Solomon Meredith

Infobox Military Person
name= Solomon Meredith
born= birth date|1810|5|29
died= death date and age|1875|10|2|1810|5|29
placeofbirth= Guilford County, North Carolina
placeofdeath= Cambridge City, Indiana
placeofburial=Riverside Cemetery Cambridge City, Indiana


caption=
nickname= "Long Sol"
allegiance=United States of America
branch= United States Army
serviceyears=1861 – 1865
rank= Brevet Major General
commands= 19th Indiana Infantry Iron Brigade
unit=
battles=American Civil War
awards=
laterwork=

Solomon Meredith (May 29, 1810 – October 2, 1875) was a prominent Indiana farmer, politician, and lawman who was a controversial Union Army general in the American Civil War. He gained fame as one of the commanders of the Iron Brigade of the Army of the Potomac, leading the brigade in the Battle of Gettysburg.

Early life

Solomon Meredith was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, to David and Mary Farrington Meredith. [Hinshaw, p. 595.] The Meredith's were Quaker and educated young Solomon at home. Meredith's grandfather, James Meredith fought at the Battle of Guilford Courthouse during the American Revolutionary War. In 1829, he traveled to Wayne County, Indiana, where he found work chopping wood and working on a farm. He later clerked in a general store in Centerville. [Gaff, p. 19.]

Political career

In 1834, he became the Sheriff of Wayne County, serving for two years. He was subsequently elected to the Indiana House of Representatives for four terms. In the mid-1850s, he was the U.S. Marshal for Indiana. He owned a sprawling farm, "Oakland," near Cambridge City. [Young, p. 270.] He was nicknamed "Long Sol" for his towering 6' 7" body.

Civil War

When the Civil War erupted in early 1861, Meredith recruited hundreds of men from his county and organized them into a volunteer regiment of infantry. Governor Oliver P. Morton appointed Meredith as the first colonel of the newly named 19th Indiana, despite his lack of previous military experience. The regiment traveled by train to Washington, D.C., where it would eventually join the Army of the Potomac and be brigaded with three Wisconsin regiments in what became famous as the Iron Brigade. [Nolan, p. 20.]

Meredith and his Hoosiers fought during the Northern Virginia Campaign at Brawner's Farm, where his horse was shot from under him, crushing him and breaking several ribs. [Gaff, p. 158.] As a result of the injury and taking a leave of absence in Washington, he missed the Battle of Antietam in September, drawing the ire of Iron Brigade commander, Brig. Gen. John Gibbon. Gibbon was upset that Meredith had taken part in the Battle of South Mountain but had missed Antietam. Meredith's replacement Lt. Col. Alois O. Bachman was killed while leading a charge near the Cornfield at Antietam, further fueling Gibbon's resentment towards Meredith. [Gaff, pp. 186-87; 191-92 and Nolan, p. 141.] A month later, Meredith received a promotion to brigadier general and replaced Gibbon (promoted to a different division) as the commander of the Iron Brigade, against the latter's advice. [Gaff, pp. 191-92.] In November, Meredith led the brigade in combat for the first time at Fredericksburg, where he drew the ire of division commander Abner Doubleday, who temporarily replaced Meredith with Col. Lysander Cutler. [Nolan, pp. 183-84.]

In the spring of 1863, Meredith's brigade participated in the Chancellorsville Campaign, but saw relatively little combat. [Nolan, pp.211-223 and Gaff, pp. 236-38.] That would would change in July, when the Iron Brigade would be decimated during the first day's fighting at Gettysburg in Herbst's Woods and Seminary Ridge. They were one of the first infantry brigades to reach the field and in the morning they routed the shocked brigade of Brig. Gen. James J. Archer and captured Archer. However, in the afternoon the brigade was ravaged by a flanking maneuver by the 11th North Carolina and a frontal assault by the 26th North Carolina, of Confederate Brig. Gen. J. Johnston Pettigrew's brigade. [Gaff, pp. 259-265.] Meredith was wounded when he was struck in the head by shrapnel fracturing his skull and giving Meredith a severe concussion. The blow killed his horse which then fell on him, breaking his ribs and injuring his right leg. [Gaff, p. 263.] He was disabled and unfit for any further field command.

Meredith performed administrative duty for the rest of the war, commanding garrisons protecting Union riverports along the Mississippi at Cairo, Illinois, and Paducah, Kentucky. While still on army duty in mid-1864, Meredith unsuccessfully ran against George Julian for the U. S. House of Representatives. [Gaff, p. 318.] Openly feuding with his opponent, Meredith beat Julian unconscious with a whip, but used his political influence to have charges of assault and battery dropped.

Post-War life

With the war over in 1865, Meredith mustered out from the volunteer army with the brevet rank of major general and returned home to Indiana, where he resumed farming. From 1867 to 1869, he was the surveyor general of the Montana Territory. He retired to his farm and raised prize-winning long-horn cattle, sheep, and horses.

Death and legacy

Solomon Meredith died on his farm in 1875. He is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Cambridge City, Indiana.

The Grand Army of the Republic Post in Richmond, Indiana, was later named in his honor.

ee also

References

* Gaff, Alan D., "On Many a Bloody Field: Four Years in the Iron Brigade", Indiana University Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0-2532-1294-8.
* Hinshaw, William Wade. "Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy," Vol. 1. Genealogical Publishing Company, 1978.
* Nolan, Alan T., "The Iron Brigade: A Military History". New York: The MacMillan Co., 1985.
* [http://civilwarindiana.com/biographies/meredith_solomon.html Dunn, Craig, Civil War Indiana website]
* Young, Andrew W. "History of Wayne County, Indiana, from its First Settlement to the Present Time," Robert Clarke & Company, 1872.

Further reading

* Gramm, Kent. "'They Must be Made of Iron': The Ascent of South Mountain," in "Giants in their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade". Alan T. Nolan and Sharon Eggleston Vipond, eds. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-2533-3457-8.
* Hartwig, D. Scott. "'I Dread the Thought of the Place': The Iron Brigade at Antietam," in "Giants in their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade". Alan T. Nolan and Sharon Eggleston Vipond, eds. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-2533-3457-8.
* Nolan, Alan T. "John Brawner's Damage Claim," in "Giants in their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade". Alan T. Nolan and Sharon Eggleston Vipond, eds. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-2533-3457-8.
* Wright, Steven J. "John Gibbon and the Black Hat Brigade," in "Giants in their Tall Black Hats: Essays on the Iron Brigade". Alan T. Nolan and Sharon Eggleston Vipond, eds. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1998, ISBN 0-2533-3457-8.

External links

* [http://www.mrl.lib.in.us/history/biography/meredithsol.htm Indiana University biography of Meredith]
* [http://www.civilwarhome.com/meredithchancellorsville.htm Brig. Gen. Solomon Meredith's Official Report for the Battle of Chancellorsville] from CivilWarHome.com
* [http://www.generalsandbrevets.com/ngm/merediths.htm Photo gallery]
*findagrave|5844298 Retrieved 2008-07-01

Notes

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