With the death of General William E. Strong of Chicago, in April of the
present year, there passed away another of the distinguished volunteer
soldiers of the United States who won distinction during the War of the
Rebellion, and at the close of that great conflict returned to civil life
to become the flower of American manhood, and a perfect representative of
American citizenship. Brave, loyal and patriotic, when the call came for
his services in support of the Union he was prompt to respond, and was
a faithful and gallant soldier until the struggle was ended and victory
achieved. When that time came it found him equally ready to return to
peaceful pursuits in which in later years his high character and ability
made him both successful and distinguished.
William Emerson Strong was born in Granville, in Washington County, New
York, August 10, 1840. The family to which he belonged was one of the
oldest and most noted of the Puritan families of New England. Elder John
Strong, the founder of the family in America, was a native of Taunton,
England—where his ancestors had been honorably mentioned in public
records as long ago as 1545. He sailed from Plymouth in the ship “Mary
and John,” March 20th, 1630, in company with one hundred and forty other
persons. They landed at Nantasket, (twelve miles s. e. of Boston) at the
end of a voyage of more than seventy days, and John Strong settled at
Northampton, Massachusetts. Here several generations of his descendants
lived, and from thence representatives of the family drifted into other
States, to become conspicuous in all the walks of life.
One of these descendants, but three or four generations removed from the
pilgrim John Strong was Caleb Strong, one of the framers of the Federal
Constitution, Governor of Massachusetts from 1800 to 1807, and again from
1812 to 1816, and also one of the first United States Senators from the
“Old Bay State.”
Other representatives of the family who have achieved extraordinary
distinction have been Gen. George C. Strong, who was mortally wounded
while leading the Federal troops in the assault on Fort Wagner, July
18th, 1863, Rear Admiral James Hooker Strong of the United States Navy,
Theron R. Strong, at one time a Judge of the Supreme Court of New York
State, William Strong one of the most noted of American jurists, and
Simeon Strong, who sat on the Supreme Court Bench of Massachusetts from
1800 to 1805.
General William E. Strong was descended on the father’s side from the
Emerson family of New England, one of his near kinsmen being Ralph Waldo
Emerson, the poet-philosopher, whose name is revered by all those who
appreciate the purest and best in intellectual culture.
Gen. Strong’s father, John Emerson Strong, was a wealthy manufacturer and
merchant of Granville, New York, up to 1849, when he met with business
reverses which changed the character of his business and led him to
seek a new location. In the spring of 1853 he removed from New York to
Wisconsin, and settled with his family at Jefferson Prairie, in Rock
County, where he purchased a farm and turned his attention to bringing
it under cultivation. His son William was at this time thirteen years of
age. Prior to the removal of the family from New York he had enjoyed all
the educational advantages afforded by the excellent schools of the town
in which he had lived and had made good progress in his studies. From the
time he was thirteen until he was seventeen years of age however, he was
busily employed at work on his father’s farm and only attended school
during the winter months of each year with the exception of one year,
when he had the privilege of spending six months in the preparatory
department of Beloit College.
In the fall of 1856 when he was in his seventeenth year, he entered the
law office of Strong & Fuller, at Racine, Wisconsin, and under their
preceptorship began the study of law. He was at that time an active,
manly young fellow, and he entered upon the work of fitting himself for
a professional career with all the ardor, enthusiasm and determination
which characterized him in later years. Whatever he undertook to do, he
endeavored to do better than it had been done before. In everything he
strove to excel, and in this he observed the spirit of the old motto
“Tentanda est Via,” placed upon the Strong escutcheon three hundred years
ago.
After a time he temporarily dropped his law studies and went to Phillips
Academy at Andover, Massachusetts, where he prepared for college and
was admitted to the sophomore class of Harvard. Before completing his
college course however, he determined to enter upon the practice of law,
and in accordance with the course he had mapped out for himself, he
made application for admission to the bar of Wisconsin. He was examined
at Racine, in open court, by a committee appointed for the purpose in
accordance with the usages of that period, and the examination being
passed successfully he was duly authorized to begin practicing his
profession in the courts of the First Judicial Circuit of Wisconsin.
This was in 1861, and it will be observed that notwithstanding the fact
that he had had to contend with disadvantages of various kinds, before he
was twenty-one years of age he had fitted himself to enter the profession
in which so large a number of those bearing the same name and belonging
to the same stock had achieved unusual distinction.
