Thomas Baylis Whitmarsh Stockton (1805 - 1890)

Born 18 Jun 1805 in New York, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Maria Garland (Smith) Stockton — married 3 Mar 1830 in Prairie Du Chien, Minnesota

Died 9 Dec 1890 at age 85 in Michigan, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Scott Lee [send private message]

Biography

Thomas Stockton is Notable.

Parents and Place of Birth

Thomas Baylis Whitmarsh Stockton was born in the state of New York, at Walton, Delaware County, on June 18th, 1805. Thomas' father was Ensign Charles Witham Stockton, who was officially an ensign in the King's American Rangers, and who later was promoted to Lieutenant.^[1] He subsequently enlisted with the New Jersey Volunteers. Thomas' father served with the 'Roger's Rangers'.^[2][3]Thomas' mother, Elizabeth North, died when Thomas was just an infant, just a month after his birth. She is buried at the Walton Cemetery, in Delaware County, New York. Thomas then went to live with an older sister

Siblings

Thomas grew up in a large family with several brothers and sisters, including half siblings:

• Mary, b. 1779
• Abigail, b. 1781
• Richard, b. 1785
• Martha, b. 1788
• Elizabeth, b. 1788
• Charles, b. 1792
• Benjamin, b. 1795
• Margaret, b.1798
• William Augustus, b. 1798
• William Severyn, b. 1803 (twin)
• Charles Witham, b. 1803
• Charles Lewis, b. 1816 (half sibling)

Education

West Point Cadet Sword - Class of 1827

Thomas attended the Peekshire Academy until he entered the West Point Military Academy in 1823, graduating in 1827.

Marriage

Colonel Stockton married Miss Maria G. Smith of Detroit, on March 3, 1830.^[4][5]

Children

Thomas and Maria had three children:

• Harriet Abigail, b. 1831
• Baylis Garland, b. 1832
• Maria Louise, b. 1836

Military

• First U.S. Infantry - Brevet Second Lieutenant, Jefferson Barracks, Missouri; The Brevet rank, usually an honor, was borrowed from the British and introduced into the American army during the Revolutionary War; In early 1861 some recent graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point were named brevet 2nd Lieutenants.^[6]

Jefferson Barracks Military Post

• Transferred to Fort Snelling, the most extreme northern post in the U.S., under the command of Lt. Colonel Zachary Taylor.

Fort Snelling in 1844 by John Caspar Wild; Fort Snelling in the background; Pike Island in the middle; the settlement of Mendota in the left foreground.

Originally known as Fort Saint Anthony, the Minnesota Historical Society now runs the fort, located atop a bluff along the river. The fort is a National Historic Landmark and has been named a "national treasure" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation^[7]

Brig. General Zachary Taylor - Commander Army of Occupation, Mexican-American War.

• 1832, Stockton became Asst. Quartermaster at Ford Crawford.^[8].

Fort Crawford; The construction of the second Fort Crawford began in 1829 under the direction of the new commander, Colonel Zachary Taylor.

• March 1, 1833 promoted to First Lieutenant.

1833 Michigan 26 star flag

• Detroit; Territory of Michigan and Government Engineer. By 1833, the Michigan Territory had more than the 60,000 inhabitants required by the Northwest Ordinance to form a state government and formally seek admission to the union. Lieutenant Stockton became an important part of of the early construction of the state of Michigan and had charge of the Territory of Michigan as Government Engineer.
• Treaty of St. Peters or the Treaty with the Chippewa (aka The White Pine Treaty) was a treaty conducted between Governor Henry Dodge for the United States and representatives from Ojibwa bands located across today's Wisconsin and Minnesota. It was conducted on July 29, 1837, at St. Peters, Wisconsin TerritoryThomas was a signer/witness of a treaty with the Chippewa tribe in 1837.^[9]
• Resigned from Army in 1834

Civil History

From the time he mustered out of the Army, for the next ten years he had charge of the improvements on the Great Lakes and on the Ohio and Indiana rivers. He was in charge of supervising the Harbor Improvements on the Lackes, in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. In 1838 he was elected the first mayor of Michigan City, Indiana.^[10]

Mexican-American War

Officers of the Mexican-American War

Mexican-American War- Cordoba, Mexico is on the road from Veracruz to Mexico City.

