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- Civil War Confederate Major General, Virginia Governor, US Cabinet Member. He was a State Legislature in 1848, when elected as the Democratic Governor of Virginia, serving until 1852. in 1853 he was again elected to the legislature and in 1857, President James Buchanan appointed him Secretary of War. After the secession of the South in 1861, he resigned his cabinet post, joined the Confederate Army and was commissioned Brigadier General. In command of a brigade he participated in the battle at Gauley Bridge and fought with General Lee's Army in the Virginia Campaign. In January 1862, he was dispatched with the Central Army of Kentucky, to command a division in the defense of Fort Donelson Tennessee, which was lost to Federal troops in February. After the surrender of Fort Donelson, President Jefferson Davis removed him from field command in March 1862. In August 1862, he was appointed Major General in command of the Provisional Army of Virginia, but his health soon failed and he died a year later.
(bio by: John "J-Cat" Griffith)
(findagrave)
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1806 - 1863 (57 years)
