The grave of
Colonel John S. Mosby, the Gray Ghost, is in the Warrenton Cemetery in
Warrenton, Virginia.During the course of the Civil War Mosby was
wounded seven times. For someone who had been a sickly youth, he proved quite
resilient, dying at the age of 82 on May 30, 1916. After the war, the thirty-one-year-old Mosby went on to become a
distinguished railway lawyer.He also
served as U.S. consul to Hong Kong and in several other Federal government
posts.Although Mosby’s war time
exploits have been romanticized, he himself once said that there was, “no man in the Confederate
Army who had less of the spirit of knight-errantry in him or took a more
practical view of war than I did.”
After surrendering the Army of
Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9,
1865, Robert E. Lee transitioned from Confederate general to civilian advocate
for national healing. He was not arrested or tried, but he was stripped of
voting rights and the Arlington estate, which became a national cemetery.Lee signed an amnesty oath on October 2,
1865—though his citizenship was not restored until 1975.
Declining lucrative offers, Lee
accepted the presidency of struggling Washington College in Lexington, Virginia.
He modernized the curriculum, emphasizing practical education, engineering, and
journalism, while promoting reconciliation: "I think it wisest not to keep
open the sores of war." In a post-war interview, Lee expressed relief at
slavery's abolition, viewing the conflict as tied to states' rights rather than
perpetuating bondage.
His health, weakened by heart issues,
failed after an 1870 stroke. He died on October 12 at age 63. Lee's post-war
focus on unity influenced the renamed Washington and Lee University and symbolized
Southern reintegration into the United States.
John Singleton Mosby, the legendary
Confederate guerrilla leader known as the "Gray Ghost," navigated a
controversial path after the American Civil War ended in 1865. Rather than
formally surrendering, Mosby disbanded his Rangers near Salem, Virginia, and
returned to civilian life as a lawyer in Warrenton. Defying Southern
expectations, he became a Republican, supporting Reconstruction and endorsing
Ulysses S. Grant's 1868 presidential bid—a move that drew death threats from
former Confederates.
Grant rewarded Mosby's loyalty by
appointing him U.S. consul to Hong Kong from 1878 to 1885. Returning stateside,
Mosby served in the Department of Justice from 1904 to 1910 under President
Theodore Roosevelt, investigating land frauds in the West. He also authored
memoirs defending his wartime actions.
Mosby's post-war reinvention
symbolized reconciliation for some, betrayal for others. Living until 1916, he
remained a complex figure: a Southern warrior who embraced the Union’s future.
Crazy Horse, born around 1840
as Tashunke Witko, was a revered Oglala Lakota warrior and leader known for his
fierce resistance against U.S. encroachment on Native lands. He played a
pivotal role in the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877, notably at the Battle of
Little Bighorn, where Lakota and Cheyenne forces defeated Lt. Col. George
Custer's 7th Cavalry.
After the harsh winter of
1876-1877 depleted resources, Crazy Horse surrendered with about 900 followers
at Camp Robinson (later Fort Robinson) in Nebraska on May 6, 1877, under
General George Crook. Promised a reservation in their homeland, tensions arose
amid rumors of his potential flight or uprising. On September 5, 1877, military
authorities ordered his arrest to prevent disruption.
Escorted to the guardhouse, a
scuffle erupted when Crazy Horse resisted confinement. In the chaos, he was
bayoneted in the back by a soldier—accounts vary on whether it was intentional
or accidental—and mortally wounded. He died that evening, around midnight, at
age 37. Crazy
Horse's remains were move to an undisclosed location, His final resting place
remains unknown.
Today, the Crazy Horse
Memorial in South Dakota honors his legacy as a symbol of Indigenous resilience.
President
Warren G. Harding’s sudden death in San Francisco on August 2, 1923, quickly
became one of the most puzzling episodes in United States
presidential history. Stricken during a cross-country political tour he had
been suffering for weeks from exhaustion, chest pains, shortness of breath, and
what his doctors variously called ptomaine poisoning, pneumonia, and an
overstrained heart.
