Category: Generals Wives

Wife of Union General Charles Russell Lowell Josephine Shaw Lowell (1843-1905) was a social reformer who is best known for creating the New York Consumers League in 1890. She recognized that low wages and unemployment were primary causes of poverty, and began to support organized labor and binding arbitration. Lowell raised money for striking garment workers and boycotted stores that underpaid and overworked their salesgirls. Image: Josephine Shaw Lowell in 1869 Josephine Shaw was born on December 16, 1843, in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, into a wealthy New England family. Her parents, Francis George and Sarah Blake Shaw, were philanthropists and intellectuals who encouraged their five children to study, learn and become involved in their communities. The Shaws were wealthy Bostonians…

Wife of Union General Fitz John Porter Fitz John Porter was a career U.S. Army officer and a Union General during the Civil War. He is most known for his performance at the Second Battle of Bull Run and his subsequent court martial, caused by his political rivals. After the war, he worked for almost 25 years to reclaim his reputation and restore his name to the army’s roll. Image: General Fitz John Porter Harriet Pierson Cook was born in New York in May 1833. Fitz John Porter was born on August 31, 1822, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He came from a family prominent in American naval service; his cousins were Admirals David Dixon Porter, and David Glasgow Farragut. Nevertheless,…

Wife of Union General Strong Vincent At Gettysburg, under his own initiative, Colonel Strong Vincent moved his men to Little Round Top and saved that important hill from immediate capture by the Confederates. Image: Save the Ground at All Hazard By Keith Rocco Elizabeth Vincent had bade goodbye to her husband Strong Vincent the day after their wedding, as he left to fight in the Civil War. On the Gettysburg battlefield, Pennsylvanians like Vincent were fighting to defend their home state against an invasion by the Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee. Strong Vincent was born on June 17, 1837, in Waterford, Erie County, Pennsylvania, son of Bethuel B. Vincent and Sarah Ann Strong Vincent. In…

Wife of Confederate Major General William Henry Fitzhugh Lee Charlotte Wickham was the child of George Wickham of the U.S. Navy and Charlotte Carter Wickham, daughter of Williams Carter of Shirley Plantation. This estate, with its attractive mansion in Charles City County, Virginia has been the seat of the Carter and Hill Families since 1638. Charlotte’s mother died while she was a baby, so Charlotte was raised at Shirley. Image: Shirley Plantation Childhood home of Charlotte Lee In earlier times, guests arrived by boat along the James River, where they looked up to see the front of this perfectly proportioned Georgian Colonial house. Shirley Plantation was begun in 1613, making it the oldest in Virginia, and to this day its…