Civil War Travels with Ms. Rebelle - Arlington National Cemetery

  The Last Three Generals in Arlington National Cemetery

            A real sense of satisfaction made my day recently as now I have found the graves of the last of eighty Civil War generals buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  My trek to find these illustrious gentlemen began back in 1999 on my first excursion with the Bull Run Civil War Roundtable to Arlington National Cemetery.  Over the years I have been back on numerous occasions and tours and have always managed to find several graves per trip.  These last three, especially General Crittenden, were very illusive.  The other two were within plain site – Generals Asboth and Miller.  Out of the eighty generals buried there, only two are Confederates, Generals Joseph Wheeler buried in front of Arlington House and General Marcus Joseph Wright buried in Jackson Circle at the Confederate monument there.  Arlington is the final resting place of some very big names in the Civil War such as:  George Crook, Abner Doubleday, John Gibbon, Rufus Ingalls, Philip Kearny, Montgomery Meigs, John Rawlins, James Ricketts, William Starke Rosencrans, John Schofield, Philip Sheridan, Daniel Sickles, and Frank Wheaton.

 GENERAL ALEXANDER SANDOR ASBOTH, USA

              General Asboth was born in Keszthely, Hungary on December 18, 1811, and is one of several Hungarians reaching high ranks in the Union Army.  He graduated from the academy at Selmecbanya as an engineer, and worked in various parts of Hungary before joining the Hungarian Revolt of 1848 with Lajos Kossuth.  Both Asboth and Kossuth fled Hungary after the revolt to the United States aboard the U.S.S. Mississippi.  After becoming a naturalized citizen, he went back to his career of engineering and surveying in New York City.  While there he developed a new method of asphalt paving and also did the original surveys for New York’s Central Park.

            He served in the Union Army from 1861-1865 starting out with General Fremont in Missouri.  He led the cavalry advance into Benton and Washington Counties before the Battle of Pea Ridge in Arkansas.  He captured Fayetteville and occupied the headquarters house.  Asboth fought heroically on the first day of battle incurring a serious wound to the arm.  Without him the Union Army may have collapsed as they were outnumbered.  General Asboth prevailed over Confederate General Van Dorn whose troops were running low on supplies.  After Pea Ridge he served in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Kentucky in a variety of roles.  He was also one of the officers who recommended Phil Sheridan to the rank of brigadier general.  Asboth was sent to Florida and seriously wounded in his left cheek and left arm during the Battle of Marianna, Florida on September 27, 1864.  He was operated on by both Union and captured Confederate surgeons but would carry the bullet in his cheek until after the war when it was removed in Paris, France.  The wound ended his field service, and he was mustered out in August, 1865.

             After the war he was minister to Argentina and Uruguay.  He died January 21, 1868 in Buenos Aires, Argentina and was buried there in the British Cemetery until 1990.  The official cause of death was listed as wounds incurred in the Civil War.  He was considered a hero in Hungary, and through efforts of Hungarian Americans, his body was brought back to the United States to comply with his wish to be buried at Arlington National Cemetery.  So on October 23, 1990, General Asboth was buried with full military honors including the horse drawn caisson and a riderless horse.  President George H.W. Bush’s written eulogy was read during the ceremony.  The General’s great-great-grandson, Sandor Asboth, attended the ceremony and was given the folded U.S. flag that had been draped on his coffin. 

   GENERAL JOHN FRANKLIN MILLER, USA

                         General Miller was born on November 21, 1831 in South Bend, Indiana.  He received his law degree from New York State & National Law School in 1852.  He practiced in South Bend but moved to Napa, California for health reasons.  He lived there for three years before returning to South Bend to resume his law practice.  He was elected to the Indiana State Senate in 1860.  On August 27, 1861 Governor Morton of Indiana commissioned him a Colonel of the 29th Indiana Infantry.  His regiment was assigned to General Buell’s Army of the Ohio and went to Tennessee.  Miller fought at Shiloh, Cornith, pursued Braxton Bragg through Kentucky, and commanded a brigade under General Negley during Stones River.  He was wounded in the neck at Stones River.  During the Tullahoma Campaign, Miller commanded a brigade under General McCook in the XX Corps.  During this action he was severely wounded, and lost his left eye in a minor fight at Liberty Gap in June, 1863.  The general was out of action for almost a year recuperating from the loss of his eye.  He returned to the field in December, 1864 commanding both 12 regiments of infantry and 14 artillery batteries at the Battle of Nashville.  He was brevetted a major general on March 13, 1865.

            After the war, he resigned his commission and returned to California.  President Andrew Johnson appointed Miller as collector of customs at the Port of San Francisco until 1869.  He then served twelve years as president of the Alaska Commercial Company which controlled the fur industry on the Pribilof Islands.  Miller bought a “wilderness” area in Napa Valley in 1869 which was part of Rancho Yajome.  The area now is the home of the Silverado Country Club.  The general returned to politics and was a member of the 1878-79 second state constitutional convention.  He was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1880 representing California.  He was very outspoken about several bills limiting the influx of Chinese immigrants.  He also was a member of the Committee to Revise the Laws of the United States and Committee on Foreign Relations.

             Senator Miller died in Washington, D.C. on March 8, 1886 and was interred in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco.  The cemetery later closed, and he was reinterred at Arlington National Cemetery on May 5, 1913 in Section Two.

 General Thomas Turpin Crittenden, USA

            General Crittenden’s grave took at least three times to find.  Even with pictures of the stones and maps, some time it is very difficult to find the graves.  He is buried in Section Seven.

             The general was born October 16, 1825 in Huntsville, Alabama.  His family moved to Texas shortly after his birth.  He is the nephew of Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, and a first cousin to Generals George B. Crittenden, CSA, and Thomas L. Crittenden, USA.  It sounds like his family was definitely brother against brother.  He received his law degree from Transylvania College in Lexington, Kentucky.  He was practicing law in Missouri when the Mexican War started.  He was a 2nd lieutenant in a Missouri regiment.  After this war, he moved to Indiana.  Only five days after the attack on Fort Sumter, he volunteered and was commissioned a captain in a company of the Sixth Indiana Infantry.  Crittenden led his regiment into West Virginia and fought in the first land battle of the Civil War in Philippi.    His unit was reorganized and was the first Union troops to enter Kentucky.  They entered the battle of Shiloh on the second day’s action.  In April, 1862 he was commissioned a brigadier general.  He took command on July 13, 1862 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and his command was captured by Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest. This incident virtually ended his career, and after his release in October, 1862 he saw no further important service. 

            After the war Crittenden moved to Washington, D.C. in 1868.  In 1885 he moved to San Diego, California where he became a real estate developer.  He died while on vacation in East Gloucester, Massachusetts on September 5, 1905.

           NOTE:  Ms. Rebelle’s hobby is travelling the country finding and honoring the graves of our 1,008 Civil War generals.  So far she has located and photographed 385….169 Confederate and 216 Union. .

         Ms. Rebelle is a member of  The Bull Run Civil War Round Table which  meets every second Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Centreville Regional Library. The public is invited to attend at no cost and visit the website www.bullruncwrt.org for additional activities (tours, etc.)