John Watts de Peyster

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John Watts de Peyster

John Watts de Peyster, Sr. (born March 9, 1821 in New York City - † May 4, 1907 ) was an American author of military theory and criticism and an early adjutant general of the New York National Guard and served during the Mexican-American War and Civil War in the New York State Militia . He was one of the earliest American military critics and is known for his descriptions of the War of Independence and the War of Civil Secession. He also published novels as well as poetic and biographical works.

Youth and family background

De Peyster was born in New York to a wealthy, long -established Dutchess County family and a first cousin of Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny . His great-great-grandfather was Abraham de Peyster , one of the early mayors of New York City , whose brother Johannes de Peyster was also mayor of that city. John studied law at Columbia College but failed to graduate for health reasons. At a young age he was disabled because of a heart disease that he contracted while working as a volunteer firefighter . De Peyster was a volunteer member of Fire Department No. 5 Pants Carriage ; a great fire in 1836 damaged his health. Despite his health problems, he has been described as resolute and even dictatorial.

He later earned a Masters of Arts from Columbia College, a Doctor of Laws from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln College of Law, and a Doctor of Philosophy from Franklin and Marshall College . With his assistance, the New York City Police Department and the New York City Fire Department were formed. He campaigned for fire-fighting reforms that were implemented first in New York City and eventually nationwide, such as professional fire departments and steam-powered fire engines.

He spent his entire career in the New York State Militia and was promoted to Brigadier General in 1851 . He served as the state's Judge Advocate General and eventually as the adjutant general before resigning in 1855 over a dispute with New York Governor Myron H. Clark . As a military observer, he traveled extensively across Europe and implemented several reforms that modernized the militia for the coming conflict.

Civil War

Oct. 27, 1864 - K Company men, 148th Pennsylvania Volunteers, armed with Spencer repeater rifles, advance in tirailleur formation and capture a fort occupied by the 46th Virginia Infantry during the siege of Petersburg , Virginia.

De Peyster was Brigadier General of the New York Militia prior to the American Civil War. Against the resistance of Abraham Lincoln , which he regarded as prejudiced on this point, he tried to set up regiments for the Union Army . In 1861, de Peyster traveled to Washington, DC , to negotiate command as brigadier general in the Constitutional Army and to offer to set up two regiments of artillery, believing that this type of weapon would best suit his military ability and health. This initiative met with little interest because New York State had already met its 75,000 recruitment quota.

Each of his three sons served in the Union Army in this conflict. The eldest of them, John Watts de Peyster, Jr. , served as aide-de-camp and artillery commander in the Army of the Potomac and retired as Brevet Brigadier General after the war ; Frederic de Peyster III was a colonel and doctor; his youngest son, Johnston L. de Peyster , was Second Lieutenant in command of an artillery battery that was credited with hoisting the first Union flag over the Confederate Capitol after the fall of Richmond , Virginia .

The career militia officer had long suffered from poor health and therefore refused a command in the cavalry offered him in June 1863 by New York Senator Ira Harris on behalf of Generals Joseph Hooker and Alfred Pleasonton , who may keep an eye on social connections de Peysters had thrown. Other notable people with limited battlefield experience who were promoted to brigadier generals from Pleasonton at the time were Elon John Farnsworth , son of a congressman, Wesley Merritt, and George Armstrong Custer .

His treatise New American Tactics consisted of a series of articles published in The Army and Navy Journal . He advocated making tirailleurs the standard as the new battle formation, a proposal that was considered revolutionary at the time. These contributions were translated and reprinted in foreign military magazines, including Biographie des célébrités militaires des armées de terre et de mer de 1789 à 1850 . Such tactics were put into practice by generals such as John Buford and later used worldwide.

De Peyster was raised to the rank of major general by a special act of New York law in 1866 . It was the first of its kind in New York State and the first ever for a state in the United States.

He was a close friend of Major General Daniel Sickles , the commander of the III. Corps . General de Peyster wrote biographies of the War of Civil War Generals Andrew A. Humphreys and Gershom Mott , and he commended Buford's famed use of light cavalry.

“The hero at Oak Ridge was John Buford… he not only showed the rarest tenacity, but his personal capacity made his cavalry accomplish marvels, and rival infantry in their steadfastness… Glorious John Buford!”

"The hero at Oak Ridge was John Buford ... not only did he show a seldom found tenacity, but his personal achievement caused his cavalry to perform miracles and rival the infantry in steadfastness ... Glorious John Buford!"

