I11313: Harriet HANSBOROUGH (ABT 1800

Notes

likely descendant of Robert Tyler and Elizabeth Duvall - ID 45644, not proven yet, needs more research.

Robert Charles Tyler was born in 1833, in an area between the cities of Memphis and Jackson, Tennessee. His family moved to Baltimore, Maryland when he was a young child. At the age of two his father remarried and his family moved to Alabama, near the Georgia State line. Robert stayed with his uncle on his father's side, Alexander Tyler in Maryland.

From there he went on to California, where he embarked on a expedition to South America (Nicaragua) in 1856 with the filibuster, William Walker. They were fighting a revolution in Nicaragua, and came home to a hero's welcome. It was said that the men that sailed into New York were but skeletons.

In 1860 he was not on Walker's ill-fated expedition to Nicaragua, but seems to have been employed in Baltimore and later moved to Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1861, he enlisted in Company D, 15th Army of the Tennessee, Infantry, as a private. He stated his age as twenty-eight.
His promotions within the Confederate Army were rapid. First a Regimental Quartermaster ,he commanded the 15th Tennessee at the battles of Belmont and Shiloh with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Upon the reorganization of the unit at Corinth, he was elected Colonel.
He was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh, but not before rallying his men forward. He had three horses shot out from under him that day of the 7th. He acted for a time after his wounding as Provost Marshal for General Braxton Bragg during the invasion of Kentucky in the fall of 1862.
He won a victory at the Battle of Chickamauga, as the right flank of General Longstreet. He single handedly dragged a Yankee cannon back to his lines.
He was shot at Point Lookout Mountain, where he was so badly wounded it caused the amputation of his left leg. While convalescing the following spring he was commissioned Brigadier General to rank from Feburary 23, 1864. He then went to Selma, Alabama to help defend that city from the coming Yankees. He was then posted to duty at West Point, Georgia, Tyler was present there during most of the winter of 1864 - 1865. On Easter, April 16, 1865 with a handful of extra-duty men, militia and soldiers en route to rejoin their commands, he defended a small earthwork on the west side of town against a full brigade of Federal Cavalry, part of the corps of Major General James H. Wilson. In the course of the storming of the work, called Fort Tyler now, he was killed by a sharpshooter. Seven days after the end of the war and the last known General to die in the War Between the States.
He is buried in West Point, Georgia.

Reference and information supplied by W. Ken Tyler, Great,Great Grandson of Gen. Tyler and the book "Generals in Gray" by Ezra J. Warner.
http://www.angelfire.com/ga3/confederaterebels/tyler.html

Battle Of West Point Brigadier General Robert C. Tyler

Brigadier General Robert Charles Tyler was something of an enigma. He had been wounded three times and had lost a leg in the battle of Missionary Ridge. He was credited with capturing four guns at Chickamauga! He is said to have fought at Belmont, Shiloh, Perryville, Murfreesboro, Hoover’s Gap, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge. His remains were placed in the cemetery at West Point. There has yet to be a report of anyone visiting there who knew him.

"General Tyler’s grave is an oddity and a tourist attraction because it is a twin grave. He shares it with his next in command, Captain C. Gonzales, a native of Pensacola, FL, and a very close friend. “Friends in life, together in death, General Robert Tyler and Captain Gonzales share a last resting place,” is the way Dorothy Young describes their final resting place in the Confederate cemetery just off the intersection of U. S. Highway 29 and Georgia Highway 18 in West Point."

Tyler first appeared on April 18, 1861, six days after the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. On that day, he stepped into the recruiting office in Jackson, Tennessee with a group of volunteers from Shelby County. Mustered into the 15th Regiment of the Tennessee Infantry, he signed his name as "Robert C. Tyler" in a clear, bold hand that gave evidence of a good education for the time. Under "age" he wrote "28" and claimed Memphis as hi residence.

