Mysteries of Warren County, Indiana: Brigadier General George D. Wagner

At the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee, on the 30th of November in 1864, Brigadier General George D. Wagner made one of the most controversial decisions of the Civil War. He commanded his outnumbered division to remain in a position forward of the Union line. He was under orders from Major General John M. Schofield to stand in the cotton field. Various eyewitnesses later wrote that the engagement, which began at dusk, resembled a rain of fire. The Confederates charged at bayonet point. The carnage was so dreadful as to make Franklin one of the most savage and horrific battles of the war. Two of Wagner’s battalions sustained such terrific losses that the soldiers broke and ran. Confederates were intermingled with them in hand-to-hand fighting. As Union guns could not fire upon friendly troops, the Confederates used the Union soldiers as human shields to overrun the Federal center. A belated blast from Union artillery probably killed several Union soldiers. It was a scene of bloody chaos. Ultimately, the stabilizing pressure brought by Federal reinforcements restored order.

Brigadier General George D. Wagner

General Wagner was from Wagner’s Grove, a cluster of farms in Medina Township just east of where I grew up in Pine Village, Indiana. 

Here, I quote at length from “Defense of Gen. Geo. D. Wagner’s Military Record,” a speech (available at http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/broadsides_bdsin10464/) given in the Warren County centennial year of 1927 by J. Wesley Whickcar, an attorney and historian from Attica, at Armstrong Chapel beside the cemetery where Wagner is buried; I have corrected a few typographical errors in the original printing: “When Wagner took his troops out into the open cotton field at three thirty in the afternoon, to face an army largely outnumbering his command, he had in his pocket, orders from Schofield, his commanding officer, to take his troops into the open cotton field, where the enemy could easily slaughter them. He was only obeying the orders of his superior commander. Thirteen years after the death of General George Day Wagner, General Jacob D. Cox, who had command of a division at Franklin, that had had a very advantageous position and was able to watch the slaughter of Wagner’s men, without danger to themselves and without making any effort to relieve Wagner, took it upon himself to write a history of the battle of Franklin, in which he said that General George D. Wagner should have been shot for the position he took and the men that he lost in the battle of Franklin. General Cox was not noted for brilliancy in command and was apparently jealous of the record of Wagner. Cox was afterwards Governor of the state of Ohio, elected from Cincinnati and a member of Congress and the President of the Wabash Railroad. Cox was one of that … brood that would wait until after the lips of Wagner had been stilled by death for thirteen years, when he could not defend himself, to make an attack upon Wagner’s military ability and personal character. Soldiers that had stood with Wagner at Franklin, from Ohio, Alabama, Iowa and Indiana, came to the defense of their dead commander and defended Wagner so well, that General Cox was forced to re-write the battle of Franklin, taking a much milder attitude toward Wagner, and his position at Franklin. … Soon after the battle of Nashville, the army was re-organized, General George D. Wagner retired from the service with an honorable discharge on the account of the serious illness of his wife, Frances E. Wagner. His wife died April 22nd, 1865, at the age of 34 years, 4 months, and 16 days. Soon after the death of his wife he moved to Williamsport and took up the study and practice of law, and was very successful in his law practice. Here he became an active and prominent worker in the Free Mason Lodge, and President of the Indiana State Agricultural Society. He was appointed Minister to Germany, and was in Indianapolis at the Bates House, arranging to go to Berlin and fill this appointment, when he suffered a severe attack of acute indigestion and after an illness of four or five days, died in the Old Bates House in Indianapolis, February 13th, 1869, at the age of 40 years, 5 months, and 21 days. The immediate cause of his death was an over-dose of a prescription left by his physician to alleviate his nervous suffering. Regardless of what General Jacob D. Cox of Ohio, said in 1882, no charge can be preferred and sustained against General George D. Wagner. We have admitted he was addicted to drink, but we deny all other charges.”

Just before the Confederate charge, Brigadier General Cox allegedly ordered Wagner to withdraw his troops. Cox was a line commander but otherwise equivalent to Wagner in rank; Wagner might well have ignored Cox’s orders because Wagner had contradictory orders from Schofield, who was at the head of the command. It was not immediately clear to the Federal generals that the Confederates were planning an attack. Wagner perceived that they were, and he sent messages to Schofield to alert him to the possibility. The element of uncertainty may help explain why Schofield did not immediately order Wagner to pull back to the Federal line. Questioning Wagner’s decision ensued immediately after the Battle of Franklin and has persisted to this day. Allegations that he was drunk are likely erroneous. Was his sudden retirement from service a tacit admission of guilt or the act of a devoted husband who realized that his wife was dying?

General Wagner was my great aunt Margaret’s great uncle. Margaret was married to my grandmother’s brother. Although my father often spoke to me about Civil War soldiers from Pine Village, he never mentioned General Wagner. As far as I recall, Aunt Margaret (as I have always referred to my great aunt) never talked about him. He had passed away long before she was born, and her own father may not have had more than youthful memories of him. 

Ann Miller Carr, co-author of the Rhode Family Website, conducted such excellent genealogical work to establish my great aunt’s relationship to General Wagner that I want to quote extensively from Ann’s message to me:

According to Ancestry.com’s “Indiana Marriage Collection, 1800–1941,” George D. “Wagoner” married Frances Elizabeth Alexander on 04 Feb 1847 in Warren Co., Indiana. Frances died on 22 Apr 1865. She may have been born on 06 Jan 1861 (birthdate derived from tombstone info on age at death).

Son John Mason Wagner, b. 1857, d. 1908 ...

There is a John M. Wagner who married Lizzie Carter in Warren Co., IN, on 20 Dec 1883.

However, there is a John F. Wagner, b. abt. 1861, the son of, who married Lilly States in Warren Co. on 31 Jan 1883. He was the son of a William and Margaret (Turman) Wagner, who were living in Poolsville, Medina Twp., Warren Co., IN, in 1870.

Another John Wagner, perhaps John M., b. abt. 1858, was living with a Wesley and Margaret Wagner, also in Poolsville, in 1870. Ella Wagner (later Bowyer) and Lilla “Lilly” Wagner (later Bailey), the daughters of George D. Wagner, were also living with them. In 1880, John M. Wagner is living with his sister Ella Wagner Bowyer and her family. In 1900, it seems that this John Wagner, b. Apr 1857, and wife, Elizabeth, are living in Peoria, IL, with sons George and Claude—no daughters.

Wesley, William, and George D. were all sons of a John Michael Wagner and his wife, Margaret Day. John Michael Wagner’s will is online on Ancestry.com, and they are all clearly named.

John Wagner and his wife, Lilly, had a daughter named Maggie [a nickname that Aunt Margaret despised], according to the 1900 census. Although his middle initial is not used, this is John F. Wagner.

According to the 1930 census, John F. Wagner (lists his middle initial this time) and wife, Lilly, were still alive and living in Pine Village.

I believe your Maggie was a grandniece of Brig. Gen. George D. Wagner.

Many of the Wagners, including John Michael and wife, Wesley and wife, William and wife, and George D. and wife, are buried in Armstrong Chapel Cemetery. John M. Wagner is also there, as are his sisters. John M.’s wife, Lizzie Carter Wagner, is not buried there (or does not have a tombstone). The fate of John M.’s brother, Marquis D. Lafayette Wagner, I did not trace.