The people whose stories fill the pages of Civil War histories are an interesting bunch of characters in a drama which continues to fascinate us and will for decades to come. Many of these dramatis personae have highly unusual names – prenomens, cognomens, agnomens, monikers, sobriquets – handles of all kinds which make them all the more memorable.
In addition to the odd names which give the stories some extra spice, we are blessed also with appellations which provide some poetry. More about that later. Let’s first look at some of the prose.
All my life I wanted a name like “Bill Smith”
Philip St. George Cocke. Philip St. George Cook. Which one is C.S.A. and which is U.S.A.? Quick. Even Civil War News readers – many anyway – must look it up.
One of my favorites is the publisher of the eponymous DeBow’s Review, J.D.B. DeBow. Say that three times, fast.
In a war featuring some young generals, the very youngest was Galusha Pennypacker, promoted to brigadier general before he was eligible to vote.
In Atlanta, we are interested today in the restoration and relocation of our famous cyclorama. Another one, Gettysburg’s, was painted by Paul Philippoteaux. Or is it Philippeauxto? Or Philippeauxteaux? Philliteaupeaux?
The Civil War, being an American war, was fought principally by citizen soldiers. One officer, however, held commissions first in the Prussian army, then the Austrian army, then the Federal army, then Maximillian’s army, then the Prussian army again. Prince Felix Constantin Alexander Johann Nepomuk zu Salm-Salm survived four conflicts but lost his life in the Franco-Prussian War.
Alexander Schimmelpfennig was worthy of the generalship, I am sure, but Lincoln knew also that his promotion would bring in some key German votes. I checked the spelling in several places. In case you are interested, the 1991 edition of the Encyclopedia of the Civil War has it wrong. I think.
Like Schimmelpfennig, Federal Brigadier General Wladimir Krzyzanowski fled Europe after the failed revolutions of the 1840s. When you throw a spear at a king….
Moving on to more pronounceable names, we have one with a rarely-seen Welsh patronymic: Catesby ap Roger Jones of the CSS Virginia and of the Selma Naval Yard. I have it on good authority that he would entertain fellow officers by singing “Men of Harlech” in Welsh.
If you study the English Civil War, you will encounter one Praise-God Barbon. Here in America, we have the more secular States Rights Gist.
Traces of an earlier generation of American heroes are to be found in several Civil War names.
George Washington Rains built and ran the Confederate Powder Works. George Washington Custis Lee was his namesake’s step greatgreat-grandson.
Winfield Scott Hancock did well as a general but failed as a presidential candidate in 1880.
We can’t overlook our naval heroes. Indiana’s war governor was Oliver Hazard Perry Throckmorton. For some reason, he dropped the “Throck” and is generally known as Oliver P. Morton. (Can anyone remember Gary Hart, ne Hartpence, or has too much time passed?)
Both sides had generals named after Benjamin Franklin: B.F. Cheatham and B.F. Butler.
And we must recognize a South American hero who had a Civil War namesake, Simon Bolivar Buckner.
Let’s end this series with the C.S.A.’s veep, Alexander Hamilton Stephens, and move on to the promised verse.
Every man will do his duty
Many names in our wonderful English language carry one or another of the rhythms common in our poetry. Let’s start with the trochee.
A trochee is a metrical foot consisting of two syllables, with the accent on the first. This is perhaps the most common pattern in our names.
Turner Ashby comes readily to mind. This colonel is a nice trochaic dimeter. Long short long short, like Simon Cameron, Ulrich Dahlgren, and Arnold Elzey. You can think of many more.
Most people have middle names, of course, and some Civil War characters are known by all three names. Trochaic trimeters are common. Albert Sidney Johnston and Nathan Bedford Forrest are two obvious ones.
Francis Channing Barlow and Henry Wager Halleck fit if we use their middle names. So does William Joseph Hardee, depending on how you say his surname. HarDEE or Hardy? I say Hardy.
Trochaic tetrameters not very common, but here is one: William Henry Talbot Walker.
A spondee is a metrical foot with two accented syllables. This is a very emphatic way to write a line of poetry or name a child who will grow up to lead men in battle.
Or serve her country as a spy, as did Belle Boyd.
John Bell Hood is a fine example of a hard-charging spondee and a half. James Longstreet is another, as is Lloyd James Beale, the commandant of the Confederate Marine Corps.
Some names with two syllables are spondees by themselves, but these are a little harder to find. Ambrose Burnside works, but we have to skip his middle name. Drop the Everett and we are left with a very nice spondaic dimeter.
In Flanders fields, the poppies grow
Iambs are the opposite of trochees. Short long instead of long short. They are very common in poetry. They sound so natural to the ear that we are barely aware we are listening to poetry. Or, as we might say: Across the page the iambs flow; the people read but do not know that what they read is verse, not prose.
This meter is more common in French names than in our English ones. Think Henri Langois instead of Henry English. I can’t think of one in the Civil War. Maybe you can.
Wait! Who was that man from Louisiana? Pierre Gustave Toutant… Beauregard. Well, almost.
We do have some examples of mixed trochees and iambs. William Mahone fits, and it works even if we call him Billy. Trochee followed by an iamb. I don’t know of an opposite case, where the iamb comes first. Doesn’t sound right anyway. Pierre Forrest?
Beaufort Naval Beaufort Naval Armorers
Half a league, half a league, half a league onward
Some meters have three syllables to a foot. A dactyl is a long followed by two shorts. These are common in English both for last and first names. Oliver, Timothy, Anthony; Henderson, Waterman, Carpenter. Common and a bit dull, unless there is a blend, with syllables in separate names combining to form the dactyl. Thomas Leonidas Crittenden
(THOM as lee ON i das CRITT en den)
When I was in school, we accented the second syllable in the Spartan king’s name. If Thomas Crittenden put the accent on the third syllable, we must delete this example and think of another.
The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Anapests are my very favorite. Short short long, short short long. Beautiful music if you can find one.
I couldn’t, so I invented two. A couple of Lee’s men, McGee and Jones, named their eldest sons after streams which featured in their battles. The McGee lad was named Rappahannock, the Jones boy Chickahominy. Rap, as McGee was known to his schoolmates, was given Lysander as his middle name, after the Spartan admiral. Chick’s mother’s maiden name was Pennington. So, we have two anapestic trimeters: Rappahannock Lysander McGee and his lifelong friend Chickahominy Pennington Jones.
Turns out there was no need for this invention. As I read more Civil War history, I noticed an anapestic trimeter in nature: Alexander Mc- Dowell McCook.
Some of the most famous names don’t scan at all:
Robert Edward Lee and Thomas Jonathan Jackson don’t. Ulysses Simpson Grant (or Hiram Ulysses Grant, either way) had a prosaic name, as did William Tecumseh Sherman and Joseph Eggleston Johnston.
But what’s in a name? Both nations were led by prosaic presidents. Davis, however, did have a middle name, which was… Finis