Posts Tagged ‘Edward Neville’

British observers on McClellan's staff. Charles Fletcher is seated on the far right, and Edward Neville is also seated, third in from the right.

Almost everyone you talk to about British military observers in the American Civil War can think of only one – Lieutenant Colonel Arthur James Lyon Freemantle, Coldstream Guards. Freemantle is considered by most as a British military observer who chose to remain with, and ‘observe’ the southern side. Because perhaps of the fame of Freemantle through his book, Three Months in the Southern States, or possibly as a result of how he was portrayed in the recent movie, Gettysburg, even historians are unaware of two important historical facts:

1.  Although Freemantle was an officer of the Coldstream Guards, he was on leave of absence while in the States, likely didn’t have a uniform with him, wore tweeds most of the time, and was – in point of fact – more a “tourist” than anything else.  (David Horn, the then curator of the Guards Museum, London, and a renowned historian, tried to tell the Gettysburg movie folks these facts, but they insisted on putting Freenantle in a scarlet uniform as an official British observer at Gettysburg, regardless – Go figure.)

Lt Col Arthur Freemantle (In later years)

2.  On the other hand, there were a dozen or so authorized British military observers with General McClellan and the Federal Army of the Potomac for several months in 1862.  These officers, mostly from Guards regiments and the Royal Artillery, came south from Canada to join Little Mac’s staff.

You see, a brigade of Guards and other regiments, with accompanying artillery, had been sent to Canada by Her Majesty Queen Victoria in response to the “Trent” affair on the high seas.  During this incident, two Confederate politicians were taken from a British ship, HMS Trent, causing great outrage in Britain.  By the time these elite British troops arrived in Canada, things were smoothed over between President Lincoln and the Queen, and a nasty potential war on our northern border was averted.  This left these officers sitting in Canada with practically nothing to do.  Why not observe this “Yank” war first hand?

It is one of these British observers, Ian Carlyle, in the Scots Fusilier Guards, who is the hero of my recently released novel, The Gettysburg Conspiracy.  I modeled my character, Ian, after two of the actual observers on McClellan’s staff, Charles Edward Fletcher and Edward Neville.  They can be seen in the photographic image at the beginning of this blog.  These were both fine officers.

By the way, I survived the dentist.  My cunning plan worked like a charm.

Photographic image of British and other foreign observers with the Federal Army

A youthful Ian Carlyle in the Crimea

Deciding on a fictional hero for an entire series is a daunting task, not to be pursued lightly. The character will last for years and through many adventures. He will grow older as the series progresses. I had certain aspects of my protagonist in mind from the beginning. For instance, I am a Scot. My father, a character in his own right, was born there. He was raised in the north, and considered himself a highlander, although actually born south of Glasgow in Kilmarnoch. He emigrated to Canada, then to the US. He had a thick brogue. In fact, I had a strange quasi-Scottish accent until I was about ten, when it began to fade away. I wanted my hero to have my roots, and, like my father, be a bit of a rogue and a maverick.

I chose the name Carlyle, because it was a sept of the Clan Bruce of Scottish nobility. The first name, Ian, just seemed to fit. His home was originally Dunmore Hall, until I found through research and friends in Scotland that there was a thriving Dunmore Hall, family, and estate, and they well might take offense to being fictionalized. Thus I made up the name Dunkairn, as Ian’s home. A ‘cairn’ is a mound of stones with crevices. These cairns are all over the highlands. It came to mind from a wonderful cairn terrier I had once owned. Like all such creatures, he was raised to hunt – to drive critters from among these cairns so his master could make the kill. I changed the ‘c’ to a ‘k’ on purely a whim.

I’d had my fill of reading about enlisted men who, against all odds, rose from the ranks in the 19th century British army to become officers of the Queen. The overwhelming majority of the British officer corps did not fit this mold. They came into the army as officers, and, in most cases, had to be able to afford the considerable purchase price and maintenance costs of their commissions. Each promotion was purchased, and the higher, the more expensive.

I made Ian the second son of the Earl of Dunkairn, just to complicate his life even more. As the second son he would not inherit the title, and, in that Victorian period, his options were limited. It would have been appropriate for him to go into the army.

There are many British regiments I am fond of, particularly Scottish regiments. At the top of that list, however, is the Scots Guards, or as they were titled in mid-19th century, the Scots Fusilier Guards. As part of the Guards Brigade, the Household Guard of the Royal family, they were, and remain, the elite of British military. I also wanted him to join a regiment his father, the Earl, might have been in during the Napoleonic Wars, many years before. The Guards are replete with officers who are also titled nobility. One might easily run into a Lieutenant ‘His Lordship’ so and so, or Captain ‘Sir’ so and so. What better regiment for my hero to join than the Scots Fusilier Guards?

To develop Ian’s military background, I spent countless hours at the Scots Guards Archives at Wellington Barracks, London, and, of course, at the Buckingham Arms, across Petty France Street from the rear gate – one of my favorite pubs. With the expert help of Kevin Gorman, Archivist, Scots Guards, who has since become the son I never had, I was able to pin down two of the Scots Fusilier Guards officers who served on George B. McClellan’s staff, Army of the Potomac, in the American Civil War – Captain and Lieutenant Colonel (dual rank system in G uards only)Edward Neville and Captain and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Henry Fletcher. I combined their service records and backgrounds to come up with the fictional Captain Ian Carlyle.

The end result was the character study described in Follow Me to Glory:

“Then, of course, there was Captain Ian David Carlyle, himself. Ian was of medium height, his ramrod posture making him look much taller. He had a delicate face, like his mother’s, with the straight nose, high cheekbones and strong chin of his deep highland roots. Having been brought up largely in London, he had only a trace of Scottish accent, unless he chose to charm or mock someone. At those times his brogue became as thick as he wished, a useful skill that he had learned to impose as one might turn a fine horse, with a flick of the wrist.

Ian had thick sandy-brown hair, which appeared red in bright sunlight, and clear blue eyes that, when focused, could quite literally melt the hardest heart. These same eyes could also turn to iron straight away, and cut through the resolve of most opponents in an instant, another useful skill.

Ian carried himself with the decisive and confident demeanour of a military officer. He wore this bearing like a badge of honour. This, like so many aspects of Ian’s character, was his father’s and Angus’ influence. [Angus is his mentor, a crusty old highlander.]

Ian was, after all, second son of the Earl of Dunkairn. He was here in the Crimea at the end of a long personal struggle, and wanted this war badly, to pursue his own dreams of glory.”

Period Photography by Roger Fenton, and sketches by Peter Culos

Ian Carlyle in American Civil War - 6 years after Crimea

Scots Fusilier Guards officer in Crimea - Used as model for Ian's early sketch

Group of British observers on McClellan's staff in American Civil War

Edward Neville (left), Unidentified officer (middle), Charles Fletcher (right)