USMA Class Of 1858. Cullum No. 1802
He was the son of John L. Saunders and Martha Selden Saunders.
On March 28, 1865, he married Ellen Beirne Turner, daughter of William Fauntleroy Turner at St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia.
They were the parents of four children.
Thirty-Fifth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 14th, 1904. Seeman & Peters, Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1904.
John Selden Saunders
No. 1802. Class Of 1858.
Died January 19, 1904, at Annapolis, Maryland, aged 68.
John Selden Saunders, of the class 1858, United States Military Academy, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on January 30, 1836 and died at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, January 19, 1904, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. William H.G. Bullard, wife of Lieutenant William H.G. Bullard, United States Navy. At the time of his death, General Saunders was Adjutant General of the Military Forces of the State of Maryland.
General Saunders was descended from the old English family of that name, which figured prominently in the early history of this country. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather, were all commissioned officers of either the Army or Navy of the Colonial or National Government. His great-grandfather, Ceely Saunders, was the first of the English family to settle in this country, moving from Dumfries, Scotland. He took the side of the Colonists at the breaking out of the Revolution and was given a commission in the Provisional Navy of Virginia, commanding the Ship Thetis. He was taken prisoner of war and died in prison in Nova Scotia.
Captain Ceely Saunders married Ann Blackburn, whose son, John Saunders, was the first Major of Light Artillery in the Continental Army and later was commissioned in the United States Army. John Saunders is buried on ground at present occupied by the United States Naval Hospital at Portsmouth, Virginia; this ground at that time being a post of the United States Army. A monument to his memory stands alone in the front of the hospital, surrounded by an evergreen hedge.
John Saunders married Elizeth Proby, from which union was born John Loyall Saunders, father of General Saunders. John Loyall Saunders was appointed a midshipman in the Navy of the United States when he was still a young boy and went to sea as such when but nine years of age. He successively passed through the different grades and rose to be a Captain, which rank he held at the time of his death, his last command being the sailing sloop of war, St. Marys, at present used as a school ship in the City of New York. Captain John Loyall Saunders married Martha Bland Selden and they are the parents of General John Selden Saunders, the latter being given both his father's and mother's names.
The children of Captain John Loyall Saunders and Martha Bland Selden, were General John Selden Saunders, Hunter Saunders, Elizabeth Saunders, Palmer Saunders, Martha Bland Saunders, Allen Saunders, Miles Saunders and Mary Saunders. Of these, at this time, the only living are Elizabeth Saunders, wife of Colonel Walter H. Taylor, of Norfolk, Virginia, who served throughout the Civil War on the staff of General Robert E. Lee and Mary Saunders, widow of George McIntosh, of Norfolk, Virginia, whose father was a Captain in the United States Navy. Palmer Saunders was killed in the first naval engagement of the Civil War, being at that time a midshipman in the Confederate service.
Most of the early youth of General Saunders was spent in Norfolk, Virginia and at the home of his uncle, John Selden, for whom he was named, at the famous homestead, Westover on the James River, Virginia. He was completing his education at St. James College in Maryland, when at the age of eighteen he received an appointment from President Pierce as a Cadet-at-Large to the United States Military Academy. Entering that Institution in 1854, he graduated number five in his class in 1858, the last year serving as Adjutant of the Cadet Corps. After his graduation he was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment, United States Artillery and on July 1st, of the same year, was detailed for duty at the Military Academy. On September 1, of the same year, he was transferred to the Ordnance Corps and was detailed for duty at the Washington Arsenal. While there and still a young Lieutenant, General Saunders was one of those detailed to escort the Prince of Wales, now King Edward the Seventh, during his visit to this country in 1860.
He remained in the Ordnance Department not quite three years; receiving his commission as Second Lieutenant in that branch of the service on February 1, 1861. The Civil War was then rapidly approaching and as General Saunders' strong southern sympathies precluded the possibility that he would bear arms against the Confederacy, he resigned immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities. This was on April 22, 1861. One week later he was in Richmond and through General R.E. Lee, offered his services to the State of Virginia. General Lee at once assigned him to the task of organizing his Ordnance Department, which the young officer did, in a very efficient manner.
When the attack on Norfolk was decided on, General Saunders was given an assignment with the Confederate Forces as Chief of Artillery. Norfolk was the location of the United States Arsenal, the possession of which was of the greatest importance to the Confederates on account of the immense amount of war material stored there. General Saunders personally commanded six batteries in the successful at¬tack on the city.
After the war, had begun in earnest, he continued as chief of the Confederate Artillery and did good service when McClellan advanced on Richmond. He was present in nearly every one of the seven days' battle in front of the Confederate Capitol, the timely arrival of Stonewall Jackson, from the valley of the Shenandoah, enabling General Lee to inflict a disastrous repulse on the Union Forces.
General Saunders was next ordered to Mississippi as Chief of Artillery to Major General Pemberton. Grant had gained a number of successes in the Valley of the Mississippi River and in due time was ready for his memorable attack on the City of Vicksburg. General Saunders was taken prisoner upon the fall of the city, but was quickly exchanged. He was then made Chief of Artillery in the Inspector General's Department of the South, but was later transferred back to the Army of Northern Virginia as Assistant Ordnance Officer. He saw the last days of the war when Grant drove Lee from Richmond and finally forced the surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox.
