Notes
Note N583
Index
Eli's mother died in giving him birth at Sheffield, Massachusetts, and he was raised by his mother's people. He became a very wealthy dealer in cotton goods, and was founder of the firm of Wainright & Shields. Much of his business was carried on in Liverpool, England
Notes
Note N584
Index
According to the Book published from Charles S. Wainwright's journals, his mother's line is to the Robert R. Livingston family of New York.
Notes
Note N585
Index
William P. Wainwright (brother) took possession of Charles Shiels Wainwright's personal journals
When Charles died, he was survived only by William and several nieces.
Notes
Note N586
Index
From the Wainwright Genealogy, dated 1903
Born: 12/31/1826 Death: 9/13/1907 in Washington, D.C.
Recently (10/98) found out that Charles S. Wainwright wrote personal journals about his time in the Civil War. The journals were published in book form in 1962, by Allan Nevins. Printed by Stan Clark Military Books, 915 Fairview Ave., Gettysburg, PA 17325, ph: 717-337-1728 (ISBN: 1-879664-15-1)
"Colonel (later Brevet Brigadier General) Wainwright of teh 1st Regiment New York Volunteer Light Infantry, Army of the Potomac, kept this diary from the battles of Williamsburg, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville, to Gettysburg, Spotsylvania, Petersburg, and Appomatox."
"But this is a story, too, of the more ordinary events of war---picking blackberies in a field, listening to the chirp of early bluebirds, struggling through endless mud, enjoying a rare festive occasion like the Thanksgiving Day dinner of champagne, green turtle soup a la tin can and Roast Turkey a la Hard Tack."
"Wainwright sets down penetrating, and sometimes prejudiced, observations of the commanding generals, McClellan, Hooker, Burnside, Meade, and Grant; and of those who commanded them, Stanton ("I do not like his looks") and President Lincoln ("I was ashamed to think that such a gawk was President of the United States"). His journals, culled here and annotated by Allan Nevins from five handwritten volumes, are an important Civil War find."
The facts in the military career of Charles Shiels Wainwright are recorded in abundant detail; those pertaining to his life before and after the war are not available in any printed work and have been difficult to ascertain in public archives. By his own statement when he applied for a pension November 28, 1902, he had been born in the city of New York on December 31, 1826. This confirms his assertion at the time of his enlistment, October 12, 1861, that he was then thirty-four years old. His pension application of 1902 shows that he was then living at 1715 G Street, N.W., Washinton, that he had never married, and that since the war he had lived in Dutchess County, in Europe, and "for the past eighteen years" in Washington. He was wholly incapacited by blindness and the effects of malaria.
He died at the George Washington University Hospital on Sept. 13, 1907, and his body was taken to New York for interment. His death certificate gives his age as eighty-two and his occupation as retired army officer. It records one fact not elsewhere found, that his father and mother had both been born in MA.
According to the brief obituary in the Washington Post of Sept. 15, for some years after the close of the war "General Wainwright had a large farm and country place on the Hudson, near Albany;" he had been a member of the Metropolitan Club in Washington; and he was survived only by one brother and several nieces. The brother was of course William P. Wainwright, one of the nieces was Miss N.W. Bradley of New York. Charles Wainwright was a member of the Sons of the American Revolution by virture of the fact that he was descended from Surgeon Thomas Tillotson of the Maryland Line. He was also related, on his mother's side, to the Robert R. Livingston family of New York.
The diary or journal that Charles Shiels Wainwright kept from October 1, 1861, through the Grand Review of May 23-24, 1865, is in five notebooks approximately eight by ten inches, each in hard mottled covers with black leatherette binding and corners. The whole record fills 1,700 pages and contains approximately 530,000 words. Although the ink is badly faded in places, the text is quite legible throughout.
At some unknown date the diary come into the possession of Colonel William P. Wainwright's son, Dr. Charles H. Wainwright, who was a surgeon in the New York Hospital. His widow, Margaret Gaire Wainwright, inherited it when the doctor died in 1948. From her it passed to a nephew, Mr. Harry Cronin, of the staff of the New York Daily News. Mr. Cronin offers a few reminiscences of his aunt, his uncle, and their home:
"I remember C.H. showing me the diaries off and on, years ago, but I never thought anything about the, and neither did he. A hardheaded former stockbroker, mentally very keen, he just did not get very excited about family background.....Originally 37 East Twenty-ninth was a five-story brownstone, complete with upstairs maids and downstairs maids. In the 1920's when my aunt and uncle kept traveling around the world, they converted the lower two floors to the commercial use and kept the upper three floors for themselves and their maid. The place was crammed with old family mementos, old swords, General Charles S. Wainwright's flagstaff, and so on.......
The diaries were purchased in 1961 by the editor of this volume, who later presented them to the Huntinton Library, with some related material. The New York Public Library has a small collection of the papers of Colonel William P. Wainwright.