A first hand account of the horrors of war. We formed a line in front of three regimens of Mexico's oldest soldiers. It was an awful moment to face the thousands of veterans in solid column, with their gaudy uniforms and showy banners. But we had no time for admiration; for, before our line was formed, they had fired two rounds, which we soon returned in right good earnest. I was at my post in the rank of file closers, and was urging the men to form in their proper places, when the Captain cried out, "Fire Away!", which we did, with all possible haste. About this time the battery on our left opened upon us a deadly fire of grape, which raked our flank with terrible effect; still we stood front to front, and poured our fire upon the infantry, which did us but little injury, as we shot too high. But the battery on our left galled us exceedingly. It appeared as if we had purposely halted in their exact range, and the whole atmosphere resounded with the whizzing shot that came with increasing precision. Apollos Stephens was the first of the us to fall. He received a grapeshot in the head, and fell back almost in my arms. Oh, how shall I describe the horror of my feelings? There lay quivering in death one of my comrades, with his eyes upturned, and the tears starting from them. it was a sad and touching scene; one that will never be effaced from my memory. ^[11] In 1847, Thomas was appointed Colonel of the First Michigan Infantry and served throughout the Mexican-American War. He became the Civil and Military Governor of Cordova, Mexico, during most of the war. At the close of the conflict with Mexico, Colonel Stockton returned to Flint, Michigan for a few years. However, his civil services were called upon once again and he made his way to the new territory of California.^[12] On December 9, 1847, as a U.S. Army Colonel, Thomas Stockton took command of the occupation of Cordoba, Mexico, a stategic city on the road from Veracruz to Mexico City, and acted as the Civil and Military Governor of that municipality.^[13]

1st Michigan Volunteer infantry

Miner and Telegraph Lines

Route of the first transcontinental Telegraph

After the war, Thomas made his way to California, and stayed there for six years, mining and constructing telegraph lines.

Customs Port of San Francisco

San Francisco Customs House

Thomas also spent some time as a Customs Collector at the port of San Francisco.^[14] The port of San Francisco mushroomed into a bustling commercial hub only months after the gold discovery with hundreds of ships arriving and departing each year well into the 1850s.^[15] Colonel Stockton remained very busy as a federal employee as a collector of customs at the U.S. Customs House in San Francisco.

Return to Flint, Michigan

Indiana Coat of Arms - Civil Servant - First Mayor of Michigan City, Indiana

Thomas became a leader of the Flint Grays, which became the Flint Blues, and was their first Captain. He was appointed Major of the Saginaw Valley Batallion in 1859.

Civil War

Crossed Flags

Union Army 1st Division Badge, V Corps

Thomas raised a regiment of independents, called the Stockton Independents, and reported for duty in Washington on September 30, 1861. He was immediately promoted to the command of the Third Brigade, First Division of the Fifth Army Corps. He fought all through the Peninsula campaign until he was taken prisoner at Gaines' Mill in June, 1862.

Confederate Prisoner of War

Captured and incarcerated at Libby Prison.

Taken prisoner in 1862, Thomas was exchanged from Libby Prison, and then took command of his old brigade at Alexandria.

Libby Prison - "Rat Hell"

Libby Prison, in the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, housed Union prisoners of war during the American Civil War 91861-1865). A three-building complex that had been a tobacco factory, a shipping supply and grocery store, Libby became a prison in March 1862 and later converted into an officers-only prison. Prisoners were exposed to the outside elements and suffered food shortages. Prisoners suffered from disease, malnutrition and a high mortality rate.^[16]

Military Engagements

Thomas remained with his command through the battles of

• Antietam - Also known as the Battle of Sharpsburg, was fought on September 17, 1862, near Sharpsburg, Maryland and Antietam Creek as part of the Maryland Campaign. It was the first Field army-level engagement in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War to take place on Union soil. It is the bloodiest single-day battle in American history with a combined tally of 22,717 dead, wounded or missing.^[17]

Battle of Antietam

• Shepardstown - The Battle of Sheperdstown, also known as the Battle of Boteler's Ford, took place September 19-20, 1862, in Jefferson County, Virginia (now West Virginia), at the end of the Maryland Campaign of the American Civil War.^[18]