That evening
at the Palace Hotel, Florence Harding read aloud a flattering article about her
husband as he appeared to be recovering, when he reportedly shuddered and collapsed,
dying almost instantly at age fifty-seven. An official bulletin, signed by five
physicians, attributed his death to a stroke, but no autopsy was performed
because the First Lady refused one and ordered immediate embalming, a decision
that fueled suspicion.
In the
absence of conclusive medical evidence, rumors flourished: whispered tales of
suicide, whispers that Florence had poisoned him because of his extra-marital
affairs, or that political enemies silenced him as many scandals involving political
corruption such as Teapot Dome were closing in.
After the Civil War, George E. Pickett lived
a difficult existence. Under investigation for the 1864 hanging of twenty-two
Union prisoners in North Carolina, he fled with his wife and their infant son
to Montreal, fearing prosecution as a war criminal. Intervention by his old
West Point acquaintance Ulysses S. Grant led to the quiet termination of the
inquiry, allowing Pickett to return to Virginia in 1866.
Back home, Pickett discovered that neither
his health nor his reputation would support a prominent public role. Unable to
re-enter the U.S. Army, he attempted farming near Richmond and worked as an
insurance agent.
He lived modestly, often brooding over
Gettysburg and the destruction of his division, and rarely spoke publicly about
his wartime service. In 1874 Congress removed his remaining political
disabilities, granting him a formal pardon, but the gesture could not repair
his declining health or restore his fortunes before his death the following
year.
Pickett died in Norfolk, Virginia, on July
30, 1875, at the age of fifty, his health broken in the hard postwar years.
Suffering from what contemporaries described as a liver abscess or “gastric
fever,” he passed away far from the Pennsylvania fields that had made his name
synonymous with the doomed assault at Gettysburg.
Pickett was first laid to rest in Cedar Grove
Cemetery in Norfolk, a modest interment for a man once celebrated across the
former Confederacy. Within months, however, friends and admirers arranged for
his remains to be moved to Richmond, the old Confederate capital, a shift meant
to honor both his rank and symbolic status.
On October 23–24, 1875, Pickett’s body was
disinterred and carried in solemn procession to Hollywood Cemetery, where
thousands lined the route and joined the funeral cortege. There he was buried
among other Confederate dead, his grave later marked by a prominent memorial
dedicated in 1888, though the exact spot of his remains beneath the monument is
uncertain.
Plenty Coupswas the last traditional chief of the
Crow Tribe and a visionary leader. Plenty Coups
experienced a vision when he was very young that non-Native American people would
ultimately take control of his homeland. He allied the Crow with the whites
when the war for the West was being fought.
One of his famous quotes is: "Education is your greatest weapon.
With education you are the white man's equal, without education you are his
victim and so shall remain all of your lives. Study, learn, help one another
always. Remember there is only poverty and misery in idleness and dreams – but
in work there is self-respect and independence."
Plenty Coups was the last traditional
chief of the Crow Tribe, renowned for his warrior prowess and prophetic visions
that shaped his people's future. Born near Billings, Montana, he earned his
name through daring coups against rivals like the Sioux and Cheyenne. A
childhood vision in the foretold white dominance over Native lands, advising
cooperation to ensure Crow survival—the chickadee, his spirit guide, symbolized
listening and wisdom.
As chief from his late 20s, Plenty
Coups allied with the U.S. Army in 1876 during the Great Sioux War, aiding at
battles like Rosebud to counter territorial threats. He made multiple
Washington trips to safeguard Crow reservations, retaining most lands amid
allotment pressures. Advocating education as the "greatest weapon,"
he transitioned his tribe to reservation life while preserving traditions.
In 1921, he honored the Unknown
Soldier at Arlington, placing his war bonnet on the tomb. His legacy endures in
Chief Plenty Coups State Park, his donated homestead, and his 1930
autobiography chronicling Crow history.
The Crow tribe allied with Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer
and the U.S. Army during the 1876 Great Sioux War primarily because of
long-standing intertribal warfare with their traditional enemies: the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho.
