Roeliff Brinkerhoff
Encyclopedia
Roeliff Brinkerhoff was a lawyer
, editor
and owner of the Mansfield Herald, and later a bank president. He was a quartermaster
and supply officer in the Union Army
during the American Civil War
, rising to the rank of brigadier general
. His work, "The Volunteer Quartermaster" was considered the definitive text on military logistics
and transportation from the Civil War until World War I
. He also founded the Ohio Historical Society
and succeeded former President
Rutherford B. Hayes
as president of the American National Prison Congress.
. At the age of sixteen, he became a teacher in his native town, while at eighteen he was in charge of a school near Hendersonville, Tennessee
. The following year he was the tutor in the family of Andrew Jackson Jr. before moving to Mansfield, Ohio
, to study law with his relative Jacob Brinkerhoff
. He was admitted to the bar in 1852, and remained in active practice from that time until after the outbreak of hostilities during the American Civil War
. He also served as editor the Mansfield Herald newspaper. Brinkerhoff was married on February 3, 1852, to Mary Lake Bentley, of Mansfield, a granddaughter of General Robert Bentley
. They had two sons and two daughters.
A firm believer in prison and asylum reform, he was at first a free-soil Democrat
, then a Republican
, and then, following the unsuccessful Liberal Republican Party
movement of 1872, a Democrat once more; he was described as a "Jeffersonian democrat, a believer in free trade, hard money, home rule, and the non-interference principles of government generally."
of the 64th Ohio Infantry
. He was known by some accounts as the first officer to join the "Sherman Brigade" under Brigadier General William Tecumseh Sherman
. In December 1861, he was assigned to the depot at Bardstown, Kentucky
. Following the capture of Nashville, he was placed in charge of the land and river transportation in that city and after the Battle of Shiloh
, he was ordered to the front and placed in charge of the field transportation of the Army of the Ohio
.
It was following the capture of Corinth that he returned home on sick leave and when he had sufficiently recovered he was ordered to Maine as Chief Quartermaster of the state, where he quickly became friends with Congressman James G. Blaine
. He was then transferred to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
, and placed in charge of transportation and army stores for the Department of the Susquehanna
, and then to Washington D.C. as post quartermaster until June, 1865, when he was made a Colonel and inspector of the quartermaster's department. He was retained on duty at the war office with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton until November, when he was ordered to Cincinnati as Chief Quartermaster of the Department of the Ohio
.
In September 1866, he was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers and was mustered out of the service in October at his own request. He was the author of a volume entitled, "The Volunteer Quartermaster," a treatise which was considered the standard guide for the officers and employees of the quartermaster's department up until the First World War.
Brinkerhoff was the intimate friend of many nationally prominent figures including Salmon P. Chase
, James G. Blaine
, James A. Garfield and Rutherford B. Hayes
. In 1873, he became President of the Mansfield Savings Bank, and in 1878 was appointed a member of the board of state charities and continued in that position under different administrations serving eleven terms over a period of thirty years.
Blaine had initially promised Brinkerhoff an appointment as U.S. Minister to Holland, but schemed to have the sitting Ambassador Hugh Ewing replaced with his brother Charles Ewing
, and there is no evidence that Blaine ever actually presented Brinkerhoff's name to the President, although both Senator John Sherman
and General and Congressman John Beatty claim that Blaine had promised them to do so.
He showcased his compassion and liberal idealism when he traded on his political connections to abolish the use of mechanical restraints in treatments of the insane. Although his work was initially deemed "Brinkerhoff's Folly" by the press, his work led to the Toledo hospital system becoming the model asylum in the United States. He was selected as a member of the commission which selected the plans for its construction. He was one of the earliest American advocates of the cottage system, and understood that public opinion demanded reform and advancement.
In 1875, Brinkerhoff founded the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society at his home, whose first president was Senator Allen G. Thurman
, followed by Rutherford B. Hayes, and later himself Brinkerhoff upon Hayes' death. He was soon named President Emeritus of the organization which exists to this day.
Through the society he was able to secure legislation and funding for the Ohio Monument at Jefferson Park, in Chicago. In a speech delivered before the legislature, he stated that:
When the Ohio monument was dedicated at Jefferson Park, in Chicago, September 14, 1893, General Brinkerhoff delivered one of the principal addresses.
