How Kenesaw Mountain Landis Got His Unusual Name

The first commissioner of major league baseball was Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis who was appointed by the team owners in November 1920. His unusual first name was chosen by his parents in remembrance of one of the bloodiest engagements of the Atlanta campaign, the Battle of Kenesaw Mountain which was fought on June 27, 1864. But had his father not been wounded at Kenesaw, its possible he would have named his later famous son Chickamauga Landis after the horrors he experienced at that engagement. 

Kenesaw Mountain Landis was born November 20, 1866, in Millville in Butler County, Ohio to Doctor Abraham Hoch Landis and his wife Mary (Kumler) Landis. The future judge was the sixth of seven children; among his notable siblings was an older brother John Howard Landis who followed his father in the practice of medicine and two brothers who became Congressmen: Charles B. Landis (served from 1897-1909) and Frederick D. Landis (served from 1903-1907). Dr. Landis moved his family from Ohio to Logansport, Indiana by the early 1870s and remained there for the rest of his life.

Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis (right) inherited much of his stern facial features from his father, Dr. Abraham Hoch Landis (left) who served nearly two years as assistant surgeon of the 35th Ohio Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War. Wounded twice in action, Dr. Landis was discharged in September 1864 and named his next born son after the battle which both ended his wartime service and reunited him with his family in Ohio. Dr. Landis passed away November 9, 1896, at his home in Logansport, Indiana, having left "valuable information in the shape of historical references to the battles in which he participated and was widely known through his war writings." That last statement sounds like another rabbit hole to chase down...

Dr. Abraham H. Landis was a twice-wounded veteran of the Civil War, having served a little less than two years as an assistant surgeon in the 35th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Dr. Landis was commissioned into the regiment on November 13, 1862, and was captured less than a year later on the second day of the Battle of Chickamauga. Dr. Landis had also been attached to the army earlier than this and left a scintillating account of what he experienced as a surgeon at the Battle of Shiloh. [see Heritage Auction's listing here.] 

Regarding Chickamauga, Dr. Landis wrote that "early on Sabbath morning [September 20, 1863], in consequence of repeated flank movements on our left by the Rebels, our hospital became exposed to a fire of shell and solid shot. The most of these deadly missiles passed over us, but some fell in our midst. About 11 o’clock a line of Rebel skirmishers were seen to emerge from a wood about 400 yards distant, followed by a large force of Forrest’s cavalry. All the ambulances we had were loaded with wounded and sent to Chattanooga, and many of the slightly wounded were sent on foot. The enemy continued to advance until they ascertained it was a hospital, when a squad of them rode up, and for the first time we were in the hands of the Rebels." [To read more about the 35th Ohio at Chickamauga, please check out "Under Most Trying Circumstances: With the 35th Ohio at Chickamauga."] 

"Soon afterward Granger’s forces approaching from toward Chattanooga, the rebels fell back, and we saw no more of them until the following morning, when they took us into custody, and from that time on we were prisoners. Generals Forrest, Cheatham, and Armstrong honored us with their presence. General Forrest told us to go ahead and attend to our wounded, and we should not be molested. He also told us that our wounded yet on the field should be removed to the hospitals and receive precisely the same treatment that their wounded received; also, that parties had been detailed to bury the dead on both sides. In a conversation I had with Dr. Fluellan, medical director of Bragg’s army, the following day at Cheatham’s division hospital, he made the same promises. These promises may have been in good faith, but from observation I know-and every other medical officer who fell into their hands knows-they were not realized...” [The state roster of Ohio listed Dr. Landis as being wounded at Chickamauga; its possible that he was, but he does not state such in his description of being captured during the battle."] 

Assistant Surgeon Abraham H. Landis
35th O.V.I.

As recounted by historians in Butler County, that "while some doctors abandoned their patients to the enemy, Landis and Wright continued to treat the wounded in their charge and were captured.  The Confederates promised the Union doctors that they would be allowed to continue their work unmolested but no help was provided. Landis was deeply frustrated by his inability to do anything for the wounded men around him. The rebels did provide small amounts of food, but not until an exchange of the wounded was arranged a week after the battle did conditions begin to approve.  After the exchange of wounded, Landis and the other surgeons were taken to Libby Prison where they were confined until being exchanged toward the end of November." [see also "The Chances of War: Captured Federal Surgeons After Chickamauga."]