For decades, these powerful groups had
raided Crow lands, stolen horses, and pushed into prime buffalo hunting
territories in the Powder River country and Bighorn region—territories
guaranteed to the Crow by the 1851 Treaty of Fort Laramie. The Lakota expansion
threatened the Crow's survival and way of life, creating deep enmity.
Crow leaders, including visionary
chief Plenty Coups, saw alliance
with the United States as a strategic way to counter this existential threat,
gain military protection, and preserve their territory against stronger rivals.
The Crow were generally at peace with Americans and viewed the U.S. Army as a
lesser danger compared to ongoing Sioux and Cheyenne incursions.
Traditional Crow warriors exemplified
the fierce independence and martial culture that drove their decision to fight
alongside the Army:
By siding with Custer, the Crow aimed
to expel the Sioux from their reservation lands. After the broader defeat of
the Lakota, Crow chief Plenty Coups noted his people could finally sleep
without fear of raids—a direct outcome of this pragmatic alliance in a complex
era of survival.
George Armstrong Custer
relied heavily on Native American scouts. These men, primarily from the Arikara
and Crow tribes, served the U.S. Army to strike against their
traditional enemies—the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho.
The Arikara provided around forty
scouts, including the famed Bloody Knife, Custer's favorite
and trusted guide. Several Arikara, like Bloody Knife, Bobtail Bull, and Little
Brave, died in the fighting. The Crow contributed six key scouts, such as Curley,
White Man Runs Him, Goes Ahead, Hairy
Moccasin, Half Yellow Face, and White Swan.
Familiar with the terrain in their own historic lands, they spotted the vast
encampment from the Crow's Nest overlook and delivered dire warnings Custer
largely ignored.
Their service highlights the
complex alliances of the Indian Wars, where Native warriors fought on both
sides of the conflict.
Ulysses S.
Grant, Civil War hero and 18th U.S. President, died on July 23, 1885, at age 63
from throat cancer at Mount McGregor in New York. Ruined by swindler Ferdinand
Ward's Ponzi scheme, the bankrupt Grant raced against agony to finish his
memoirs, aided by Mark Twain's generous 70% royalty deal.
Unable to
speak or eat without agony, he penned 366,000 words in under a year, declaring
on July 16, "nothing more... I am not likely to be more ready to go."
He passed peacefully surrounded by family.
He whispered "Let us have peace"—his tomb's inscription.
Posthumous sales of his memoirs secured his wife’s future and cemented Grant's
literary triumph.
Captain James Cook, the renowned
British explorer, met his untimely end on February 14, 1779, during his third
Pacific voyage aboard HMS Resolution. Seeking the Northwest Passage, Cook
anchored at Kealakekua Bay in Hawaii, and was initially hailed by natives as a god.
Relations soured. Theft of a boat
prompted Cook to seize the Hawiian King as ransom, igniting a violent clash on
the shore. Overwhelmed by hundreds of Hawaiians, Cook was struck by a club and
stabbed with an iron dagger—ironically, traded from his own crew.
Cook's death highlighted cultural
misunderstandings and the perils of exploration, ending a legacy that mapped
vast oceans and bridged worlds.
In the mid-19th century, the turbulent
landscape of Mexico became the stage for one of history's most poignant
tragedies: the ill-fated reign of Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian of Austria and
his wife, Princess Charlotte of Belgium, known as Carlota. Maximilian, born on
July 6, 1832, in Vienna, was the younger brother of Emperor Franz Joseph I. A
naval commander and viceroy of Lombardy-Venetia, he was an enlightened liberal
with dreams of progressive governance. Carlota, born June 7, 1840, was the
ambitious daughter of King Leopold I of Belgium, intelligent and politically
astute. Their marriage on July 27, 1857, united two royal houses, but it was
their acceptance of the Mexican throne that sealed their tragic fate.
