Position at Antietam
Commander, Sixth Corps, Army of the Potomac (Age 39 at the battle)
Personal
1823-1903 Pennsylvania
Nickname:
Born in York, PA to Walter S. Franklin, Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1833-1838; In 1852, Franklin married Anna L. Clarke, daughter of Matthew St. Clair Clark who had preceded his father as Clerk of the House of Representatives. The Franklins had no children.
Education
West Point Class of 1843, ranked 1st of 39. Classmates: U.S. Grant, Roswell Ripley, one year behind Lafayette McLaws, James Longstreet and D.H. Hill. Commissioned in the Topographical Engineers.
Mexican War
Served under General John E. Wool during the Mexican War and received a brevet promotion to first lieutenant after the Battle of Buena Vista.
Other military career highlights
On surveying expeditions of the Great Lakes and Rocky Mountains before the Mexican War. Afterward assigned to engineering projects including construction of lighthouses, the U.S. Capitol, and the Treasury Building in Washington DC.
Civilian career highlights
N/A
Civil War
Commanded a brigade at Bull Run and a division in the Army of the Potomac. Promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on August 20, 1861. March 1862, Franklin was appointed to head the Sixth Corps, which he then led in the Peninsula Campaign. After Antietam, during the Battle of Fredericksburg, he commanded the Left Grand Division, consisting of the First and Sixth Corps. When Hooker took command of the army in February, Franklin resigned his command. Reassigned to the Dept. of the Gulf, he participated in the ill-fated Red River Campaign as commander of Nineteenth Corps. On April 8, 1864, he was wounded in the leg at the Battle of Mansfield in Louisiana. The remainder of his army career was limited by disability from his wound.
Postwar
Relocated to Hartford, Connecticut, and became the vice-president of the Colt Firearms Manufacturing Company,serving in that capacity until 1888.
Death
Hartford, Connecticut, March 8, 1903. Buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery in York, Pennsylvania.
Quotes
“Franklin was one of the best officers I had; very powerful. He was a man not only of excellent judgement, but of a remarkably high order of intellectual ability. He was often badly treated, and seldom received the credit he deserved. His moral character was of the highest, and he was in all respects an admirable corps commander.” George B. McClellan
“He struck me as an officer of power – large with square face and head, deep-sunk, determined blue eyes, close cropped reddish-brown hair and beard.” Katherine Prescott, U.S. Sanitary Commission on the Peninsula
“I do not at all doubt Franklin’s loyalty [to me] now, but his efficiency is very little, so little energy.” George B. McClellan
“General Franklin had ample time on the morning of the 15th to have advanced his forces and engaged mine.” Lafayette McLaws
“Franklin has become very odious to me, from his envy, jealousy, and interfering ignorance of his profession, as all those Engineers prove equally inefficient.” Phil Kearney
“(I) took every precaution to guard against surprise, went very slow all day with skirmishers in front.” William B. Franklin to his wife describing his action at First Bull Run
“…all your intellect & the utmost activity that a general can exercise.” McClellan to Franklin ordering an attack on McLaws
“They outnumber me two to one. It will of course not answer to pursue the enemy under these circumstances. I shall communicate with Burnside as soon as possible. In the meantime, I shall wait here until I learn what is the prospect of reinforcement. I have not the force to justify an attack on the force I see in front. I have had a very close view of it, and its position is very strong.” Franklin to McClellan on September 15
“I went from there to Franklin’s headquarters where I found him, Smith, and their staffs, in quite a comfortable camp; doing nothing to help things on, but grumbling and talking in a manner to do all the harm possible.” Charles Wainwright