Ivan Vasilevitch Turchininoff
The story begins in Russia where Ivan Vasilevitch Turchininoff, the son of a military officer, was born and entered cadet academy at St. Peterburg at age 14. After experiencing combat in the Tsar’s Imperial Army, he and his bride, Nadezhda Lvova, departed for America in 1856 in search of freedom. They anglicized their names to John Basil and Nadine Turchin and settled in Chicago. Turchin took a job with the Illinois Central Railroad.
TURCHIN, John Basil, or Ivan Vasilevitch Turchininoff, soldier, born in the province of Don, Russia, 30 January, 1822. He entered the artillery-school at St. Petersburg in 1836, was graduated in 1841, and entered the horse-artillery service as an ensign, he participated in the Hungarian campaign, in 1849 entered the military academy for officers of the general staff, was graduated in 1852, and was assigned to the staff of the Imperial guards. During the Crimean war he was promoted till he reached the grade of colonel, was senior staff-officer of the active corps, and prepared the plan that was adopted for the defence of the coast of Finland. He came to the United States in 1856, and was employed in the engineer department of the Illinois Central railroad company until 19 June, 1861, when he was appointed colonel of the 19th Illinois volunteers. He served with his regiment in Missouri, Kentucky, and Alabama, where he took an active part in the capture of Huntsville and Decatur. He was promoted to be a brigadier-general of volunteers, 17 July, 1862, served in the cavalry of the Army of the Cumberland, and resigned, 10 October, 1864. After the close of the war he was a solicitor of patents in Chicago till 1870, for the next three years was employed as a civil engineer, and in 1873 he established the Polish colony of Radone, in Washington county, Illinois, where he now (1889) resides on a farm. He is an occasional contributor of scientific and military articles to periodicals. In January, 1865, he wrote "Military Rambles," a series of criticisms, issued monthly at Chicago, and he has also published " The Campaign and Battle of Chickamauga" (Chicago, 1888).
Edited Appletons Encyclopedia, Copyright © 2001 VirtualologyTM
The Mad Cossack
Brigadier General John B. Turchin (Ivan Vasilevitch Turchininoff) was a nonpareil... No general in either army inspired greater loyalty or more intense hatred than Turchin... In 1863, most Southerners wished him dead, preferably at the end of a rope. "I cannot close this message without again adverting to the savage ferocity which still marks the conduct of the enemy in the prosecution of the war," Jefferson Davis told the Confederate Congress in his annual message to the legislature. "their commanders, Butler, McNeil, and Turchin, whose terrible barbarities have made their names widely notorious and everywhere execrable, are still honored and cherished by the authorities at Washington." ....
Turchin caused quite a stir among his brother officers. he spoke openly of his disdain for army regulations that protected the property of Southern noncombatants, or what Turchin called the "guarding potato patches policy" of "gently fighting the rebels in the field, and at the same time preserving their property from the uses of the army." His convictions got the better of him and in may 1862 he permitted his brigade to plunder the town of Athens, Alabama, which ironically was known for its large loyal population. Turchin was swiftly brought up on charges of "neglect of duty, to the prejudice of good order and military discipline" and "disobedience of orders" by his commander, Major General Don Carlos Buell, who had grown tired of the querulous Russian...The court, of which James A Garfield was president and John Beatty was a member, found him guilty on all counts, and Turchin was dismissed from the service.