General Saunders was married on the 28th of March 1865, at St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia, to Ellen Beirne Turner, daughter of William Fauntleroy Turner, of Ripon Lodge, Jefferson County, West Virginia. The children of this marriage were Ellen Beirne Saunders, William Turner Saunders, Martha Bland Saunders and Sidney Patterson Saunders, all of whom survive their parents. Mrs. Ellen Beirne Saunders, wife of General Saunders, died in Baltimore on November 25, 1889. Of the children, Ellen Beirne is the wife of William H.G. Bullard, Lieutenant, United States Navy. Martha Bland is the wife of Mr. Charles J. Carroll, of Baltimore, Maryland; Sidney Patterson is the wife of Walter N. Vernon, Ensign United States Navy. The only son, William Turner Saunders, the last to carry the family name, married Annie Emine Hertzer.
After the closing of the Civil War, General Saunders made Baltimore his home and engaged in the brokerage and insurance business, in which he kept an interest till his death. Although a civilian by compulsion, he was a soldier at heart and never lost interest in anything that pertained to the military profession, either by land or sea. In order that he might follow his natural instincts and that his knowledge of the art of war and soldiery should not be wasted, he early identified himself with the National Guard of his adopted state.
He was appointed Colonel and Brigade Inspector in May 1887 and served for thirteen years in that capacity. He was first on the staff of General Stewart Brown, who was succeeded in 1896 by General Riggs as Brigade Commander. On February 7, 1900, he was appointed Adjutant General of the State by Governor John Walter Smith and remained as such until his death.
Upon the outbreak of hostilities with Spain, General Saunders was ardent in his wish to go to the front once more and he made several attempts to get a commission in the volunteer forces. He tendered his services to President McKinley and secured the endorsement of a number of prominent men, in addition to the endorsement of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee and General E.B. Williston. His offer, however, was not accepted.
Incidents of unusual character are many and varied in a soldier's life, but one bit of secret history is given to show the steadfast adherence to duty and manly honor of this polished soldier and gentleman.
At the time of President Lincoln's first inauguration, General Saunders was attached as Second Lieutenant to a light battery, stationed at the arsenal in Washington. Young as he was and having openly announced his intent to resign as soon as his State spoke, the youthful soldier was so well trusted to do his full duty, that an important post was given him. These were anxious days at the Capital and rumors were not only rife, but generally credited, that an attempt would be made on Mr. Lincoln's life on inauguration day. Whether from credence or to satisfy public feeling, the government spared no possible precaution, civil or military. Every resource of the detective corps was drawn upon and the army had never before been so used. All remember the long and glittering lines of cavalry and infantry and the rapidly dashing light batteries. But all did not know what was currently whispered - that the marching men carried ball cartridges in their muskets, the cavalry the same in their unslung carbines and that the holiday-appearing field pieces held grape-shot and cannister.
Detachments and sections were hurried from point to point for moral effect as the pageant passed from the White House to the Capitol. But at important points in the military eye picked officers held their posts, with special instructions as to duty. The young Virginian, with avowed rebel intent, was put in command of the section at the State Department, corner of Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the most dangerous and surely the most exposed point on the whole long line of march. The qualities that placed him there were illustrated in his later career.
Late that evening - with Washington in ferment - three young Southerners met Saunders riding slowly barrackward at the head of his men. They were hurrying for the Acquia Creek boat, enroute to Dixie. Saunders leaned from his saddle to say good-bye God bless you, boys. I have done my duty today, but probably for the last time. Tell the fellows down there I'll not be absent when Virginia calls her roll. Nor was he, then or later.
At his death, General Saunders had nearly completed the whole term for which he had been appointed. Under his administration, it is admitted and conceded by those whose knowledge of military affairs made them capable judges, that the discipline and condition of the National Guard of Maryland had reached its highest state of efficiency, clue to his untiring zeal and the means adopted of imparting his professional knowledge and example to his subordinates.
His last illness was precipitated by his work in the field during the encampment of the Guard, named in his honor, Camp Saunders. From this illness he never rallied, though making a strong fight against insidious disease, never murmuring or complaining, but bearing all with the fortitude and courage of the Christian soldier. A touching incident of the last days of his illness was the occasion of the inauguration of Governor Warfield, when every commissioned officer of the National Guard, from the Brigade Commander to the lowest commissioned officer of the Naval forces, called to pay their respects and stood in the rain and snow while the highest officers were received at his bedside. He expressed a wish that his bed might be rolled to the window to at least see them all, for what might possibly be and was, the last time.
On the death of General Saunders, the General Assembly of Maryland, being then in session, adopted a Joint Resolution of Respect to his memory, under the Great Seal of the State of Maryland.
General Saunders was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, by the side of his wife, with full military honors, after his body had laid in state in the armory of the Fifth Regiment. Details from every command of the armed forces of the state formed a provisional regiment which acted as the escort and the mourners included persons of all ranks in life, gathered together to do homage and to pay their last respects to this well-loved citizen and soldier.
He was the son of John L. Saunders and Martha Selden Saunders.
