James Tanner

[L Verge]

I promised some tidbits from the Tanner article in the current issue of Civil War Monitor. Here are a few teasers:

1. Few things occurred in the last half of the 19th century that did not involve Tanner in some way.
2. He grew up on a farm west of Albany, NY.
3. Enlisted with the 87th NY and marched off to war down Brooklyn's main street. He had never seen a train until he boarded one to go to war. Years later, in 1906, his wife would be killed in an automobile accident.
4. Lost both of his legs right below the knees at Second Manassas in 1862, and endured horrible treatments, surgeries, etc. for the rest of his life.
5. Within months, he began taking a stenography course at a Syracuse business school in order to prepare himself for life. This is where he entered the history books at the time of the Lincoln assassination.
6. He studied law after the war and worked for the U.S. Customs office in NYC. He also served as a tax collector for the city of Brooklyn for over a decade.
7. A part of the Gilded Age of economic growth and moved into the up-scale Prospect Park, where he got deeply involved in politics.
8. By the 1880s, he was a mover and shaker with the Republican Party and a Commissioner of Pensions in Washington. A little trouble here when critics accused him of being too generous to former soldiers. He efficiently managed more than 1500 clerks, agents, secretaries, medical examiners as well as others in field offices around the country. In charge of a payroll of $2.4 million. Dispensed pensions that amounted to one-third of the federal budget.
9. Elected commander in chief of the national GAR in 1906.
10. Became a leading force in the American Red Cross, especially during WWI.
11. Served as Register of Wills in D.C. until his death in 1927.
12. Heard one of his speeches broadcast on the radio in 1924.