Bull Run - these traits would earn Kilpatrick the nickname
Kill Cavalry among his men.
Further, there were questions about his honesty: he had lain in jail for weeks in 1862 under suspicion that he had sold confiscated Confederate livestock and provisions for personal gain. He had been jailed again for defaming government officials while on a drunken spree in Washington. He had even been implicated in a graft scheme whereby certain horse brokers paid him off in order to get contracts to sell horses to his brigade.
As if all this weren't enough, he was a known
devotee of prostitutes, though he was married and his wife was with child. He drank hard liquor while at the same time professing temperance. His official reports of battle were notoriously fictionalized, with exaggerated accounts of heroic behavior and enemy casualties.
And yet against all this, Kilpatrick showed a fearlessness and
a positive love of fighting that the Army of the Potomac badly needed in its officers. He showed "a great impatience and eagerness for orders," a trait which endeared him to superiors.
Kilpatrick at Gettysburg
At the beginning of the Gettysburg Campaign, on June 9, 1863, Kilpatrick had fought at Brandy Station, the largest cavalry battle of the war. He was promoted to
brigadier general on June 13. He fought at Aldie and Upperville, and
assumed division command three days before the Battle of Gettysburg began.
On June 30, Kilpatrick's two brigades fought a sharp skirmish with Stuart's cavalry at Hanover, Pennsylvania, 15 miles east of Gettysburg, but then proceeded on a wild goose chase in pursuit of Stuart. Kilpatrick wasted July 1 looking for Stuart, disobeying the command of
General George Meade, who had ordered Kilpatrick to make accurate information-gathering his "most important and sacred" duty.
On the morning of July 2, Kilpatrick received orders to move toward the battlefield, and directed his brigades to Hunterstown, five miles northeast of
Gettysburg. Arriving in mid-afternoon, he clashed with CSA General Wade Hampton's cavalry, where both sides made reckless charges and then pulled back. At 11:00 that night, Kilpatrick moved south, reaching Two Taverns, five miles southeast of Gettysburg, between 3:00 and 4:00 am.
At 8:00 am,
July 3, General Kilpatrick was ordered to move west toward the
Emmitsburg Road and come into position on the Army of the Potomac's left, south of the Round Tops. As he was leaving Two Taverns, Second Division commander Brigadier General David Gregg commandeered
General George Armstrong Custer and his rear brigade, leading it back up the Baltimore Pike to join his two brigades guarding the army's right rear. Kilpatrick headed west with
only one brigade.
After Pickett's Charge on the afternoon of July 3, army commander Generals Meade and Pleasonton ordered Kilpatrick to launch a cavalry charge against the infantry positions of
CSA Lt. General James Longstreet on the Confederate right flank, just west of
Little Round Top.
Kilpatrick's lone brigade commander, Brigadier General Elon Farnsworth, protested against the futility of such a move. Kilpatrick essentially questioned his bravery and allegedly dared him to charge: "Then, by God, if you are afraid to go I will lead the charge myself." Farnsworth reluctantly complied with the order. He was killed in the attack and his brigade suffered significant losses.
General Judson Kilpatrick and Staff
Kilpatrick (second from left on porch), commander of Third Division, Cavalry Corps, and staff members on the porch of his winter quarters at Brandy Station, Virginia, December 1863 - April 1864.
The Dahlgren Affair
Just before the start of
Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant began his Overland Campaign in the spring of 1864, Kilpatrick conducted a raid toward Richmond and through the Virginia Peninsula, hoping to rescue Union prisoners of war held at Belle Isle and in Libby Prison. He destroyed much property and had many encounters with the enemy, but did not achieve his goal.
And one of his brigade commanders, Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, the son of Rear Admiral John Adolph Dahlgren, was killed in the process. Papers found on Dahlgren's body shortly after his death, contained orders for an assassination plot against
Confederate President Jefferson Davis.
The discovery and publication of the Dahlgren Papers in the Confederate press sparked an international controversy. The expedition was such a fiasco that Kilpatrick found he was no longer welcome in the Eastern Theater.
Kilpatrick
transferred west to command the Third Division of the Cavalry Corps of the Army of the Cumberland under
Major General William Tecumseh Sherman. Summing up Judson Kilpatrick, Sherman said "I know that Kilpatrick is a hell of a damned fool, but I want just that sort of man to command my cavalry on this expedition."
Starting in May 1864, Kilpatrick rode in the Atlanta Campaign. On May 13, he was
severely wounded in the thigh at the Battle of Resaca, and his injuries kept him out of the field until late July. When he returned, he had considerable success raiding behind Confederate lines, tearing up railroads, and at one point he rode his division completely around the enemy positions in Atlanta.
Kilpatrick continued with Sherman throughout his March to the Sea to Savannah, Georgia, and as they swung north in
the Carolinas Campaign. Kilpatrick delighted in destroying Southern property.
Kilpatrick's Shirttail Skedaddle
The Battle of Monroe's Crossroads (known colloquially as Kilpatrick's Shirttail Skedaddle) was fought during the Carolinas Campaign on the grounds of the present day Fort Bragg Military Reservation, near Fayetteville, North Carolina.