On March 28, 1865, he married Ellen Beirne Turner, daughter of William Fauntleroy Turner at St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia.
They were the parents of four children.
Thirty-Fifth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 14th, 1904. Seeman & Peters, Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1904.
John Selden Saunders
No. 1802. Class Of 1858.
Died January 19, 1904, at Annapolis, Maryland, aged 68.
John Selden Saunders, of the class 1858, United States Military Academy, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on January 30, 1836 and died at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, January 19, 1904, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. William H.G. Bullard, wife of Lieutenant William H.G. Bullard, United States Navy. At the time of his death, General Saunders was Adjutant General of the Military Forces of the State of Maryland.
General Saunders was descended from the old English family of that name, which figured prominently in the early history of this country. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather, were all commissioned officers of either the Army or Navy of the Colonial or National Government. His great-grandfather, Ceely Saunders, was the first of the English family to settle in this country, moving from Dumfries, Scotland. He took the side of the Colonists at the breaking out of the Revolution and was given a commission in the Provisional Navy of Virginia, commanding the Ship Thetis. He was taken prisoner of war and died in prison in Nova Scotia.
Captain Ceely Saunders married Ann Blackburn, whose son, John Saunders, was the first Major of Light Artillery in the Continental Army and later was commissioned in the United States Army. John Saunders is buried on ground at present occupied by the United States Naval Hospital at Portsmouth, Virginia; this ground at that time being a post of the United States Army. A monument to his memory stands alone in the front of the hospital, surrounded by an evergreen hedge.
John Saunders married Elizeth Proby, from which union was born John Loyall Saunders, father of General Saunders. John Loyall Saunders was appointed a midshipman in the Navy of the United States when he was still a young boy and went to sea as such when but nine years of age. He successively passed through the different grades and rose to be a Captain, which rank he held at the time of his death, his last command being the sailing sloop of war, St. Marys, at present used as a school ship in the City of New York. Captain John Loyall Saunders married Martha Bland Selden and they are the parents of General John Selden Saunders, the latter being given both his father's and mother's names.
The children of Captain John Loyall Saunders and Martha Bland Selden, were General John Selden Saunders, Hunter Saunders, Elizabeth Saunders, Palmer Saunders, Martha Bland Saunders, Allen Saunders, Miles Saunders and Mary Saunders. Of these, at this time, the only living are Elizabeth Saunders, wife of Colonel Walter H. Taylor, of Norfolk, Virginia, who served throughout the Civil War on the staff of General Robert E. Lee and Mary Saunders, widow of George McIntosh, of Norfolk, Virginia, whose father was a Captain in the United States Navy. Palmer Saunders was killed in the first naval engagement of the Civil War, being at that time a midshipman in the Confederate service.
Most of the early youth of General Saunders was spent in Norfolk, Virginia and at the home of his uncle, John Selden, for whom he was named, at the famous homestead, Westover on the James River, Virginia. He was completing his education at St. James College in Maryland, when at the age of eighteen he received an appointment from President Pierce as a Cadet-at-Large to the United States Military Academy. Entering that Institution in 1854, he graduated number five in his class in 1858, the last year serving as Adjutant of the Cadet Corps. After his graduation he was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment, United States Artillery and on July 1st, of the same year, was detailed for duty at the Military Academy. On September 1, of the same year, he was transferred to the Ordnance Corps and was detailed for duty at the Washington Arsenal. While there and still a young Lieutenant, General Saunders was one of those detailed to escort the Prince of Wales, now King Edward the Seventh, during his visit to this country in 1860.
He remained in the Ordnance Department not quite three years; receiving his commission as Second Lieutenant in that branch of the service on February 1, 1861. The Civil War was then rapidly approaching and as General Saunders' strong southern sympathies precluded the possibility that he would bear arms against the Confederacy, he resigned immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities. This was on April 22, 1861. One week later he was in Richmond and through General R.E. Lee, offered his services to the State of Virginia. General Lee at once assigned him to the task of organizing his Ordnance Department, which the young officer did, in a very efficient manner.
When the attack on Norfolk was decided on, General Saunders was given an assignment with the Confederate Forces as Chief of Artillery. Norfolk was the location of the United States Arsenal, the possession of which was of the greatest importance to the Confederates on account of the immense amount of war material stored there. General Saunders personally commanded six batteries in the successful at¬tack on the city.
After the war, had begun in earnest, he continued as chief of the Confederate Artillery and did good service when McClellan advanced on Richmond. He was present in nearly every one of the seven days' battle in front of the Confederate Capitol, the timely arrival of Stonewall Jackson, from the valley of the Shenandoah, enabling General Lee to inflict a disastrous repulse on the Union Forces.
General Saunders was next ordered to Mississippi as Chief of Artillery to Major General Pemberton. Grant had gained a number of successes in the Valley of the Mississippi River and in due time was ready for his memorable attack on the City of Vicksburg. General Saunders was taken prisoner upon the fall of the city, but was quickly exchanged. He was then made Chief of Artillery in the Inspector General's Department of the South, but was later transferred back to the Army of Northern Virginia as Assistant Ordnance Officer. He saw the last days of the war when Grant drove Lee from Richmond and finally forced the surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox.