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
, editor
Editor in chief
An editor-in-chief is a publication's primary editor, having final responsibility for the operations and policies. Additionally, the editor-in-chief is held accountable for delegating tasks to staff members as well as keeping up with the time it takes them to complete their task...
and owner of the Mansfield Herald, and later a bank president. He was a quartermaster
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
and supply officer in the Union Army
Union Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, rising to the rank of brigadier general
Brigadier general (United States)
A brigadier general in the United States Army, Air Force, and Marine Corps, is a one-star general officer, with the pay grade of O-7. Brigadier general ranks above a colonel and below major general. Brigadier general is equivalent to the rank of rear admiral in the other uniformed...
. His work, "The Volunteer Quartermaster" was considered the definitive text on military logistics
Military logistics
Military logistics is the discipline of planning and carrying out the movement and maintenance of military forces. In its most comprehensive sense, it is those aspects or military operations that deal with:...
and transportation from the Civil War until World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. He also founded the Ohio Historical Society
Ohio Historical Society
The Ohio Historical Society is a non-profit organization incorporated in 1885 as The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society "to promote a knowledge of archaeology and history, especially in Ohio"...
and succeeded former President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
as president of the American National Prison Congress.
Early life and career
Roeliff (often mistakenly known as 'Ruloff') was born in Owasco, Cayuga County, New YorkCayuga County, New York
Cayuga County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It was named for one of the tribes of Indians in the Iroquois Confederation. Its county seat is Auburn.- History :...
. At the age of sixteen, he became a teacher in his native town, while at eighteen he was in charge of a school near Hendersonville, Tennessee
Hendersonville, Tennessee
Hendersonville is a city in Sumner County, Tennessee, United States, on Old Hickory Lake. The population was 51,372 at the 2010 census. Hendersonville is part of the Nashville Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located 18 miles northeast of downtown Nashville. The city was settled around 1784 by...
. The following year he was the tutor in the family of Andrew Jackson Jr. before moving to Mansfield, Ohio
Mansfield, Ohio
Mansfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Richland County. The municipality is located in north-central Ohio in the western foothills of the Allegheny Plateau, approximately southwest of Cleveland and northeast of Columbus....
, to study law with his relative Jacob Brinkerhoff
Jacob Brinkerhoff
Jacob Brinkerhoff was an American jurist, Congressman, and author of the Wilmot Proviso.Brinkerhoff was born in Niles, Cayuga County, New York. He was schooled at the academy at Prattsburgh, New York, and studied law in the office of Howell and Bro...
. He was admitted to the bar in 1852, and remained in active practice from that time until after the outbreak of hostilities during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
. He also served as editor the Mansfield Herald newspaper. Brinkerhoff was married on February 3, 1852, to Mary Lake Bentley, of Mansfield, a granddaughter of General Robert Bentley
Robert Bentley
Robert Bentley was an English botanist. He is perhaps best remembered today for the four-volume Medicinal Plants, published in 1880 with Henry Trimen and containing over three hundred hand-colored plates by botanist David Blair.-Life:Robert Bentley was born in Hitchin, Hertfordshire in 1821...
. They had two sons and two daughters.
A firm believer in prison and asylum reform, he was at first a free-soil Democrat
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
, then a Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
, and then, following the unsuccessful Liberal Republican Party
Liberal Republican Party (United States)
The Liberal Republican Party of the United States was a political party that was organized in Cincinnati in May 1872, to oppose the reelection of President Ulysses S. Grant and his Radical Republican supporters. The party's candidate in that year's presidential election was Horace Greeley, longtime...
movement of 1872, a Democrat once more; he was described as a "Jeffersonian democrat, a believer in free trade, hard money, home rule, and the non-interference principles of government generally."
Civil War
He joined the army in September 1861 as a first lieutenant and regimental quartermasterQuartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
of the 64th Ohio Infantry
64th Ohio Infantry
The 64th Ohio Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.-Service:The 64th Ohio Infantry was organized at Camp Buckingham in Mansfield, Ohio and mustered in for three years service on November 9, 1861 under the command of Colonel J. W. Forsyth...
. He was known by some accounts as the first officer to join the "Sherman Brigade" under Brigadier General William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman
William Tecumseh Sherman was an American soldier, businessman, educator and author. He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War , for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched...
. In December 1861, he was assigned to the depot at Bardstown, Kentucky
Bardstown, Kentucky
As of the census of 2010, there were 11,700 people, 4,712 households, and 2,949 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 5,113 housing units at an average density of...
. Following the capture of Nashville, he was placed in charge of the land and river transportation in that city and after the Battle of Shiloh
Battle of Shiloh
The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the Western Theater of the American Civil War, fought April 6–7, 1862, in southwestern Tennessee. A Union army under Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had moved via the Tennessee River deep into Tennessee and...