The day he received the certificate which entitled him to begin the
practice of law, was that which brought the news of the fall of Fort
Sumpter. This suddenly changed all his plans, and ultimately the whole
course of his life. At once he resolved to tender his services to the
government, and on the same day that President Lincoln issued his
first call for volunteers, he was regularly enlisted in the government
service. He proceeded to raise a company, known as the Belle City Rifles,
which was assigned to the Second Regiment of Wisconsin Infantry. When
the company was organized, William E. Strong was commissioned Captain
and went into the field in command of it, the regiment becoming part
of a brigade commanded by Colonel (afterward General) W. T. Sherman.
He retained the command of the company between four and five months,
participating in the battle of Blackburn’s Fort and Bull Run. He was
also in command of his company when the next advance of the army into
Virginia was made by way of Chain Ridge. It was during his first campaign
that Captain Strong met with one of his most thrilling experiences, and
demonstrated that his fighting qualities were such as could be depended
upon under all circumstances. At one time while extending his picket
line, he ventured too far out and found himself inside the lines of
the enemy. Before he could retire from this embarrassing and dangerous
position he was surrounded by a band of five confederates, three of whom
were mounted and two of whom were on foot, and was taken prisoner. The
confederates demanded his pistols, and with great courtesy and suavity
he responded “certainly gentlemen,” at the same time drawing the weapons
from their holsters. His “suaviter in modo” threw his enemies off their
guard, but he had no intention of being captured without a struggle, and
no sooner were the pistols in his hands than they were brought to bear on
the confederates and two of them fell at his first fire. The suddenness
and vigor of the attack caused the remaining captors to beat a retreat,
and Captain Strong reached the Federal lines in safety. In this encounter
he was shot through the cheek, but although the wound was painful he
did not regard it as serious and did not allow it to interfere with his
regular discharge of his military duties.
On the 12th of September he was commissioned Major of the 12th. Regiment
of Wisconsin Infantry, serving with it in Kansas, Missouri, and New
Mexico. In October of 1862, he was assigned to duty on the staff of
General McLean, as Inspector General of the first division, right wing
of the Army of the Tennessee. He served in this capacity two months and
was then assigned to duty on the staff of General James B. McPherson,
as inspector General of the right wing of the Army of the Tennessee.
In February, 1863, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and became
Assistant Inspector General of the Seventeenth Army corps. On the 20th
of April, 1864, he was appointed Inspector General of the Department
and Army of the Tennessee, serving in that capacity until the close of
the war. He was chief of staff to General O. O. Howard, on the march to
the sea and through the Carolinas to Beaufort, Goldboro, Raleigh and
thence to Washington. At Atlanta he was promoted to a Colonelcy, dating
from July 22d, 1864, for “gallantry on the field of battle,” and on the
21st of March, 1865, he was brevetted a brigadier general of volunteers,
having attained this distinction while still under 24 years of age.
After participating in the grand review of troops at Washington in
May, 1865, General Strong was assigned with General Howard, to duty in
connection with the conduct and management of the Freedman’s Bureau,
and in September, 1866, was then mustered out of the service at his own
request, having served in all over five years.
Throughout his entire term of service he was recognized as a brave and
capable officer, and his gallantry was attested on numerous occasions. It
was he who raised the stars and stripes over the Courthouse at Vicksburg
immediately after the capitulation of the confederate forces.
He received the last order from the brilliant and lamented McPherson,
while acting as his chief of staff, and led the desperate and daring
charge which was made to recover the dead chieftain’s body. The following
is a list of battles and campaigns in which he participated; The battles
of Blackburn’s Ford and Bull Run in July, 1861. The campaign in Kansas,
and also the campaign in Kentucky, Tennessee and Central Mississippi in
1862-63; the campaign against Vicksburg by way of the Mississippi River;
and also in the battles of Port Gibson, May 1st; battle of Raymond,
May 12th; battle of Jackson, May 14th; battle of Champign Hills, May
16th; battle of Black River Bridge, May 17th; Siege of Vicksburgh, May
17th to July 4th, 1863; the campaign against Meridian, Mississippi, and
that against Atlanta in 1864, in which he participated in the battle of
Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church, Kennesaw Mountain, Atlanta, Ezra Chapel,
Jonesboro, Lovejoy Station, and later Fort McAllister, and Bentonville,
one of the final contests of the war, and was present at the final
surrender of Johnston’s army on April 26th of that year. Esteemed by his
superior officers and subordinates alike for his soldierly qualities,
he was equally noted for his uniform courtesy and his efficiency as an
executive officer.
In 1867, soon after he left the military service, General Strong formed
a business connection with the Peshtigo Company, one of the largest
corporate organizations engaged in the lumber trade in the United States.
