General Palmer: The Battling Quaker

In the Wild West, disputes were settled by whoever had the quickest draw and the sharpest aim, but the West was changing. The Transcontinental Railroad was completed on May 29, 1869, and several more transcontinental lines were in the works. Slowly, the savage landscape was tamed, and her plains and mountains were colonized. As settlements were founded and metropolises grew, conflicts moved out of the streets and into the courthouses, but the free nature of the Wild West would take one last breath in the valleys of Colorado.

A Brief Biography of General Palmer

It’s no secret that General William Jackson Palmer, founder of the Denver & Rio Grande and other railroads, was a pioneer of early railroading. In 1851, at the age of 15, Palmer began working for the Hempfield Railroad as a rodman on a survey crew. As he gained surveying experience, he rose to the rank of transitman. In 1855, Frank H. Jackson, president of the Westmoreland Coal Company and Palmer’s uncle, encouraged him to study the use of coal on the railroad in England. Palmer became particularly interested in whether anthracite coal could be used as fuel rather than wood. He financed his trip by securing a loan from his uncle and promising to write paid articles for Miner’s Journal on his findings. During his time in England, he met with notable pioneers of steam, such as Isambard Brunel, who invented the first propeller-driven steam ship, and Robert Stephenson, who invented the first widely-used steam locomotives and winner of the Rainhill Trials. Afterwards, Jackson hired Palmer to work at his coal company as secretary and treasurer. In 1857, Palmer began working for the Pennsylvania Railroad as personal secretary to company president John Edgar Thomson. Young, future industrialist Andrew Carnegie was secretary to company vice president Thomas A. Scott at the same time. Palmer evaluated the viability of converting the company’s steam locomotives to coal. His published studies were crucial to the nationwide conversion of steam power to the modern, coal-powered “anthracite road.” Palmer also became friends with Mr. Scott, who would be appointed Assistant Secretary of War in charge of military transportation during the Civil War.

The Civil War began in 1861. Palmer was a Quaker and a pacifist, but his passionate abolitionism compelled him to end the greater evil of slavery, so Palmer enlisted in the Union Army with the Pennsylvania volunteers. In the fall of 1861, Palmer organized the Anderson Troop, designed to act as bodyguard for Brigadier General Robert Anderson, and was elected its captain. Instead, his troop would serve as the headquarters cavalry for General Don Carlos Buell. Impressed with Palmer’s “elite scouts,” Buell instructed Palmer and twelve of his men to return to Pennsylvania and recruit more elite men to form a battalion with the Anderson Troop at its center. This battalion would become known as the “1st Anderson Cavalry.” Instead, Palmer received so many applications, in his ten days of recruiting, to form a whole regiment. It was authorized as the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry and Palmer was appointed its colonel. But on September 9, before he could organize the regiment, Palmer and a few other members were ordered to assist the Army of the Potomac in resisting the Confederate invasion of Maryland. Palmer, accompanied by his telegrapher, personally spied General Lee’s movements in civilian clothing and transmitted his findings back to the Union. Two days after the Battle of Antietam, Palmer was captured while scouting Lee’s preparations to return to Virginia across the Potomac River. Palmer pretended to be an engineer on an inspection trip, but was interrogated by General Pendleton before being incarcerated at Castle Thunder for four months.

Palmer was set free in a prisoner exchange and he returned to his regiment in February 1863. His regiment had become mutinous during his incarceration with 212 troops facing court-martial. Palmer reorganized his regiment and had the charges against his troops dropped on the condition of good behavior. Palmer’s once-demoralized men soon distinguished themselves at subsequent battles. At the Battle of Chickamauga, Confederates unexpectedly attacked the Union’s right flank. While the right flank dissolved into a panic, Palmer gathered all available men in his regiment and confidently counterattacked with a saber charge while suffering under Confederate artillery fire, successfully protecting Union forces. On their retreat to Chattanooga, Palmer’s regiment continued to provide escort for their supply train. Not easily impressed, Major General George H. Thomas recommended that Palmer be promoted to brigadier general for his success at turning an extremely demoralized group of men into highly successful soldiers. On March 9, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln nominated him to the appointment of brevet brigadier general at the age of 28, a position confirmed by the Senate the next day. Most famously, on January 14, 1865, at Red Hill, Alabama, Palmer defeated a superior force with less than 200 men and took about 100 prisoners, all without losing a single man. After several previously rejected nominations for his heroic actions as a spy during Antietam, Palmer would receive Medal of Honor for his actions at Red Hill on February 24, 1894. For the remainder of the war, General Palmer, now in command of his own division, pursued Confederate President Jefferson Davis and captured many strategic assets along the way. Palmer was discharged from service on June 21, 1865.