The backdrop was Mexico's chaos
following independence from Spain in 1821. Decades of civil strife between
liberals, who favored a secular republic, and conservatives, who sought a
monarchy tied to the Catholic Church, culminated in the Reform War (1857–1861).
Liberal leader Benito Juárez emerged victorious as president but suspended
foreign debt payments in 1861 amid economic ruin. This prompted intervention by
France, Spain, and Britain. While the latter two withdrew, Napoleon III of
France saw an opportunity to establish a puppet empire. French forces invaded
in 1862, capturing Mexico City by 1863 and installing a provisional government.
Mexican monarchists, backed by
Napoleon, approached Maximilian with an offer of the crown, presenting a rigged
plebiscite claiming popular support. Initially hesitant, Maximilian was swayed
by Carlota's enthusiasm and assurances of legitimacy. On April 10, 1864, he
accepted, renouncing his Austrian titles. The couple arrived in Veracruz on May
29, 1864, aboard the frigate Novara. Greeted coolly in the liberal port
but warmly in conservative strongholds like Puebla and Mexico City, they were
crowned in the capital's cathedral. They transformed Chapultepec Castle into a
lavish residence, complete with European furnishings, and built a summer home
in Cuernavaca.
Their reign began with promise.
Maximilian, influenced by Enlightenment ideals, enacted reforms that surprised
both sides: he upheld Juárez's land reforms, abolished child labor and corporal
punishment, limited work hours, promoted education and infrastructure, and
tolerated religious freedom. Carlota was no mere consort; she served as regent
during his absences, oversaw charitable works, and toured regions like Yucatán
in 1865 to foster loyalty. The imperial court hosted grand balls, and the
couple immersed themselves in Mexican culture, admiring its landscapes,
cuisine, and diversity. Yet, these progressive policies alienated conservative
backers who expected a restoration of church privileges, while liberals viewed
the regime as foreign imposition.
Cracks soon appeared. The empire
depended on 30,000 French troops, but the U.S. Civil War's end in 1865 shifted
dynamics. The United States, now free to enforce the Monroe Doctrine, supplied
arms and funds to Juárez's republicans and pressured France to withdraw.
Napoleon III, facing Prussian threats at home, began pulling troops in early
1866, leaving Maximilian exposed. Desperate, Maximilian issued the "Black
Decree", authorizing summary executions of republican guerrillas,
resulting in over 11,000 deaths and fueling resentment.
As the situation deteriorated, Carlota
sailed to Europe in July 1866 to plead for aid from Napoleon, the Pope, and her
brother-in-law Franz Joseph. Her efforts failed amid diplomatic rebuffs. Overwhelmed,
she descended into paranoia, convinced of poisoning plots. She refused food
unless tested on cats, collected rainwater herself, and hid in fear. Diagnosed
with mental illness at age 26, she was confined to Miramar Castle in Italy,
then Bouchout Castle in Belgium, where she lived in seclusion, oscillating
between lucidity and delusions of her Mexican empire. She outlived Maximilian
by six decades, dying of pneumonia on January 19, 1927, at 86, her tragedy
immortalized in literature and art.
In the late 1880s, the Ghost Dance
movement swept through Native American communities, offering hope of a
spiritual renewal that would restore traditional ways and expel white settlers.
Sitting Bull, though not a primary leader of the movement, supported its
message of cultural revival. On December 15, 1890, Indian Agency police, acting
on orders to arrest him, arrived at Sitting Bull’s cabin on the Standing Rock
Reservation. The attempt to apprehend him turned violent when his followers
resisted. Sitting Bull was shot and killed. He was around 59 years old.He is buried at Fort Yates, North Dakota.
George Washington died on December 14, 1799.Fearing premature burial, he requested of his doctors to
be “decently buried” and to “not let my body be put into the Vault in less than
three days after I am dead.”In his last will he expressed the desire to be buried at Mount Vernon. George
Washington was entombed in the existing family vault, now known as the old
Vault on December 18, 1799.In his last
will, George Washington directed the building of a new family burial vault.In 1831, Washington’s body was transferred to
the new tomb.
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