In command of the Confederate cavalry in the area were General Wade Hampton and Major General Joseph Wheeler, whose goal was to
capture General Kilpatrick using an elite squadron of hand-picked troopers.
It is true that General Kilpatrick had developed a
reputation as a ladies' man since his first wife's death in 1863, but the the following persistent story is disputed as legend by some historians.
On the morning of March 9, 1865, Kilpatrick was riding in a carriage with Marie Boozer and her mother, who had been accompanying Kilpatrick since the fall of Columbia, South Carolina, their home.
Union scouts, commanded by Captain Theo Northrop, patrolled 10 to 15 miles in front of the vanguard of Kilpatrick's main column. Northrop arrived at
Monroe's Crossroads, named for Charles Monroe who owned the adjacent farm. By the time Northrop arrived, the
farm residents had fled. The Monroe farm included the main house and a small cabin behind it, apparently the residence of a black woman.
The
Monroe house was designated Division Headquarters. The 400 dismounted men of the 4th Cavalry Brigade, escorting supply and ammunition wagons, as well as Kilpatrick's headquarters wagon, set up camp by the residence, while wagon drivers parked on the lawn. At some point,
the two women who had earlier accompanied Kilpatrick arrived in their carriage.
By 6:00 pm, Kilpatrick was riding toward Monroe's Crossroads, accompanied by a small contingent of Kentucky cavalry riding in front. There were about 40 men in all, riding through the rain. All at once, South Carolina troopers charged out of the woods and surrounded the Union contingent farther down the road. With no chance of escape, the Federals dropped their reins in submission.
The second group of riders, including Kilpatrick, escaped by riding into the adjacent forest. They crashed blindly through the trees, branches grabbing at their clothes, sometimes lashing their faces. Some riders lost their hats as they fled. The Confederates did not pursue, so Kilpatrick apparently assumed he had just narrowly eluded another small Confederate patrol.
Kilpatrick finally arrived at his camp late that evening. He was briefed on the situation, as those who had arrived earlier understood it. They were aware of Confederate patrols operating throughout the area, but no large force had been detected.
Exhausted, Kilpatrick was ready to turn in. He, his staff, his two brigade leaders and the two women divided up the farmhouse rooms. Kilpatrick and Marie Boozer apparently left the house for a while, staying part of the night in the nearby cabin.
March 10, 6:00 am
Sometime in the predawn hours, Kilpatrick and his female companion had returned to the house. To make sure his horses were being cared for, Kilpatrick stepped out onto the porch of the main house. Expecting to be out only a moment, he was
dressed only in his shirt and long underwear. In the yard, several soldiers had awakened and were rolling their blankets; the headquarters bugler was preparing to sound reveille.
The whole area around the Monroe house was covered in
a thick fog. As Kilpatrick began to inquire about his horses, CSA General Joseph Wheeler and his escort broke through the fog. Riding by the General's side, his bugler sounded the charge. Simultaneously breaking the morning silence was a penetrating howling cheer and the sound of breaking brush.
Stunned by the sounds and commotion of the thundering horsemen,
Kilpatrick stood motionless on the porch. Confederate cavalrymen were now pouring out of the fog by the dozens. He looked around for an escape route, but only saw more Rebels as the first riders reached the house and raced by, heading for the encampment on the lawn
A squad led by a young Confederate Captain charged directly up to Kilpatrick, gun drawn, and asked, "Where is General Kirkpatrick?" This officer obviously had no idea he was pointing his weapon at the leader of General Sherman's cavalry. Looking around, Kilpatrick saw an officer mounting a trotting horse. Pointing, he replied, "There he goes." And the cavalryman galloped off in hot pursuit.
Startled into action by his good luck, Kilpatrick, barefoot, leapt the porch rail and headed southwest toward the safety of a nearby swamp, making good his second escape in twenty-four hours.
Hearing firing to his right, Kilpatrick worked his way along the edge of the swamp and joined a group of his men. Recovered from their initial shock, the Union troopers were now ready to fight. They crept up the slope toward the house, using the cover of pine trees, and counterattacked the Confederates with their rapid-firing Spencer carbines.
Anticipating the approach of Union infantry, the Confederate commanders ordered their troops to disengage from the action in the mid-morning. Hampton's cavalry finally withdrew in good order toward Fayetteville, denying Kilpatrick the honor of entering the town first.
Shooting stopped at Monroe's Crossroads about 9:00 am, March 10, 1865, ending a comparatively short, but brutal battle. The Union cavalry, remaining after the Confederates departed, turned the main house into a makeshift hospital where soldiers carried the most seriously wounded to be examined and treated by physicians.
A Union infantry brigade arrived soon after the battle ended and helped transport the wounded and bury the dead. Union troops buried both Confederate and Union soldiers in shallow graves they mounded over with the sandy eastern North Carolina soil.