Exchanged at the end of the year, Dr. Landis returned to the 35th Ohio but the following summer suffered a wound which ended his wartime career. As described in the Medical and Surgical History of the War of the Rebellion, Dr. Landis was wounded at Kenesaw Mountain on June 22, 1864, “by a twelve-pound solid shot, which, after hitting a tree and bounding off, struck his right leg, causing fracture but not breaking the skin. Surgeon Francis D. Morris, of the regiment, reported that the missile fractured both bones of the limb midway between the knee and the ankle, and that the soft parts were much contused. The patient was admitted to the field hospital of the Third Division, Fourteenth Corps, where he received a leave of absence on the following day.” 

Dr. Landis himself wrote, "Wednesday the 22nd about 4 o'clock they opened on us a most terrific fire of shell and solid cannon shot. Nothing saved us from terrible carnage but our breastworks. About noon they quit firing for a short time and Major Budd and several other officers including myself went to our quarters about 75 yards in the rear of the breastworks. We all got behind trees where we thought we were nearly as safe as in the breastworks. While we were thus situated, a twelve pound solid shot fired from a Parrot gun struck a tree about 20 feet to my right behind which Major Budd was standing and bounced at nearly a right angle striking my left leg a little below the middle fracturing the bones. I was immediately placed upon a stretcher and taken to our Division Hospital half a mile in the rear where my leg was examined by the surgeons who told me that the limb could be saved. Oh what a precious drop of comfort this was! Up to that moment I feared I would have to suffer an amputation." 

Another surgeon described the leg as “struck at the posterior part of the middle third, fracturing both the tibia and fibula and lacerating the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. The resulting cicatrices have formed adhesions to the adjacent parts, entirely destroying their action. In adjusting the fracture complete apposition was not attained, and, from extension of inflammation, there is partial anchylosis of both knee and ankle joints, rendering locomotion both painful and difficult." Judge Kenesaw Landis later recalled that after his father was wounded, "he had to keep his fellow surgeons off with a gun in order to keep them from amputating it." 

Kenesaw Mountain Landis

Left crippled by the wound, Dr. Landis was honorably discharged on September 27, 1864, and returned home to his family in Ohio. About two years later, Dr. Landis and his wife chose to name their newborn son Kenesaw Mountain Landis, remembering both Dr. Landis’s wound and the event that reunited him with his family. Had Dr. Landis not been wounded at Kenesaw Mountain, it’s possible that they would have chosen to name their newborn son Chickamauga Landis, which doesn’t quite have the same ring as Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

          As for the son, he did not follow his father into medicine or law right away like his brothers, but dropped out of high school and chased the fairs around the state as a bicycle racer and skating rink operator before drifting into journalism. After covering several cases in Logansport, he elected to study law, graduating from Chicago Law School in 1891.  

Major General Walter Q. Gresham

Outside of his unusual name, Kenesaw Mountain Landis had an additional connection to the Civil War. Landis served as private secretary to Secretary of State Walter Q. Gresham during President Grover Cleveland’s second term from 1893-1895. Gresham, a native Hoosier, was a former brigadier general in the 17th Army Corps whose military career ended when he suffered a severe wound in the knee outside Atlanta on July 20, 1864. President Chester Arthur appointed Gresham as Postmaster General during his administration and Gresham also briefly served as Secretary of the Treasury before accepting a position as a U.S. circuit judge.

As for Kenesaw Landis, he became a U.S. District Court judge in 1905 after being appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt. Landis developed a reputation as a bit of a showboat judge, stern and decisive, but finding his verdicts frequently overturned by higher courts. Judge Landis’s son Reed Gresham Landis became a famous WW1 ace, serving in both the Royal Air Force and Army Air Service where he shot down 10 German airplanes and a single balloon.

When the major league owners offered Judge Landis the role as commissioner, he accepted only on the condition that the appointment would be for life and that his rulings were binding and could not be overturned. Judge Landis did much to clean up the reputation of baseball in the wake of the 1919 Black Sox scandal but is perhaps best remembered by Civil War buffs for his unusual first name.

Sources:

"Our Landis Ancestors: Abraham Landis" 

Find-A-Grave entries for Dr. Abraham H. Landis, Kenesaw Mountain Landis, Charles B. Landis, and Frederick D. Landis.

Entry for General Walter Q. Gresham, from Ezra Warner's Generals in Blue, pgs. 188-189

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