Ford near Sheperdstown, on the Potomac; Pickets firing across the river Summary; soldiers resting, and firing guns on the banks of the Potomac; by Alfred Waud

• Fredericksburg - The Battle of Fredericksburg was fought December 11-15, 1862, in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, between General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Major General Ambrose Burnside, as part of the American Civil War.^[19]

Battle of Fredericksburg

• Chancellorsville - The Battle of Chancellorsville was a mjor battle of the American Civil War, and the principal engagement of the Chancellorsville Campaign. It was fought from April 30 to May 6, 1863, in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, near the village of Chancellorsville.^[20]

Battle of Chancellorsville

Because of ill health in 1863, Thomas was reassigned.

Commission from the President

Andrew Johnson commissioned Thomas to raise a brigade of five regiments, however, President Johnson lost control to the Senate, and Thomas returned home.

Last Days

Colonel Stockton was a man greatly respected by all who knew him, or had been under his command. The last time the aged warrior appeared in public was at a reunion of his regiment at Saginaw, Michigan, in 1889. He became confined to his bed and passed away on December 9, 1890.^[21] Thomas was 85 years old. He was a communicant in the Catholic church for many years.

A True American Patriot

For The Union - Colonel Thomas Baylis Whitmarsh 1805-1890

Thomas Stockton and his wife, Maria, were among Flint, Michigan's prominent early residents. Maria, the daughter of Jacob Smith, who was considered to be Flint's first white settler, led the formation of the city's Ladies Library Association in 1851. An 1827 graduate of the U.S. Miltary Academy at West Point, Thomas Stockton (1805-1890) spent much of his military career as a topographical engineer in the Midwest. In 1834 he laid out the turnpike that connected Detroit and Saginaw. As a colonel he raised the First Michigan Infantry Regiment to fight in the Mexican-American War and Stockton's Independent Regiment (the Sixteenth Michigan) in the Civil War. Captured at Gaines Mill, Virginia, in June 1862, he was held at Libby Prison^[22], in Richmond, Virginia, for two months. Stockton left the army in 1863 and settled permanently in Flint.

A Veteran's Salute to Colonel Thomas Stockton

Sources

1. ↑ Genealogy.com; Major Richard Witham Stockton
2. ↑ Abductions in the American Revolution: Attempts to kidnap George Washington; by Christian McBurney; page 192
3. ↑ King's Men: The Soldier Founders of Ontario; by Mary Beacock Fryer; page 261
4. ↑ From Flint, Michigan, Evening Journal, March 9, 1891
5. ↑ 1860 U.S. Federal Census; on file courtesy of ancestry.com
6. ↑ Shotgun's Home of the American Civil War
7. ↑ Fort Snelling; courtesy of Wikipedia
8. ↑ Fort Crawford; courtesy of Wikipedia
9. ↑ Thomas Baylis Whitmarsh Stockton; courtesy of antietam.aotw.org
10. ↑ Thomas B. W. Stockton; Universty of Chicago
11. ↑ The U.S. Mexican War; A Binational Reader; by Christopher Conway and Gustavo Pellon A first person account of the Horrors of War
12. ↑ From Flint, Michigan, Evening Journal, March 9, 1891
13. ↑ Thomas B. W. Stockton; University of Chicago
14. ↑ Annual Reunion of the Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York; June 12th, 1891; p. 36-37; Seemann & Peters, Printers and Binders; Saginaw, Michigan, 1891
15. ↑ The World of the American West; by Gordon Morris Bakken
16. ↑ Libby Prison; Encyclopedia Virginia; Contributed by Angela M. Zombek
17. ↑ The Battle of Antietam; courtesy of Wikipedia
18. ↑ Battle of Shepherdstown; courtesy of Wikipedia
19. ↑ Battle of Fredericksburg; courtesy of Wikipedia
20. ↑ Battle of Chancellorsville; courtesy of Wikipedia
21. ↑ Michigan Death Records, 1867-1950; on file courtesy of ancestry.com
22. ↑ Wikitree Libby Prison Space Page

• "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MF8D-45L : 12 April 2016), Thoms B W Stockton, Flint, Genesee, Michigan, United States; citing family 494, NARA microfilm publication M432 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).