General Saunders was married on the 28th of March 1865, at St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia, to Ellen Beirne Turner, daughter of William Fauntleroy Turner, of Ripon Lodge, Jefferson County, West Virginia. The children of this marriage were Ellen Beirne Saunders, William Turner Saunders, Martha Bland Saunders and Sidney Patterson Saunders, all of whom survive their parents. Mrs. Ellen Beirne Saunders, wife of General Saunders, died in Baltimore on November 25, 1889. Of the children, Ellen Beirne is the wife of William H.G. Bullard, Lieutenant, United States Navy. Martha Bland is the wife of Mr. Charles J. Carroll, of Baltimore, Maryland; Sidney Patterson is the wife of Walter N. Vernon, Ensign United States Navy. The only son, William Turner Saunders, the last to carry the family name, married Annie Emine Hertzer.
After the closing of the Civil War, General Saunders made Baltimore his home and engaged in the brokerage and insurance business, in which he kept an interest till his death. Although a civilian by compulsion, he was a soldier at heart and never lost interest in anything that pertained to the military profession, either by land or sea. In order that he might follow his natural instincts and that his knowledge of the art of war and soldiery should not be wasted, he early identified himself with the National Guard of his adopted state.
He was appointed Colonel and Brigade Inspector in May 1887 and served for thirteen years in that capacity. He was first on the staff of General Stewart Brown, who was succeeded in 1896 by General Riggs as Brigade Commander. On February 7, 1900, he was appointed Adjutant General of the State by Governor John Walter Smith and remained as such until his death.
Upon the outbreak of hostilities with Spain, General Saunders was ardent in his wish to go to the front once more and he made several attempts to get a commission in the volunteer forces. He tendered his services to President McKinley and secured the endorsement of a number of prominent men, in addition to the endorsement of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee and General E.B. Williston. His offer, however, was not accepted.
Incidents of unusual character are many and varied in a soldier's life, but one bit of secret history is given to show the steadfast adherence to duty and manly honor of this polished soldier and gentleman.
At the time of President Lincoln's first inauguration, General Saunders was attached as Second Lieutenant to a light battery, stationed at the arsenal in Washington. Young as he was and having openly announced his intent to resign as soon as his State spoke, the youthful soldier was so well trusted to do his full duty, that an important post was given him. These were anxious days at the Capital and rumors were not only rife, but generally credited, that an attempt would be made on Mr. Lincoln's life on inauguration day. Whether from credence or to satisfy public feeling, the government spared no possible precaution, civil or military. Every resource of the detective corps was drawn upon and the army had never before been so used. All remember the long and glittering lines of cavalry and infantry and the rapidly dashing light batteries. But all did not know what was currently whispered - that the marching men carried ball cartridges in their muskets, the cavalry the same in their unslung carbines and that the holiday-appearing field pieces held grape-shot and cannister.
Detachments and sections were hurried from point to point for moral effect as the pageant passed from the White House to the Capitol. But at important points in the military eye picked officers held their posts, with special instructions as to duty. The young Virginian, with avowed rebel intent, was put in command of the section at the State Department, corner of Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the most dangerous and surely the most exposed point on the whole long line of march. The qualities that placed him there were illustrated in his later career.
Late that evening - with Washington in ferment - three young Southerners met Saunders riding slowly barrackward at the head of his men. They were hurrying for the Acquia Creek boat, enroute to Dixie. Saunders leaned from his saddle to say good-bye God bless you, boys. I have done my duty today, but probably for the last time. Tell the fellows down there I'll not be absent when Virginia calls her roll. Nor was he, then or later.
At his death, General Saunders had nearly completed the whole term for which he had been appointed. Under his administration, it is admitted and conceded by those whose knowledge of military affairs made them capable judges, that the discipline and condition of the National Guard of Maryland had reached its highest state of efficiency, clue to his untiring zeal and the means adopted of imparting his professional knowledge and example to his subordinates.
His last illness was precipitated by his work in the field during the encampment of the Guard, named in his honor, Camp Saunders. From this illness he never rallied, though making a strong fight against insidious disease, never murmuring or complaining, but bearing all with the fortitude and courage of the Christian soldier. A touching incident of the last days of his illness was the occasion of the inauguration of Governor Warfield, when every commissioned officer of the National Guard, from the Brigade Commander to the lowest commissioned officer of the Naval forces, called to pay their respects and stood in the rain and snow while the highest officers were received at his bedside. He expressed a wish that his bed might be rolled to the window to at least see them all, for what might possibly be and was, the last time.
On the death of General Saunders, the General Assembly of Maryland, being then in session, adopted a Joint Resolution of Respect to his memory, under the Great Seal of the State of Maryland.
General Saunders was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, by the side of his wife, with full military honors, after his body had laid in state in the armory of the Fifth Regiment. Details from every command of the armed forces of the state formed a provisional regiment which acted as the escort and the mourners included persons of all ranks in life, gathered together to do homage and to pay their last respects to this well-loved citizen and soldier.
USMA Class Of 1858. Cullum No. 1802
He was the son of John L. Saunders and Martha Selden Saunders.
