No disgrace to my country : the life of John C. Tidball
From his start as a West Point graduate, class of 1848, to his retirement as a brigadier general more than 40 years later, John C. Tidball saw much that shaped the United States and its army. This text tells the man's story.
Print Book, English, ©2002
Kent State University Press, Kent, Ohio, ©2002
Biography
xviii, 564 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
9780873387224, 0873387228
46835195
pt. 1. The Old Army. 1. Growing up: "I became my own preceptor." 2. Getting through West Point: from "thing" to plebe: "There was nothing in my rustic appearance ..." 3. Getting through West Point: from plebe to graduate: "I had gone to the academy with the determination of staying." 4. First experiences in the Old Army: "He then fairly frothed at the mouth ..." 5. A visit to antebellum Georgia: "I was charmed by the openhearted hospitality with which I had been received." 6. Florida: "I had the pleasure of 'trampoodling' through the swamps between Indian River Inlet and the Kissimmee." 7. Artist of the great reconnaissance: "During the last days mule meat sufficed to get us through." 8. An office job in Washington: "It was the Dred Scott decision ... that I had heard Chief Justice Taney delivering." 9. Training for war: "We went out at four o'clock in the morning and drilled like fury." 10. Guarding the president: "From it emerged a tall, lanky, awkward figure ..."
pt. 2. The war of the rebellion. 11. The Fort Pickens relief expedition: "Everything had to be done on the jump ..." 12. First Bull Run: "In the minds of the South it confirmed them in its much vaunted boast that one Southerner was equal to two Yankees." 13. Up the peninsula: "We have had a good many little skirmishes." 14. Down the peninsula: "They fight like fiends." 15. Bloody Antietam: "I always managed to have the last shot." 16. Waiting for a promotion: "I have no spirit nor life left in me." 17. Chancellorsville and Gettysburg: "Never ... has such arduous service been required of batteries." 18. From the wilderness to Spotsylvania: "In this delightful little recreation called war we are sometimes liable to have our heads knocked off." 19. From Cold Harbor to Petersburg: "Where we have to fight such bloody battles for every inch gained, the miles appear very long." 20. Commandant of cadets: "I felt much wounded in pride." 21. Fort Stedman and the grand assault: "Never since the invention of gunpowder has such a cannonade taken place."
pt. 3. Peacetime and retirement. 22. Up the Pacific coast to Alaska: "Take it all in all, it is the sorriest country that I have yet ever seen." 23. Chasing moonshiners and training artillerymen: "Among such lawless people ..." 24. Aide-de-camp to General Sherman: "The general was a man of striking personality." 25. Odd jobs for the commanding general: "The cold became still more biting ..." 26. General Sherman's last march: "The chief justice fell heavily to the ground." 27. The last campaign: "As to my mental and moral qualifications, I am content to stand on my past record."