Tyler rose rapidly in the enlisted ranks By August, 1861, he was a major and quartermaster to General Gideon Pillow, and later as a lieutenant colonel, led his regiment at the battle of Belmont in November 1861. Wounded at Shiloh, by July 1862, he was colonel of the 15th, and that autumn, served as provost marshal of Bragg's army in the field. He received a desperate wound at Chattanooga in November 1863, while at the head of Bate's old brigade, necessitating the amputation of his left leg.

While convalescing, on March 5, 1864, he received promotion to brigadier general. He apparently had no home to go to while recovering from his wound. Instead, he went to West Point, Georgia and its small Confederate hospital there. He wasn't forgotten by his former comrades. Bate's old brigade took Tyler's name and bore it proudly until the end of the conflict.

Tyler remained in West Point during the rest of the war and possibly helped construct the earthwork fort which bore his name. On April 15, 1865, Tyler had presented his spurs and gold-headed cane to Miss Sallie Fannie Reid at an evening party. The next morning, he rode to the fort. It was Easter Sunday, and though Lee had surrendered and Johnston was on the run, Tyler intended to defend West Point with a handful of militiamen and conscripts against a full brigade of Federal cavalry advancing on the town.

It was about this time he realized that Richmond, the Confederate Capitol, had fallen and he knew the end of the war was near. He did NOT realize the war had already ended! Because he desperately wanted to be around for the final defeat of the South, and to have all of his accomplishments/victories duly recognized, he was imbued with a strong sense of urgency in his mission at West Point.

To the men who fought and the women and children who suffered and struggled through it all, this day-long skirmish was truly a “battle.” In magnitude, however, it did not compare with other famous battles of the war; Manassas, or instance, in which nearly 20,000 died (Gen. Pope vs. Lee August 30,1862) and Gettysburg where 40,000 were said to be killed (Gen. Meade vs. Lee July 1, 1863). Call it what you will, a full-fledged “battle” or merely the last “skirmish” of the war, it was the end of life for 76 brave souls, Union and Confederate alike, who fell fighting for a cause in which they truly believed and are now buried in the Confederate Cemetery. This information is recorded on the marker near the cemetery. (one way to reconcile the difference between the number 19, which is what Archivist Allen says is the number of Confederates killed, and the number 76, which the historical marker indicates is the number of persons buried in the Confederate Cemetery, is to assume this is a combination of both Confederate and Union casualties.)

Grave sites of Tyler and Gonzales in Confederate Cemetery
Source: Donald J. Downs, "Last Fort or Redoubt Battle of the War Between the States"

The 15th Tennessee first saw combat at the battle of Belmont, TN on Nov. 7th, 1861. By this time Lt. Col. Robert Charles Tyler had been given command of the 15th which he led into battle with the Southern Illinois company in tow.

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH

The next battle the 15th saw was the battle of Shiloh, TN April 6th, 1862 during which the 15th lent reasonably good service. The 15th was assigned to Bushrod Johnson's brigade.

Bushrod Johnson's brigade at Shiloh
2nd Tenn.............Col. J. Knox Walker
15th Tenn.............Lt. Col. Robert Tyler
Polk¹s Tenn. Battery...Capt. Marshall T. Polk

Brigadier General Robert C. Tyler, P.A.C.S.

Brigadier-General Robert C. Tyler, a highly heroic office, was a native of Maryland, born and reared in the city of Baltimore. Being of a naturally enterprising disposition and imbued with the idea that American destiny pointed to the control by the United States of all the North American continent, he joined the Nicaraguan expedition of Gen. William Walker in 1859. After the unsuccessful issue of that enterprise he went to Memphis, Tenn., and there the war of 1861 found him. He entered the Confederate service as quartermaster of the Fifteenth Tennessee; in the autumn of 1861 he was promoted to major on the staff of General Cheatham, in the same department, and in a few months was made lieutenant-colonel of the Fifteenth. He commanded it at the battle of Shiloh, was soon promoted to colonel, and led it with distinction in all the engagements of the Southwest until, on the promotion of General Bate, he was made brigadier-general. At Missionary Ridge he was dangerously wounded and permanently disabled, and was not in the field again until Major-General Wilson, with 10,000 cavalry was sent to Alabama and Georgia to lay waste and destroy the country.

