Roeliff Brinkerhoff

Infobox Military Person
name=Roeliff Brinkerhoff
born= birth date|1828|6|28
died= death date and age|1911|6|4|1828|6|28
placeofbirth= Owasco, New York, U.S.
placeofdeath= Mansfield, Ohio, U.S.
placeofburial=


caption=Brigadier General Roeliff Brinkerhoff
nickname=
allegiance=United States of America
serviceyears=1861-1866
rank= Brigadier General (Civil War)
commands=
unit=
battles= American Civil War *Capture of Nashville *Siege of Corinth
awards=
laterwork=Lawyer, Newspaper Editor, Bank President, Founder and President of the Ohio Historical Society

Roeliff Brinkerhoff (June 28 1828 – June 4 1911) was a lawyer, editor and owner of the "Mansfield Herald", and later a bank president. He was a quartermaster and supply officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, rising to the rank of brigadier general. His work, "The Volunteer Quartermaster" was considered the definitive text on military logistics and transportation from the Civil War until World War I. He also founded the Ohio Historical Society and succeeded former President Rutherford B. Hayes as president of the American National Prison Congress.

Early life and career

Roeliff (often mistakenly known as 'Ruloff') was born in Owasco, Cayuga County, New York. At the age of sixteen, he became a teacher in his native town, while at eighteen he was in charge of a school near Hendersonville, Tennessee. The following year he was the tutor in the family of Andrew Jackson Jr. before moving to Mansfield, Ohio, to study law. He was admitted to the bar in 1852, and remained in active practice from that time until after the outbreak of hostilities during the Civil War. He also served as editor the "Mansfield Herald" newspaper. Brinkerhoff was married on February 3, 1852, to Mary Lake Bently, of Mansfield, a granddaughter of General Robert Bently. They had two sons and two daughters.

A firm believer in prison and asylum reform, he was at first a free-soil Democrat, then a Republican, and then, following the unsuccessful Liberal Republican movement of 1872, a Democrat once more; he was described as a "Jeffersonian democrat, a believer in free trade, hard money, home rule, and the non-interference principles of government generally."

Civil War

He joined the army in September 1861 as a first lieutenant and regimental quartermaster of the 64th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He was known by some accounts as the first officer to join the "Sherman Brigade" under Brigadier General William Tecumseh Sherman. In December 1861, he was assigned to the depot at Bardstown, Kentucky. Following the capture of Nashville, he was placed in charge of the land and river transportation in that city and after the Battle of Shiloh, he was ordered to the front and placed in charge of the field transportation of the Army of the Ohio.

It was following the capture of Corinth that he returned home on sick leave and when he had sufficiently recovered he was ordered to Maine as Chief Quartermaster of the state, where he quickly became friends with Congressman James G. Blaine. He was then transferred to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and placed in charge of transportation and army stores for the Department of the Susquehanna, and then to Washington D.C. as post quartermaster until June, 1865, when he was made a Colonel and inspector of the quartermaster's department. He was retained on duty at the war office with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton until November, when he was ordered to Cincinnati as Chief Quartermaster of the Department of the Ohio.

In September 1866, he was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers and was mustered out of the service in October at his own request. He was the author of a volume entitled, "The Volunteer Quartermaster," a treatise which was considered the standard guide for the officers and employees of the quartermaster's department up until the First World War.

Postbellum career

Brinkerhoff was the intimate friend of many nationally prominent figures including Salmon P. Chase, James G. Blaine, James A. Garfield and Rutherford B. Hayes. In 1873, he became President of the Mansfield Savings Bank, and in 1878 was appointed a member of the board of state charities and continued in that position under different administrations serving eleven terms over a period of thirty years.

Blaine had initially promised Brinkerhoff an appointment as U.S. Minister to Holland, but schemed to have the sitting Ambassador Hugh Ewing replaced with his brother Charles Ewing, and there is no evidence that Blaine ever actually presented Brinkerhoff's name to the President, although both Senator John Sherman and General and Congressman John Beatty claim that Blaine had promised them to do so.

He showcased his compassion and liberal idealism when he traded on his political connections to abolish the use of mechanical restraints in treatments of the insane. Although his work was initially deemed "Brinkerhoff's Folly" by the press, his work led to the Toledo hospital system becoming the model asylum in the United States. He was selected as a member of the commission which selected the plans for its construction. He was one of the earliest American advocates of the cottage system, and understood that public opinion demanded reform and advancement.

In 1875, Brinkerhoff founded the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society at his home, whose first president was Senator Allen G. Thurman, followed by Rutherford B. Hayes, and later himself Brinkerhoff upon Hayes' death. He was soon named President Emeritus of the organization which exists to this day.

Through the society he was able to secure legislation and funding for the Ohio Monument at Jefferson Park, in Chicago. In a speech delivered before the legislature, he stated that:

When the Ohio monument was dedicated at Jefferson Park, in Chicago, September 14 1893, General Brinkerhoff delivered one of the principal addresses.

References

* "General Roeliff Brinkerhoff". Ohio History: The Scholarly Journal of the Ohio Historical Society. Volume 20.

Notes

Biographical

* Brinkerhoff, Roeliff. "Recollections of a lifetime". Ohio: The Robert Clarke Company. 1900.

Persondata
NAME= Brinkerhoff, Roeliff
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Union Army general
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