- Gen. de Payster : about Buford's dragoon tactics

Post war career

The de Peyster family home, Rose Hill , in Tivoli, New York. It later became the Watts De Peyster Industrial Home and School for girls and was demolished in 1938.
The former fire station in Tivoli, now the Village Hall
General John Watts de Peyster 1863

General de Peyster was known as one of the greatest land developers in Tivoli , where he lived in his family home. In 1892 he had a wooden Methodist church replaced with a brick building that still stands today. He had an old school building converted into an industrial school for girls and, as a fire brigade specialist, built a large, state-of-the-art fire station in 1895 with rooms for local administration . A portrait of de Peysters is still in this building, which served as a fire station until 1986 . The tall Victorian structure also housed a courtroom, prison and a large meeting room for local administration. The general finally came into conflict with the mayor of the district, his son Johnston de Peyster, who then banned his father from the house. The local administration was forced to move to another building, where it remained until the former fire station was renovated in 1994 and the local administration returned to the building.

In his writings, he firmly stood up for Dan Sickles and his role in the Battle of Gettysburg . Some of his works deal with the influence of Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker to the Army of the Potomac , with the developments that led to the battle, both negatives and positives. He was devastating about the achievements of the XI. Corps at the Battle of Chancellorsville . In his writings he assessed the achievements of Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas as brilliant and thus initiated its reception as one of the best commanders of the Civil War today. In the New York Times and in scientific journals he correctly predicted the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the Franco-German War of 1870/71. Under the pseudonym Anchor , he published extensive articles in magazine publications on history, in which he highly praised the services of Sickles and Buford. In other publications he paid tribute to the men of the New York City Fire Department.

De Peyster wrote an extensive military history work on the Battle of Saratoga and in 1887 donated a memorial, the so-called Boot Monument , which commemorates the heroic wounding of Benedict Arnold in that battle, although Arnold's name is not mentioned on the memorial, only his boot is pictured. In 1905 De Peyster bought Sir William Johnson 's manor , known as Fort Johnson since 1755, and donated it to the Montgomery County Historical Society, which was based in Amsterdam , New York.

In 1901 he donated several thousand books and maps as well as a Moorish yatagan , which he had brought back from one of his trips in 1851, to the Smithsonian Institution . Although De Peyster's biographer dedicated six chapters to his charity, he gave no information about his ethnological collections. Another philanthropic gift was the establishment of the first library at Franklin and Marshall College and the foundation of one of the largest and most important collections of rare books on military history, an 1890-volume collection on Napoleon Bonaparte . De Peyster had acquired many of these monographs while traveling in Europe and researching his own biography of Napoleon, entitled Napoleone di Buonaparte (1896).

The monument to Abraham de Peyster, one of the founders of Nieuw Amsterdam , was created by George Edwin Bissell and General de Peyster had it placed in Bowling Green in the city's oldest square. John Watts de Peyster was also Vice President of the American Numismatic Society and namesake of Post # 71 of the New York GAR in Tivoli, New York.

De Peyster died in a family apartment in Manhattan in 1907 . He bequeathed his Rose Hill home to a local children's home.

Works

De Peyster was the author of Life of Field Marshal Torstenson (1855), The Dutch at the North Pole (1857), Caurausius, the Dutch Augustus (1858), Life of Baron Cohorn (1860), The Decisive Conflicts of the Late Civil War, or Slaveholder's Rebellion (1867), Personal and Military History of General Philip Kearny (1869), The Life and Misfortunes and the Military Career of Brig.-Gen. Sir John Johnson (1882) and Gypsies: Some Curious Investigations, Collected, Translated, Or Reprinted from Various Sources (1887). De Peyster also contributed to numerous other books, biographies, articles, and other publications.

See also

literature

  • Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster . 2 volumes. Frank Allaben Genealogical Company, New York 1908 ( archive.org , archive.org ).
  • John Howard Brown: De Peyster . In: Boston Biographical Society (Ed.): Lamb's biographical dictionary of the United States . tape 2 : Chubb-Erich . James H. Lamb Co., Boston, Mass. 1900, p. 428-431 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  • J. Watts De Peyster: Before, at, and after Gettysburg . CH Ludwig, New York 1887, OCLC 894793505 ( archive.org ).
  • Collections of the New York Historical Society. The John Watts De Peyster Publication Fund Series. 85 volumes . New York Historical Society, New York, NY 1868–.
  • Lewis Randolph Hamersly: Brigadier-General John Watts De Peyster . In: Biographical sketches of distinguished officers of the army and navy . LR Hamersly, New York 1905, p. 82-88 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