The same year he was married to Miss Mary Bostwick Ogden, an accomplished
young woman, daughter of Mahlon D. Ogden, one of the pioneer citizens
of Chicago. Establishing his home in Chicago at that time it continued
to be his place of residence to the date of his death, and with many
of its most important enterprises and undertakings of late years he
was most prominently identified. Chosen secretary and treasurer of the
Peshtigo Company in 1867, he retained that position until 1873, when he
became president of the corporation. This position he filled for eighteen
years, and was holding at the time of his death, April 10th, 1891. He
was one of the promoters and builders of the Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal,
became a director and was also treasurer and assistant secretary of the
Sturgeon Bay & Lake Michigan Canal Company, and was largely instrumental
in developing the resources of the lumber regions of the northwest. In
his business life he showed great capacity for the conduct of affairs of
more than ordinary magnitude. His management of the important interests
committed to his care was uniformally successful. He never lost his
interest in military affairs, and after he became a citizen of Illinois
was among those most active in promoting the organization and providing
for the proper discipline and equipment of the National Guard of the
State. In 1876, he was commissioned by Gov. Beveridge, Inspector General
of the Illinois’ National Guard. Gov. Cullom, the immediate successor
of Gov. Beveridge, commissioned him Inspector General and Inspector of
Rifle practice on his staff, with the rank of Brigadier General in 1877,
and again in 1879. In addition to his interest in the National Guard,
he was active in building up and promoting the growth of the veteran
organizations particularly of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion,
of the Illinois commandery of which he was a charter member and also
commander.
In politics he took a moderately active interest as a member of the
Republican party to the principles of which he was devotedly attached. He
was a member of the Local Committee of Arrangements which had charge of
the preparations for the meeting of the National Republican convention
of 1880, was designated to take charge of the convention building, and
to act as sergeant-at-arms after the sessions began. This convention
was memorable for the length of time it lasted, for the large number of
distinguished men who participated in the proceedings, and the multitude
of people from all parts of the country in attendance. The great crowds
were handled by General Strong with remarkable skill, and at the close
of the convention he was publicly thanked for his services by General
James A. Garfield, who had been made the Presidential nominee.
From early boyhood General Strong was a lover of field sports, and was
passionately found of hunting wild fowl and large game, and visited
at one time and another, almost every portion of the United States,
having attractions of this kind to offer. In company with General Phil.
Sheridan—for many years, one of his most intimate friends—he made several
visits to the Yellowstone Park region, and wrote numerous interesting
sketches of these experiences, adventures and explorations. While the
busy life he led did not allow him to give as much attention as he would
have liked to literature, he gathered together a valuable library, one of
the most conspicuous features of which was the amount of war literature
which it contained, inclusive of rare manuscripts, autograph letters,
papers, documents, and photographs, which it is said can scarcely be
duplicated in the United States. He was a member of the Literary Club
of Chicago and also of the Commercial Club. His last public service was
rendered to the city in the capacity of a director of the Worlds Fair, an
enterprise with the inception and inauguration of which he had much to do.
General Strong was in the prime of a splendid manhood when failing
health admonished him that he must seek rest and a change of climate.
Accordingly on the 14th of March last, he sailed from New York to join
his wife and daughters in Europe. Traveling by easy stages he reached
Florence, Italy, where the end came suddenly, and at least to his
thousands of friends in the United States, unexpectedly on the 10th of
April. His remains were brought back to the land of his nativity and to
his former home in Chicago. From thence they were carried by the comrades
of former days and the devoted friends of his later years to his last
resting place in Graceland cemetery, where he sleeps peacefully, wrapped
in the national colors which he so bravely defended in his young manhood.
At the obsequies of General Strong the fact was made apparent that a
man had passed away whom a great busy community, felt called upon to
honor, and the tenderest tributes of love, respect, and admiration were
laid on his grave. Said one who paid tribute to his character and worth
as a man and patriot: “It is befitting to preserve in memory and hand
down to the generations something about a man who has helped to make
citizens heroic soldiers, and to render possible the triumph of liberty
and manhood. While his was a beneficent existence of many manly years, it
seems to the view of man that he died before his time. It is but just to
say of him that his conduct as a soldier, sprang from a truly patriotic,
martyr spirit which enabled him to dare unflinchingly, with a smile to
the green earth, and a smile to the bright heavens, and a cheer to his
companions.”
Of striking appearance, pleasing manners and great personal magnetism,
he drew around him a circle of friends which was composed of many of
the men best known in public and official life, in the world of trade
and commerce, and in the various professions. These men were drawn to
him by his geniality, his candor, his culture, his broad liberality
and his unswerving fidelity to his friends. He was of that chivalrous
nature which was regarded as the distinguishing characteristic of the
Preux Chevalier in the days of knight errantry and with it all, was the
practical, level-headed man of affairs.
A brave soldier, a good citizen, a courteous gentleman, General Strong
was a splendid type of American manhood.