General Tyler, still on crutches, was sojourning near West Point, Ga., when Col. O. H. LaGrange, commanding a brigade of Wilson's cavalry entered that place on the 16th of April and made an easy capture of a lot of quartermaster and commissary stores. Hearing of the approach of LaGrange, General Tyler organized a lot of convalescents and Georgia militia, and undertook the defense of a little earthwork provided for the protection of a railroad bridge and called that day "Fort Tyler."

Colonel LaGrange reported that it was defended by two field pieces and a 32- pounder, and "265 desperate men." There were no trained gunners in the garrison, so no one of the attacking force was injured by the artillery. This fort, said Colonel LaGrange, was "a remarkably strong earthwork, 35 yards square." He assailed it with a brigade composed of the Second and Fourth Indiana, First Wisconsin and Seventh Kentucky regiments, dismounted, and the Eighteenth Indiana battery, and reported that the assault was made "under a scathing fire;" and his chief, Major-General Wilson, in his report to Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, said the assault was made "under a withering fire of musketry and grape." but in this large attacking column, Colonel LaGrange stated his loss was only 7 killed and 29 wounded. He reported the loss of the defenders of the fort at "18 killed and 28 seriously wounded, mostly shot through the head." General Thomas reported the affair to General Grant on the 1st of June, and stated that the defense was "stubborn" and that LaGrange had captured 300 prisoners. Colonel LaGrange, in a dispatch to General Upton, dated the day of the capture, reports the number of prisoners at 200. On the 17th of April, in a dispatch to General Canby and in one dated the 21st to General Sherman, General Wilson claimed for LaGrange the capture of the same number.

No exact information has been obtainable from Confederate sources, but the importance of the unfortunate affair and the strength of the garrison were exaggerated by the Federal commanding general through all grades down to Col. A. S. Bloom, of the Seventh Kentucky, who reported to the brigade commander that "after a fight raging furiously for over two hours, I prepared to charge the fort and helped to carry it," and naively added that he had a second lieutenant and two men slightly wounded.

The gallant Tyler, two captains, and one lieutenant were killed early by sharpshooters. It was honorable to the little garrison that in spite of the fall of their leader they displayed no white flag, but maintained the defense of the earthwork until they were overrun and captured by a force ten to fifteen times their own strength. The men around General Tyler were representatives of Tennessee, Georgia, and other States, imperfectly armed and organized at a moments notice; the garrison lost 48 killed and wounded; the shots were received in the head, showing the men did not take cover; it was the last fight east of the great river; it was a brave one, and a memorial stone should mark the place where Tyler and his heroes fell.

Source: Evans, Clement, ed. Confederate Military History, Vol. XII, Confederate Publishing Company, Atlanta, GA, 1899
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My Southern Family

Harriet HANSBOROUGH

ABT 1800 - ____

ID Number: I11313

Sources

Sarah "Sally" MCLEAN

ABT 1760 - ____

ID Number: I100174

Notes

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Elihu B. STANLEY

28 Aug 1826 - ____

ID Number: I57746

Notes

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Gen. Robert Charles TYLER C.S.A.

1833 - 16 Apr 1865

ID Number: I96442

Notes

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Philip WHITEHEAD

ABT 1680 - ____

ID Number: I73667

Notes

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Joseph T. WHITELY

1869 - ____

ID Number: I48463

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Sally M. WINSTON

ABT 1825 - ____

ID Number: I90187

Notes

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John Jacob ZOLLICOFFER

13 Jul 1775 - 17 Aug 1840

ID Number: I25688

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