Web links

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 1: Ancestry. P. 28 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  2. ↑ a b Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 3: Military Career. P. 205 (Chapter XX: Judge-Advocate and Colonel. Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  3. ↑ Leopold, Robert. A Guide to Early African Collections in the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Institution, August 1994.
  4. ↑ Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 1: Ancestry. P. 26 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  5. ↑ a b Lewis Randolph Hamersly: Brigadier-General John Watts De Peyster. P. 85 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  6. ↑ Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 2: Early Recollections. P. 178 (Chapter XVIII: Collegian and Volunteer Fireman. Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Cynthia Owen Philip: The Saga of Tivoli, Part II: Clambakes, Cock Fights, & Boxing Matches ( English ) In: About Town Magazine . Winter 2005. Archived from the original on September 28, 2007. Retrieved June 25, 2011.
  8. ^ A b c Lewis Randolph Hamersly: Brigadier-General John Watts De Peyster. P. 87 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  9. ↑ Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 2: Early Recollections. P. 185 (Chapter XIX: Europe again. Text archive - Internet Archive ).
  10. ↑ a b Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 3: Military Career. P. 290 (Chapter XXVII: Third Military Report. Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  11. ↑ Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 3: Military Career. P. 267 (Chapter XXVI: Military Agent of the State of New York. Text archive - Internet Archive ).
  12. ↑ Lewis Randolph Hamersly: Brigadier-General John Watts De Peyster. P. 86 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  13. ↑ a b Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 3: Military Career. P. 319 (Chapter XXIX: Brevet Major-General. Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  14. ↑ Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 3: Military Career. P. 320 (Chapter XXIX: Brevet Major-General. Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  15. ^ George Shepley: Incidents in the Capture of Richmond . In: Atlantic Monthly . July 1880.
  16. ↑ John Howard Brown: De Peyster . In: Boston Biographical Society (Ed.): Lamb's biographical dictionary of the United States . tape 2 : Chubb-Erich . James H. Lamb Co., Boston, Mass. 1900, p. 428-431 ( Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  17. ^ Alfred Pleasonton: Alfred Pleasonton to Brig. Gen. John Farnsworth . In: Alfred Pleasonton papers . Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress , Washington, DC June 23, 1863, OCLC 79449837 .
  18. ↑ Lewis Randolph Hamersly: Brigadier-General John Watts De Peyster. Pp. 86–87 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  19. ↑ Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 3: Military Career. P. 323 (Chapter XXIX: Brevet Major-General. Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  20. ↑ Michael Phipps, John S. Peterson: "The Devil's to pay". General John Buford, USA . Farnsworth Military Impressions, Gettysburg, PA 1995, ISBN 0-9643632-1-6 .
  21. ↑ Lewis Randolph Hamersly: Brigadier-General John Watts De Peyster. P. 88 ( Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
  22. ^ Claudia Durst Johnson: Understanding the Red Badge of Courage: A Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical Documents . Greenwood Press. 79, 1998. Retrieved July 23, 2011.
  23. ↑ Thomas Van Horne: The Life of Major General George H. Thomas . Charles Scribner's Sons, New York 1882, pp. 343-344.
  24. ↑ United States Congressional Serial Set . United States Government Printing Office , Washington, DC 1890, pp. 216-227.
  25. ↑ Willard Sterne Randall: Benedict Arnold: Patriot and Traitor . Dorset Press, New York 1990, ISBN 0-7607-1272-7 .
  26. ^ W. Max. Reid: The Story of Old Fort Johnson . GP Putnam's Sons, New York and London 1906.
  27. ↑ Frank Allaben: John Watts De Peyster. Volume 1, Book 3: Military Career. Pp. 211–258 (Chapter XX – XXIV. Text Archive - Internet Archive ).
  28. ^ Joseph Henry Dubbs: History of Franklin and Marshall College . Franklin and Marshall College Alumni Association, Lancaster 1903 .
  29. ^ ANS Vice Presidents ( English ) American Numismatical Society. Archived from the original on May 21, 2011. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 25, 2011. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.numismatics.org
predecessor Office successor
Isaac Vanderpoel Adjutant General
New York National Guard
1855 		Robert H. Pruyn
personal data
SURNAME De Peyster, John Watts
ALTERNATIVE NAMES De Peyster, John Watts Sr.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author, general, historian
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1821
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH May 4, 1907
Place of death New York City