Southeast Indiana Historical Marker - Brigadier General CSA Francis Asbury Shoup

Title of Marker:
Brigadier General CSA Francis Asbury Shoup
Location:
Conwell Cemetery, State Rd. 121, Laurel (Franklin County, Indiana) Just outside of Laurel on the northwest side, just off the highway.
Installed by:
2006 Indiana Historical Bureau, Franklin County Historical Society, and Indiana Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans
Marker ID #:
24.2006.1
Marker Text:
Side One
Remembered for service in Confederate States of America army, 1861-1865, and "Shoupade" fortification design; fought in battles of Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Atlanta. Advocated recruitment of African Americans for CSA army. After the war, he was a university professor, published author, and Episcopal rector.
Side two:
Born near present-day Laurel 1834. Attended Indiana Asbury University, Greencastle. Graduated 1855 from United States Military Academy at West Point. Served in Federal army 1855-1860; resigned to pursue law career. In Indianapolis circa 1860. Died 1896; buried at Sewanee University Cemetery, Tennessee.

Brief History
Brigadier General CSA Francis Asbury Shoup (March 22, 1834 – September 4, 1896)
The eldest of nine children born to George Grove Shoup and Jane Shoup near Laurel, Indiana, Francis attended Indiana Asbury University in Greencastle, Indiana. After graduation, he attended the United States Military Academy. As a member of the First United States Artillery, he fought in the Seminole Wars in Florida. He retired from the Army on January 10, 1860 to pursue a law career in Indianapolis. He enlisted in the local militia. When the Civil War broke out in 1861 the members of the militia presented him with a set of revolvers with holsters and trappings. They assumed he would join the Union Army as an officer and the weapons they gave him befitted a mounted officer.
Joining the Confederacy
He astounded them by declaring he had "aristocratic inclinations and admiration for the South," he instead traveled to St. Augustine, Florida and enlisted in the Confederate Army. The Florida governor commissioned him as a Lieutenant. He served at the Battle of Shiloh and Battle of Prairie Grove, from which he emerged as a brigadier general. While serving at Vicksburg the Union Army captured him. Among the Union troops, he met some of his former militia members from Indiana. They spurned him. The Union Army paroled him and he went to fight in the Battle of Atlanta.
Shoupades
At the conclusion of that battle, the Confederate Army charged him with building a series of fortifications along the Chattahoochee River. He built thirty-six forts of his own design. Called Shoupades, these arrowhead shaped forts formed an impregnable line along the river. Using 1000 slaves as laborers, Shoup built the line of forts to stop the advance of General Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman did attack them. He decided further attacks against them would be futile, and using a classic flanking maneuver, went around them and attacked elsewhere.
From the author's book:
Exploring Indiana's Historic Sites, Markers & Museums - South East Edition




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