On March 28, 1865, he married Ellen Beirne Turner, daughter of William Fauntleroy Turner at St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia.
They were the parents of four children.
Thirty-Fifth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 14th, 1904. Seeman & Peters, Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1904.
John Selden Saunders
No. 1802. Class Of 1858.
Died January 19, 1904, at Annapolis, Maryland, aged 68.
John Selden Saunders, of the class 1858, United States Military Academy, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on January 30, 1836 and died at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, January 19, 1904, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. William H.G. Bullard, wife of Lieutenant William H.G. Bullard, United States Navy. At the time of his death, General Saunders was Adjutant General of the Military Forces of the State of Maryland.
General Saunders was descended from the old English family of that name, which figured prominently in the early history of this country. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather, were all commissioned officers of either the Army or Navy of the Colonial or National Government. His great-grandfather, Ceely Saunders, was the first of the English family to settle in this country, moving from Dumfries, Scotland. He took the side of the Colonists at the breaking out of the Revolution and was given a commission in the Provisional Navy of Virginia, commanding the Ship Thetis. He was taken prisoner of war and died in prison in Nova Scotia.
Captain Ceely Saunders married Ann Blackburn, whose son, John Saunders, was the first Major of Light Artillery in the Continental Army and later was commissioned in the United States Army. John Saunders is buried on ground at present occupied by the United States Naval Hospital at Portsmouth, Virginia; this ground at that time being a post of the United States Army. A monument to his memory stands alone in the front of the hospital, surrounded by an evergreen hedge.
John Saunders married Elizeth Proby, from which union was born John Loyall Saunders, father of General Saunders. John Loyall Saunders was appointed a midshipman in the Navy of the United States when he was still a young boy and went to sea as such when but nine years of age. He successively passed through the different grades and rose to be a Captain, which rank he held at the time of his death, his last command being the sailing sloop of war, St. Marys, at present used as a school ship in the City of New York. Captain John Loyall Saunders married Martha Bland Selden and they are the parents of General John Selden Saunders, the latter being given both his father's and mother's names.
The children of Captain John Loyall Saunders and Martha Bland Selden, were General John Selden Saunders, Hunter Saunders, Elizabeth Saunders, Palmer Saunders, Martha Bland Saunders, Allen Saunders, Miles Saunders and Mary Saunders. Of these, at this time, the only living are Elizabeth Saunders, wife of Colonel Walter H. Taylor, of Norfolk, Virginia, who served throughout the Civil War on the staff of General Robert E. Lee and Mary Saunders, widow of George McIntosh, of Norfolk, Virginia, whose father was a Captain in the United States Navy. Palmer Saunders was killed in the first naval engagement of the Civil War, being at that time a midshipman in the Confederate service.
Most of the early youth of General Saunders was spent in Norfolk, Virginia and at the home of his uncle, John Selden, for whom he was named, at the famous homestead, Westover on the James River, Virginia. He was completing his education at St. James College in Maryland, when at the age of eighteen he received an appointment from President Pierce as a Cadet-at-Large to the United States Military Academy. Entering that Institution in 1854, he graduated number five in his class in 1858, the last year serving as Adjutant of the Cadet Corps. After his graduation he was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment, United States Artillery and on July 1st, of the same year, was detailed for duty at the Military Academy. On September 1, of the same year, he was transferred to the Ordnance Corps and was detailed for duty at the Washington Arsenal. While there and still a young Lieutenant, General Saunders was one of those detailed to escort the Prince of Wales, now King Edward the Seventh, during his visit to this country in 1860.
He remained in the Ordnance Department not quite three years; receiving his commission as Second Lieutenant in that branch of the service on February 1, 1861. The Civil War was then rapidly approaching and as General Saunders' strong southern sympathies precluded the possibility that he would bear arms against the Confederacy, he resigned immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities. This was on April 22, 1861. One week later he was in Richmond and through General R.E. Lee, offered his services to the State of Virginia. General Lee at once assigned him to the task of organizing his Ordnance Department, which the young officer did, in a very efficient manner.
When the attack on Norfolk was decided on, General Saunders was given an assignment with the Confederate Forces as Chief of Artillery. Norfolk was the location of the United States Arsenal, the possession of which was of the greatest importance to the Confederates on account of the immense amount of war material stored there. General Saunders personally commanded six batteries in the successful at¬tack on the city.
After the war, had begun in earnest, he continued as chief of the Confederate Artillery and did good service when McClellan advanced on Richmond. He was present in nearly every one of the seven days' battle in front of the Confederate Capitol, the timely arrival of Stonewall Jackson, from the valley of the Shenandoah, enabling General Lee to inflict a disastrous repulse on the Union Forces.
General Saunders was next ordered to Mississippi as Chief of Artillery to Major General Pemberton. Grant had gained a number of successes in the Valley of the Mississippi River and in due time was ready for his memorable attack on the City of Vicksburg. General Saunders was taken prisoner upon the fall of the city, but was quickly exchanged. He was then made Chief of Artillery in the Inspector General's Department of the South, but was later transferred back to the Army of Northern Virginia as Assistant Ordnance Officer. He saw the last days of the war when Grant drove Lee from Richmond and finally forced the surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox.