Kilpatrick, somewhat shaken, expressed his wish to leave the area as soon as the wounded were tended. As the last casualty was released by the surgeon, his staff sent word to Kilpatrick that they were ready to move. He and his aides rode through the assembled regiments, issuing commands for them to fall in behind.
By midafternoon, the cavalry division moved out. Because they had been delayed by the surprise Confederate attack, they were not the first Union troops to occupy Fayetteville, as Kilpatrick had hoped. Instead, the cavalry camped that night within the protective reach of General Sherman's infantry, still some distance from Fayetteville.
The Battle of Monroe's Crossroads gained the additional time needed for the Confederate infantry to conduct an organized crossing of the Cape Fear River at Fayetteville unmolested by the advancing Federals. With their troops and equipment east of the Cape Fear River, the
Confederates burned the bridges as Union forces arrived.
Morgan's Crossroads Monument
This monument honoring both North and South fighting forces was erected on the site of the battle by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 307th Engineer Battalion (Combat) (Airborne) in April, 1996, just south of burial area C.
After the war, Kilpatrick commanded a division of the Cavalry Corps in the Military Division of the Mississippi from April to June 1865, and was
promoted to major general of volunteers on June 18, 1865.
Kilpatrick pulled some political strings, and was appointed
U.S. Minister to Chile in 1865 - probably not quite the job he was hoping for, but was probably a stroke of luck.
While there, he
married Luisa Fernandez de Valdivieso, a wealthy Chilean woman, who was a niece of the Archbishop of Santiago, and reportedly was a descendant of Spain's royal house of Navarre. They had
one child, a daughter Laura Delphine Kilpatrick born in 1869 in Santiago, Chile. He was also involved in some unsavory political situations, and ended up getting recalled in 1870.
Kilpatrick maintained a farm in Sussex County, New Jersey, and in August 1878 he invited the
Grand Army of the Republic (the Union veterans fraternal organization) to hold their annual encampment. All told, some 40,000 veterans and visitors crowded onto Kilpatrick's farm.
There was a parade of cavalry from Deckertown to the farm, complete with horses, carriages, wagons, and cannons. The veterans camped in Kilpatrick's fields, slept in tents, and built campfires, as they had during the war. The next day thousands of veterans held a "sham battle" (we would call it a reenactment) with firing of cannons and musketry, infantry charges, capturing of positions, and finally a truce.
President James A. Garfield re-appointed Kilpatrick to his post of Minister to Chile in March 1881. But not for long. Kilpatrick was ill all year.
Major General Judson Kilpatrick died December 4, 1881, in Santiago, Chile, at the age of 45. His body was returned for burial on the grounds of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.
A commemorative marker placed by the County of Sussex remembers the site of Kilpatrick's Grand Encampment on Deckertown Turnpike. Sadly, there's little else to remember him by: both the house he was born in, and the house he later lived in, are gone.
There is just that big granite marker in the cemetery at West Point, where his body was moved in 1887. And in a cemetery where such markers are routinely inscribed with ranks held, companies commanded, battles fought in, and honors received, the grave monument of arrogant, ambitious, egocentric General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick is surprisingly modest.
Other than his last name, it is inscribed with a simple sentence: "Erected by his comrades and friends," of which, despite his shortcomings, he had many.
Former Confederate General Joseph Wheeler [
who had almost captured Kilpatrick that morning at Monroe's Crossroads] was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1881. When General William Tecumseh Sherman died on February 14, 1891, Wheeler went to the floor of Congress to praise his former adversary:
The entire country, the South together with North, the Confederate with Federal, forgetting all the feelings of the past, join in the deep grief which has befallen our country in the death of this distinguished man.
Anderson Hays Cooper (born June 3, 1967) is an Emmy Award-winning television journalist, currently working for the CNN television network. Cooper is the younger
son of writer Wyatt Emory Cooper and artist, designer, writer, and railroad heiress
Gloria Vanderbilt. By his mother, he is a great-great-great-grandson of railroad magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Cooper is also of Spanish heritage through his great-great-grandmother
Luisa Fernández de Valdivieso. Luisa's and General KIlpatrick's daughter Laura married Harry Hays Morgan, and their daughter Gloria Morgan married Reginald Vanderbilt in 1924, and they were the parents of Gloria Vanderbilt of designer jeans fame. And of course, this makes Anderson Cooper the
great-great-grandson of General Judson Kilpatrick. (whew!)
There are
two excellent websites about the Battle of Monroe's Crossroads (which I must admit I had never heard of until I started researching Kilpatrick):
Fiery Dawn by Sharyn Kane and Richard Keeton
And the National Park Service website:
Cavalry Clash in the Sandhills
My Tarheel heart loves and misses the sandhills of eastern North Carolina.
SOURCES
Battle of Monroe's Crossroads
Wikipedia: Hugh Judson Kilpatrick
Brigadier General [Hugh] Judson Kilpatrick
Judson Kilpatrick, Vernon's Civil War hero (sort of)
Fiery Dawn: The Civil War Battle of Monroe's Crossroads
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