, he was ordered to the front and placed in charge of the field transportation of the Army of the Ohio
Army of the Ohio
The Army of the Ohio was the name of two Union armies in the American Civil War. The first army became the Army of the Cumberland and the second army was created in 1863.-History:...
.
It was following the capture of Corinth that he returned home on sick leave and when he had sufficiently recovered he was ordered to Maine as Chief Quartermaster of the state, where he quickly became friends with Congressman James G. Blaine
James G. Blaine
James Gillespie Blaine was a U.S. Representative, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator from Maine, two-time Secretary of State...
. He was then transferred to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh is the second-largest city in the US Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Allegheny County. Regionally, it anchors the largest urban area of Appalachia and the Ohio River Valley, and nationally, it is the 22nd-largest urban area in the United States...
, and placed in charge of transportation and army stores for the Department of the Susquehanna
Department of the Susquehanna
The Department of the Susquehanna was a military department created by the United States War Department during the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War...
, and then to Washington D.C. as post quartermaster until June, 1865, when he was made a Colonel and inspector of the quartermaster's department. He was retained on duty at the war office with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton until November, when he was ordered to Cincinnati as Chief Quartermaster of the Department of the Ohio
Department of the Ohio
The Department of the Ohio was an administrative military district created by the United States War Department early in the American Civil War to administer the troops in the Northern states near the Ohio River.General Orders No...
.
In September 1866, he was promoted to Brigadier General of Volunteers and was mustered out of the service in October at his own request. He was the author of a volume entitled, "The Volunteer Quartermaster," a treatise which was considered the standard guide for the officers and employees of the quartermaster's department up until the First World War.
Postbellum career
Salmon P. Chase
Salmon Portland Chase was an American politician and jurist who served as U.S. Senator from Ohio and the 23rd Governor of Ohio; as U.S. Treasury Secretary under President Abraham Lincoln; and as the sixth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.Chase was one of the most prominent members...
, James G. Blaine
James G. Blaine
James Gillespie Blaine was a U.S. Representative, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, U.S. Senator from Maine, two-time Secretary of State...
, James A. Garfield and Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford B. Hayes
Rutherford Birchard Hayes was the 19th President of the United States . As president, he oversaw the end of Reconstruction and the United States' entry into the Second Industrial Revolution...
. In 1873, he became President of the Mansfield Savings Bank, and in 1878 was appointed a member of the board of state charities and continued in that position under different administrations serving eleven terms over a period of thirty years.
Blaine had initially promised Brinkerhoff an appointment as U.S. Minister to Holland, but schemed to have the sitting Ambassador Hugh Ewing replaced with his brother Charles Ewing
Charles Ewing (General)
Charles Ewing, was an attorney and Union Army general during the American Civil War. He was the son of Interior Secretary Thomas Ewing, the brother of Thomas Ewing, Jr. and Hugh Boyle Ewing, and the foster brother & brother-in-law of William T. Sherman...
, and there is no evidence that Blaine ever actually presented Brinkerhoff's name to the President, although both Senator John Sherman
John Sherman (politician)
John Sherman, nicknamed "The Ohio Icicle" , was a U.S. Representative and U.S. Senator from Ohio during the Civil War and into the late nineteenth century. He served as both Secretary of the Treasury and Secretary of State and was the principal author of the Sherman Antitrust Act...
and General and Congressman John Beatty claim that Blaine had promised them to do so.
He showcased his compassion and liberal idealism when he traded on his political connections to abolish the use of mechanical restraints in treatments of the insane. Although his work was initially deemed "Brinkerhoff's Folly" by the press, his work led to the Toledo hospital system becoming the model asylum in the United States. He was selected as a member of the commission which selected the plans for its construction. He was one of the earliest American advocates of the cottage system, and understood that public opinion demanded reform and advancement.
In 1875, Brinkerhoff founded the Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society at his home, whose first president was Senator Allen G. Thurman
Allen G. Thurman
Allen Granberry Thurman was a Democratic Representative and Senator from Ohio, as well as the nominee of the Democratic Party for Vice President of the United States in 1888.-Biography:...
, followed by Rutherford B. Hayes, and later himself Brinkerhoff upon Hayes' death. He was soon named President Emeritus of the organization which exists to this day.
Through the society he was able to secure legislation and funding for the Ohio Monument at Jefferson Park, in Chicago. In a speech delivered before the legislature, he stated that:
When the Ohio monument was dedicated at Jefferson Park, in Chicago, September 14, 1893, General Brinkerhoff delivered one of the principal addresses.
See also
- List of American Civil War generals