General Saunders was married on the 28th of March 1865, at St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia, to Ellen Beirne Turner, daughter of William Fauntleroy Turner, of Ripon Lodge, Jefferson County, West Virginia. The children of this marriage were Ellen Beirne Saunders, William Turner Saunders, Martha Bland Saunders and Sidney Patterson Saunders, all of whom survive their parents. Mrs. Ellen Beirne Saunders, wife of General Saunders, died in Baltimore on November 25, 1889. Of the children, Ellen Beirne is the wife of William H.G. Bullard, Lieutenant, United States Navy. Martha Bland is the wife of Mr. Charles J. Carroll, of Baltimore, Maryland; Sidney Patterson is the wife of Walter N. Vernon, Ensign United States Navy. The only son, William Turner Saunders, the last to carry the family name, married Annie Emine Hertzer.
After the closing of the Civil War, General Saunders made Baltimore his home and engaged in the brokerage and insurance business, in which he kept an interest till his death. Although a civilian by compulsion, he was a soldier at heart and never lost interest in anything that pertained to the military profession, either by land or sea. In order that he might follow his natural instincts and that his knowledge of the art of war and soldiery should not be wasted, he early identified himself with the National Guard of his adopted state.
He was appointed Colonel and Brigade Inspector in May 1887 and served for thirteen years in that capacity. He was first on the staff of General Stewart Brown, who was succeeded in 1896 by General Riggs as Brigade Commander. On February 7, 1900, he was appointed Adjutant General of the State by Governor John Walter Smith and remained as such until his death.
Upon the outbreak of hostilities with Spain, General Saunders was ardent in his wish to go to the front once more and he made several attempts to get a commission in the volunteer forces. He tendered his services to President McKinley and secured the endorsement of a number of prominent men, in addition to the endorsement of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee and General E.B. Williston. His offer, however, was not accepted.
Incidents of unusual character are many and varied in a soldier's life, but one bit of secret history is given to show the steadfast adherence to duty and manly honor of this polished soldier and gentleman.
At the time of President Lincoln's first inauguration, General Saunders was attached as Second Lieutenant to a light battery, stationed at the arsenal in Washington. Young as he was and having openly announced his intent to resign as soon as his State spoke, the youthful soldier was so well trusted to do his full duty, that an important post was given him. These were anxious days at the Capital and rumors were not only rife, but generally credited, that an attempt would be made on Mr. Lincoln's life on inauguration day. Whether from credence or to satisfy public feeling, the government spared no possible precaution, civil or military. Every resource of the detective corps was drawn upon and the army had never before been so used. All remember the long and glittering lines of cavalry and infantry and the rapidly dashing light batteries. But all did not know what was currently whispered - that the marching men carried ball cartridges in their muskets, the cavalry the same in their unslung carbines and that the holiday-appearing field pieces held grape-shot and cannister.
Detachments and sections were hurried from point to point for moral effect as the pageant passed from the White House to the Capitol. But at important points in the military eye picked officers held their posts, with special instructions as to duty. The young Virginian, with avowed rebel intent, was put in command of the section at the State Department, corner of Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the most dangerous and surely the most exposed point on the whole long line of march. The qualities that placed him there were illustrated in his later career.
Late that evening - with Washington in ferment - three young Southerners met Saunders riding slowly barrackward at the head of his men. They were hurrying for the Acquia Creek boat, enroute to Dixie. Saunders leaned from his saddle to say good-bye God bless you, boys. I have done my duty today, but probably for the last time. Tell the fellows down there I'll not be absent when Virginia calls her roll. Nor was he, then or later.
At his death, General Saunders had nearly completed the whole term for which he had been appointed. Under his administration, it is admitted and conceded by those whose knowledge of military affairs made them capable judges, that the discipline and condition of the National Guard of Maryland had reached its highest state of efficiency, clue to his untiring zeal and the means adopted of imparting his professional knowledge and example to his subordinates.
His last illness was precipitated by his work in the field during the encampment of the Guard, named in his honor, Camp Saunders. From this illness he never rallied, though making a strong fight against insidious disease, never murmuring or complaining, but bearing all with the fortitude and courage of the Christian soldier. A touching incident of the last days of his illness was the occasion of the inauguration of Governor Warfield, when every commissioned officer of the National Guard, from the Brigade Commander to the lowest commissioned officer of the Naval forces, called to pay their respects and stood in the rain and snow while the highest officers were received at his bedside. He expressed a wish that his bed might be rolled to the window to at least see them all, for what might possibly be and was, the last time.
On the death of General Saunders, the General Assembly of Maryland, being then in session, adopted a Joint Resolution of Respect to his memory, under the Great Seal of the State of Maryland.
General Saunders was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, by the side of his wife, with full military honors, after his body had laid in state in the armory of the Fifth Regiment. Details from every command of the armed forces of the state formed a provisional regiment which acted as the escort and the mourners included persons of all ranks in life, gathered together to do homage and to pay their last respects to this well-loved citizen and soldier.
He was the son of John L. Saunders and Martha Selden Saunders.
On March 28, 1865, he married Ellen Beirne Turner, daughter of William Fauntleroy Turner at St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia.
