For the next blog or so I would like to update my readers on Civil War facts that they might not be aware of. There were two Confederate generals who were born in Maine but went on the serve the Confederacy. The first guy I would like to mention is Brigader General Danville Leadbetter who was born in 1811 in Leeds, Maine. Ironically, Leadbetter died in Clifton, Canada which was later renamed Niagara Falls, Canada. I grew up just 8 miles from Niagara Falls, New York not far from Leadbetter's final home.
Leadbetter went to West Point and graduated in 1836. AFter serving the United States army for 21 years he resigned and became an enginner for the state of Alabama. When the SOuth seceded in 1861 Leadbetter's expertise as a enginner was called upon by the Confederate army. I have been unable to located more infomation about his reasoning for serving the Confederacy and any other facts other than the basic stuff. According to Civil War notes Leadbetter told Longstreet to attack the Union fortications at Knoxville which ended in a Confederate defeat. Also, he constructed the rebel fortifications on Missionary Ridge that also resulted in a rebel defeat. He did serve in a few battles but his role as a battle commander are unknown to me.
I felt that Leadbetter would make a great addition to my blog and I hope you do too. I started off by saying that I wanted this blog to be a bit different and I am sorry to say that I drifted away from that a bit. Until next time America!
Sources:
http://www.generalsandbrevets.com/ (for Leadbetter's photo)
2 comments:
Mike,
Very interesting post. Just a bit more trivia (a technicality), Leadbetter was born before the Missouri Compromise, so many of the Maine generals were came into this world in the Maine District of Massachusetts (Feb. 2, 1788 - March 15, 1820).
Keep up the good work.
Dave Woodbury
Thanks for the comment.
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