{"id":61253,"date":"2020-09-03T15:36:56","date_gmt":"2020-09-03T19:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=61253"},"modified":"2026-09-03T10:13:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T14:13:13","slug":"researching-civil-war-photo-gloria-vanderbilts-great-grandfather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/researching-civil-war-photo-gloria-vanderbilts-great-grandfather.html","title":{"rendered":"Researching Civil War Photo: Gloria Vanderbilt\u2019s Great Grandfather"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, Melissa Davenport Berry writes about researching a Civil War photo of one of Gloria Vanderbilt\u2019s ancestors. <\/em>Melissa is a genealogist who has a website, americana-archives.com<\/a><\/em>, and a Facebook group, New England Family Genealogy and History<\/a><\/em>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Heritage Collectors\u2019 Society asked me to research a few photographs recently. Among the collection was this photo of Union General Hugh Judson Kilpatrick (1836-1881).<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: Hugh Judson Kilpatrick. Credit: Heritage Collectors\u2019 Society.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I started my hunt using GenealogyBank\u2019s Historical Newspaper Archives<\/a>, and found a nice write up on his military career in the San Francisco Call Bulletin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
San Francisco Call Bulletin (San Francisco, California), 22 September 1911, page 7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From this and other articles, I learned that Hugh Kilpatrick was a Union cavalry officer during the Civil War, earned the nickname \u201cKill-Cavalry,\u201d and achieved the rank of brevet brigadier general. He was born in Deckertown, New Jersey, and graduated from West Point (1861). He served in the Gettysburg campaign and on Sherman\u2019s march to the sea.<\/p>\n

In 1864 Kilpatrick led a calvary expedition of 5,000 men around Robert E. Lee\u2019s army near Richmond, Virginia, attempting to relieve union prisoners at Libby prison. The expedition failed in its main objective, but \u201cinflicted considerable loss on the Confederates by destroying their railroads and bridges and cutting up several of their regiments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing my research, I found this article in the Augusta Chronicle<\/em> which referenced General Kilpatrick\u2019s sister. Her name was Adeline \u201cPhebe\u201d Kilpatrick, who married Abiah Wilson in Deckertown, New Jersey.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Augusta Chronicle (Augusta, Georgia), 15 February 1904, page 6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The couple purchased (about 1870) a plantation called \u201cInnisfail\u201d in Morgan County, Georgia, once the summer residence of Robert Taylor, a Confederate general in the Georgia State Militia. Kilpatrick\u2019s nephews Dr. A. O. Wilson and Walter Wilson stayed on the property when their father returned to New Jersey.<\/p>\n

Walter told reporters a war tidbit about his uncle:<\/p>\n

\u201cGeneral Kilpatrick was a self-made man, and graduated at West Point when Gen. Pierce M. B. Young was a cadet. \u2026during a certain battle [Battle\u00a0of Big\u00a0Bethel, 10 June 1861] in the Civil War, a Confederate officer who had been in his class at West Point recognized the general across the lines and pointed him out to a sharpshooter, who sent a bullet though his knee wounding him for life.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The House of the Ferret antique shop in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, has a sampler made by Adeline \u201cPhebe\u201d when she was 14 years old. The sampler contains the verse:<\/p>\n

And must this body die
\nThis mortal frame decay
\nAnd must these active limbs of mine
\nLie moldering in the clay<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: sampler made by Adeline \u201cPhebe\u201d Kilpatrick, sister of Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, at age 14. Credit: Rita King, owner of House of the Ferret antique shop, South Deerfield, Massachusetts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After the Civil War, Hugh Kilpatrick served as U.S. Minister to Chile and married a wealthy Chilean woman, Luisa Fernandez de Valdivieso.<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photos: Luisa and Hugh Kilpatrick. Credit: Ohio History Collection, Sherman Family Papers, P 42; Box 1, Folder 1, Page 6, Image Number 22.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They had two daughters: Julia Mercedes Kilpatrick (who married U.S. Army Brigadier General William Carroll Rafferty); and Laura Isabel Delphine Kilpatrick (who married Harry Hays Morgan).<\/p>\n

Laura and Harry Morgan had twin daughters: Thelma (who married Marmaduke Furness and became Viscountess Furness); and Gloria (who married Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt).<\/p>\n

\"Photo:<\/a>
Photo: twin daughters of Laura and Harry Morgan: Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt (left) with her identical twin, Thelma Morgan, Viscountess Furness, in 1955. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Gloria and Reginald Vanderbilt had a daughter, Gloria Vanderbilt, who became a famous artist and socialite.<\/p>\n

When Kilpatrick\u2019s great granddaughter Gloria Vanderbilt made her debut as a fashion designer, she told the Dallas Morning News<\/em>, \u201cI wanted to make something of myself\u2026 Maybe the drive is in my genes,\u201d which derived from both sides of her potent pedigree. Gloria\u2019s four marriages are catalogued in this article, which she claims no fame to, but her \u201cworkhorse\u201d ethic is in her blood.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Dallas Morning News (Dallas, Texas), 30 September 1979, page 163<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Well, Gloria is a tight fit to her forbearer great grandfather Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, who distinguished himself as a battle lord and a Chilean minister. Perhaps she inherited her fondness of home fashion and needlecraft from her great Aunt Phebe.<\/p>\n

Gloria, dubbed \u201cthe Renaissance Woman\u201d in the creative field, proved to supersede all her ancestor\u2019s fame with her Murjani fashion enterprise. No one can accuse Gloria of riding anyone\u2019s coattails as she asserted: \u201cMy track record stands for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other famous kin in Gloria\u2019s line include Anderson Cooper, Julia Ward Howe, Robert Trent Paine, and J. P. Morgan.<\/p>\n

Create a free account<\/a> at GenealogyBank for 7 days to start your journey and discover the stories your ancestors left behind.<\/p>\n

Note on the header image:<\/em><\/strong> Gloria Vanderbilt, photos of her and her jeans ad \u2013 from \u201cGloria Vanderbilt \u2013 Blue Jeans Fit for the Masses.\u201d Permission to publish: Sally Edelstein.<\/p>\n

Genealogy:<\/strong><\/p>\n