They were the parents of four children.
Thirty-Fifth Annual Reunion Of The Association of the Graduates Of The United States Military Academy At West Point, New York, June 14th, 1904. Seeman & Peters, Printers and Binders, Saginaw, Michigan, 1904.
John Selden Saunders
No. 1802. Class Of 1858.
Died January 19, 1904, at Annapolis, Maryland, aged 68.
John Selden Saunders, of the class 1858, United States Military Academy, was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on January 30, 1836 and died at the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, January 19, 1904, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. William H.G. Bullard, wife of Lieutenant William H.G. Bullard, United States Navy. At the time of his death, General Saunders was Adjutant General of the Military Forces of the State of Maryland.
General Saunders was descended from the old English family of that name, which figured prominently in the early history of this country. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather, were all commissioned officers of either the Army or Navy of the Colonial or National Government. His great-grandfather, Ceely Saunders, was the first of the English family to settle in this country, moving from Dumfries, Scotland. He took the side of the Colonists at the breaking out of the Revolution and was given a commission in the Provisional Navy of Virginia, commanding the Ship Thetis. He was taken prisoner of war and died in prison in Nova Scotia.
Captain Ceely Saunders married Ann Blackburn, whose son, John Saunders, was the first Major of Light Artillery in the Continental Army and later was commissioned in the United States Army. John Saunders is buried on ground at present occupied by the United States Naval Hospital at Portsmouth, Virginia; this ground at that time being a post of the United States Army. A monument to his memory stands alone in the front of the hospital, surrounded by an evergreen hedge.
John Saunders married Elizeth Proby, from which union was born John Loyall Saunders, father of General Saunders. John Loyall Saunders was appointed a midshipman in the Navy of the United States when he was still a young boy and went to sea as such when but nine years of age. He successively passed through the different grades and rose to be a Captain, which rank he held at the time of his death, his last command being the sailing sloop of war, St. Marys, at present used as a school ship in the City of New York. Captain John Loyall Saunders married Martha Bland Selden and they are the parents of General John Selden Saunders, the latter being given both his father's and mother's names.
The children of Captain John Loyall Saunders and Martha Bland Selden, were General John Selden Saunders, Hunter Saunders, Elizabeth Saunders, Palmer Saunders, Martha Bland Saunders, Allen Saunders, Miles Saunders and Mary Saunders. Of these, at this time, the only living are Elizabeth Saunders, wife of Colonel Walter H. Taylor, of Norfolk, Virginia, who served throughout the Civil War on the staff of General Robert E. Lee and Mary Saunders, widow of George McIntosh, of Norfolk, Virginia, whose father was a Captain in the United States Navy. Palmer Saunders was killed in the first naval engagement of the Civil War, being at that time a midshipman in the Confederate service.
Most of the early youth of General Saunders was spent in Norfolk, Virginia and at the home of his uncle, John Selden, for whom he was named, at the famous homestead, Westover on the James River, Virginia. He was completing his education at St. James College in Maryland, when at the age of eighteen he received an appointment from President Pierce as a Cadet-at-Large to the United States Military Academy. Entering that Institution in 1854, he graduated number five in his class in 1858, the last year serving as Adjutant of the Cadet Corps. After his graduation he was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Fourth Regiment, United States Artillery and on July 1st, of the same year, was detailed for duty at the Military Academy. On September 1, of the same year, he was transferred to the Ordnance Corps and was detailed for duty at the Washington Arsenal. While there and still a young Lieutenant, General Saunders was one of those detailed to escort the Prince of Wales, now King Edward the Seventh, during his visit to this country in 1860.
He remained in the Ordnance Department not quite three years; receiving his commission as Second Lieutenant in that branch of the service on February 1, 1861. The Civil War was then rapidly approaching and as General Saunders' strong southern sympathies precluded the possibility that he would bear arms against the Confederacy, he resigned immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities. This was on April 22, 1861. One week later he was in Richmond and through General R.E. Lee, offered his services to the State of Virginia. General Lee at once assigned him to the task of organizing his Ordnance Department, which the young officer did, in a very efficient manner.
When the attack on Norfolk was decided on, General Saunders was given an assignment with the Confederate Forces as Chief of Artillery. Norfolk was the location of the United States Arsenal, the possession of which was of the greatest importance to the Confederates on account of the immense amount of war material stored there. General Saunders personally commanded six batteries in the successful at¬tack on the city.
After the war, had begun in earnest, he continued as chief of the Confederate Artillery and did good service when McClellan advanced on Richmond. He was present in nearly every one of the seven days' battle in front of the Confederate Capitol, the timely arrival of Stonewall Jackson, from the valley of the Shenandoah, enabling General Lee to inflict a disastrous repulse on the Union Forces.
General Saunders was next ordered to Mississippi as Chief of Artillery to Major General Pemberton. Grant had gained a number of successes in the Valley of the Mississippi River and in due time was ready for his memorable attack on the City of Vicksburg. General Saunders was taken prisoner upon the fall of the city, but was quickly exchanged. He was then made Chief of Artillery in the Inspector General's Department of the South, but was later transferred back to the Army of Northern Virginia as Assistant Ordnance Officer. He saw the last days of the war when Grant drove Lee from Richmond and finally forced the surrender of the Confederate Army at Appomattox.
