Offered is a CDV of General Quincy Adams Gillmore. The image is a three quarter standing
photograph. He is wearing a sword and
holding a slouch hat. The back mark is “E. & H.T. Anthony, 301
Broadway, New York. From Photographic Negative in Brady’s National Portrait
Gallery”.
Quincy
Gillmore
Quincy Gillmore
was a Civil War military leader from Ohio. He was born on February 28, 1825, at
Black River, Ohio. His father was a staunch supporter of President John Quincy
Adams, and named his son Quincy Adams Gillmore. He spent his youth working on his
father's farm and attended school only during the winter months. By the age of
seventeen, Gillmore was teaching school. He began to study medicine in his free
time until he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at
West Point in 1845. He ranked first in his class when he graduated in 1849.
In 1849, Gillmore
joined the Corps of Engineers and helped plan the fortifications of Hampton
Roads, Virginia. In 1852, he returned to West Point as an instructor of
practical military engineering. At West Point, Gillmore conducted research on
the effects of cannon projectiles on masonry forts. His research assisted him
during the American Civil War. In 1856, he was transferred to New York City,
where he was the army's chief engineer in the region. He held this position
until the beginning of the Civil War.
In August 1861,
Gillmore sought a battlefield position. Salmon Chase recommended that Ohio
Governor William Dennison offer Gillmore command of one of Ohio's volunteer
infantry regiments. Dennison agreed, but Gillmore refused the offer. Later that
year, Gillmore was assigned to accompany General Thomas W. Sherman's expedition
against the coastal regions of South Carolina. Gillmore was responsible for
constructing defenses for the territory that Union forces seized. Sherman then
sailed for Savannah, which was guarded by Fort Pulaski. Sherman asked Gillmore
to develop a plan to capture the fort. Gillmore proposed bombarding Fort
Pulaski from a nearby island - roughly three thousand yards away. Current
military practice contended that only a bombardment from less than one thousand
yards could succeed. After Gillmore opened his bombardment of Fort Pulaski on
April 9, 1862, the Confederates inside surrendered in less than three days.
During the
campaign against Savannah, Gillmore contracted malaria and took a leave of
absence. Upon recovering his health, Gillmore was assigned to help the governor
of New York recruit and train new volunteers for the Union army. In September
1862, Gillmore went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and took command of forces sent to
drive Confederate soldiers under General Kirby Smith from Kentucky. Gillmore's
time in Kentucky was relatively quiet. He remained in the area until early
1863, when he was assigned to plan and carry out an attack on Fort Sumter and
Charleston, South Carolina. Gillmore succeeded in capturing or destroying
numerous fortifications defending Charleston during July, August, and September
1863. Northern soldiers failed to capture the city but they did succeed in creating
a virtual blockade of the water approaches to the city. For his successes in
this campaign, Gillmore was promoted to major general.
In 1864, Gillmore
was transferred to the command of General Benjamin Butler at Fortress Monroe,
Virginia. Gillmore and Butler had a falling out, and General Ulysses S. Grant
intervened, transferring Gillmore to Washington, DC. At Washington, Gillmore
played a vital role in stopping Confederate General Jubal Early's advance on
that city. He finished the war overseeing Northern troops in Georgia and South
Carolina. Gillmore remained in the military following the war. He died on April
7, 1888, in New York.