General Saunders was married on the 28th of March 1865, at St. Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia, to Ellen Beirne Turner, daughter of William Fauntleroy Turner, of Ripon Lodge, Jefferson County, West Virginia. The children of this marriage were Ellen Beirne Saunders, William Turner Saunders, Martha Bland Saunders and Sidney Patterson Saunders, all of whom survive their parents. Mrs. Ellen Beirne Saunders, wife of General Saunders, died in Baltimore on November 25, 1889. Of the children, Ellen Beirne is the wife of William H.G. Bullard, Lieutenant, United States Navy. Martha Bland is the wife of Mr. Charles J. Carroll, of Baltimore, Maryland; Sidney Patterson is the wife of Walter N. Vernon, Ensign United States Navy. The only son, William Turner Saunders, the last to carry the family name, married Annie Emine Hertzer.
After the closing of the Civil War, General Saunders made Baltimore his home and engaged in the brokerage and insurance business, in which he kept an interest till his death. Although a civilian by compulsion, he was a soldier at heart and never lost interest in anything that pertained to the military profession, either by land or sea. In order that he might follow his natural instincts and that his knowledge of the art of war and soldiery should not be wasted, he early identified himself with the National Guard of his adopted state.
He was appointed Colonel and Brigade Inspector in May 1887 and served for thirteen years in that capacity. He was first on the staff of General Stewart Brown, who was succeeded in 1896 by General Riggs as Brigade Commander. On February 7, 1900, he was appointed Adjutant General of the State by Governor John Walter Smith and remained as such until his death.
Upon the outbreak of hostilities with Spain, General Saunders was ardent in his wish to go to the front once more and he made several attempts to get a commission in the volunteer forces. He tendered his services to President McKinley and secured the endorsement of a number of prominent men, in addition to the endorsement of Gen. Fitzhugh Lee and General E.B. Williston. His offer, however, was not accepted.
Incidents of unusual character are many and varied in a soldier's life, but one bit of secret history is given to show the steadfast adherence to duty and manly honor of this polished soldier and gentleman.
At the time of President Lincoln's first inauguration, General Saunders was attached as Second Lieutenant to a light battery, stationed at the arsenal in Washington. Young as he was and having openly announced his intent to resign as soon as his State spoke, the youthful soldier was so well trusted to do his full duty, that an important post was given him. These were anxious days at the Capital and rumors were not only rife, but generally credited, that an attempt would be made on Mr. Lincoln's life on inauguration day. Whether from credence or to satisfy public feeling, the government spared no possible precaution, civil or military. Every resource of the detective corps was drawn upon and the army had never before been so used. All remember the long and glittering lines of cavalry and infantry and the rapidly dashing light batteries. But all did not know what was currently whispered - that the marching men carried ball cartridges in their muskets, the cavalry the same in their unslung carbines and that the holiday-appearing field pieces held grape-shot and cannister.
Detachments and sections were hurried from point to point for moral effect as the pageant passed from the White House to the Capitol. But at important points in the military eye picked officers held their posts, with special instructions as to duty. The young Virginian, with avowed rebel intent, was put in command of the section at the State Department, corner of Fifteenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, the most dangerous and surely the most exposed point on the whole long line of march. The qualities that placed him there were illustrated in his later career.
Late that evening - with Washington in ferment - three young Southerners met Saunders riding slowly barrackward at the head of his men. They were hurrying for the Acquia Creek boat, enroute to Dixie. Saunders leaned from his saddle to say good-bye God bless you, boys. I have done my duty today, but probably for the last time. Tell the fellows down there I'll not be absent when Virginia calls her roll. Nor was he, then or later.
At his death, General Saunders had nearly completed the whole term for which he had been appointed. Under his administration, it is admitted and conceded by those whose knowledge of military affairs made them capable judges, that the discipline and condition of the National Guard of Maryland had reached its highest state of efficiency, clue to his untiring zeal and the means adopted of imparting his professional knowledge and example to his subordinates.
His last illness was precipitated by his work in the field during the encampment of the Guard, named in his honor, Camp Saunders. From this illness he never rallied, though making a strong fight against insidious disease, never murmuring or complaining, but bearing all with the fortitude and courage of the Christian soldier. A touching incident of the last days of his illness was the occasion of the inauguration of Governor Warfield, when every commissioned officer of the National Guard, from the Brigade Commander to the lowest commissioned officer of the Naval forces, called to pay their respects and stood in the rain and snow while the highest officers were received at his bedside. He expressed a wish that his bed might be rolled to the window to at least see them all, for what might possibly be and was, the last time.
On the death of General Saunders, the General Assembly of Maryland, being then in session, adopted a Joint Resolution of Respect to his memory, under the Great Seal of the State of Maryland.
General Saunders was buried in Greenmount Cemetery, Baltimore, by the side of his wife, with full military honors, after his body had laid in state in the armory of the Fifth Regiment. Details from every command of the armed forces of the state formed a provisional regiment which acted as the escort and the mourners included persons of all ranks in life, gathered together to do homage and to pay their last respects to this well-loved citizen and soldier.
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