BG Richard Brooke Garnett

BG Richard Brooke Garnett was born at Rose Hill, the family home, in Essex County, Virginia on 21 Nov 1817. He and twin, William Henry Garnett, were the fourth and fifth of the nine children born to William Henry and Anna Maria (Brooke) Garnett. Richard received his early education near home and in Norfolk. He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1841. He served in the Seminole war with the Sixth Infantry Regiment as a second lieutenant, during the Mexican War and he held a staff position in New Orleans. Promoted to first lieutenant in 1847, Garnett later commanded Fort Laramie (about ninety miles north-northeast of modern Cheyenne, Wyoming) against the sometimes troublesome Sioux, traveled as a recruiting officer, and, after his promotion to captain in 1855, He aided in quelling the Kansas disturbances in 1856-57; was engaged in the Utah expedition. It was while at Fort Laramie that he had a relationship with a Lakota woman, Akitapiwin (Looks At Him Woman also known as Molly Campbell), and had a son born in 1855.

With the coming of the Civil War, CPT Garnett resigned his US commission on 17 May 1861. He was commissioned Major CSA, and in November 1861 Brigadier General in the Provisional Army. Subsequently, he was appointed second-in-command of then Colonel Thomas R.R. Cobb's Georgia Legion, and promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in early September. After brief service with the legion on the Peninsula, Garnett received his promotion to Brigadier General and was immediately assigned to the Shenandoah Valley, coming under command of General Thomas J. Jackson. By spring 1862, BG Garnett commanded Jackson’s old troops, now known as the Stonewall Brigade.  He commanded the Stonewall Brigade in the Shenandoah Valley campaign and at Kernstown, 23 Mar 1862. During the Maryland campaign he commanded Pickett's brigade. General Garnett commanded a brigade in Pickett's Division consisting of the Eighth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth, Twenty-eighth and Fifty-sixth Virginia regiments, which he finally led in "Pickett's Charge" on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg. The brigade went into action with 1,287 men and 140 officers, and after the fight only about 300 effectives remained. General Garnett's part in this fatal action is thus reported by his successor in command, Maj. Charles S. Peyton: 

"Of our cool, gallant, noble brigade commander it may not be out of place to speak. Never had the brigade been better handled, and never has it done better service in the field of battle. There was scarcely an officer or man in the command whose attention was not attracted by the cool and handsome bearing of General Garnett, who, totally devoid of excitement or rashness, rode immediately in rear of his advancing line, endeavoring, by his personal efforts and by the aid of his staff, to keep his line well closed and dressed. He was shot from his horse while near the center of the brigade, within about 25 paces of the stone wall." Source: Confederate Military History, vol. IV, p. 597  

BG Garnett's burial location is unknown. It is believed that his body was stripped of valuables and buried in a mass grave of CSA soldiers at Gettysburg. It may have been later recovered and reinterred in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia. His sword was discovered in a Baltimore pawn shop some years later and returned to the family. 

His cousin, BG Robert Seldon Garnett, was killed commanding CSA forces at the battle of Corrick's Ford on 13 Jul 1861. Son, William P. Garnett, served the U.S. Army as an interpreter and "scout" working primarily from the Pine Ridge Reservation. BG Garnett is survived by numerous living descendants of his son. 

One last note. There is some controversy about the various photographs said to be of BG Garnett with some scholars convinced that all those identified as Richard are of his cousin Robert.

BG Elisha Franklin Paxton

BG Elisha Franklin Paxton was born on 4 Mar 1828 in Rockbridge County, Virginia. He was the sixth of seven children of Elisha Hays and Margaret (McNutt) Paxton. He was descended from the Paxton family which had immigrated to America from northern Ireland in 1730 and settled in Pennsylvania. His father farmed and owned a mill a few miles southeast of Lexington, Virginia. The younger Elisha attended local schools before graduating Washington College in 1846. He then attended Yale University and graduating from there in 1847. He next attended the University of Virginia where he graduated with a law degree in 1848. He had attended the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington but didn't graduate. Elisha married Elizabeth Hannah White in 1854 and the couple had their first child, a daughter, who died in infancy in June of 1856. They would go on to have three more children, all sons. Elisha became president of a bank in Lynchburg, Virginia.

Paxton enlisted in April 1861 as a First Lieutenant (1LT) in H Company 27th Virginia Infantry. 1LT Paxton fought at First Manassas and was commended for gallantry in bearing the colors of a Georgia unit after their color bearer was shot down. He was detailed an Aide-de-Camp on Lieutenant General (LTG) Stonewall Jackson's staff in August 1861. He was then promoted to Major on 14 Oct 1861. In August 1862, he was appointed Major and Quartermaster on Jackson's staff and served as Assistant Adjutant General. On 1 Nov 1862 he was promoted to Brigadier General (BG). Paxton died on 3 May 1863 from a wound received while leading a charge of the Stonewall Brigade at Chancellorsville. Paxton's body was brought back to Lexington and buried at the Stonewall Jackson Cemetery in Lexington, Virginia. He has a number of living descendants. 

Elisha's grandfather, William Paxton served as a Major of militia during the Revolution.

BG Charles Sidney Winder

BG Charles Sidney Winder was born in Talbot County, Maryland on 18 Oct 1829. He was the fifth of seven children of Edward Stoughton and Elizabeth Tayloe (Lloyd) Winder. The Winder family was well established in Maryland and wealthy, owning several thousand acres in the state. Charles' father was an officer in the 2nd Dragoons, commanding A Company in 1837-1840 and away from home much of the time. Charles was educated, as many were at the time, by tutors and being self-taught.

Charles graduated twenty-second in the West Point class of 1850 and then served on garrison and frontier duty for the next ten years. While on board a ship to California in 1854, he displayed outstanding heroism when the the ship was caught in a hurricane. This act earned him promotion to Captain, supposedly the youngest man of that rank in the army at the time. Charles was married in 1855 to Alice Lloyd and the couple would have three children over the next five years. Resigning his commission on 1 Apr 1861, he entered Confederate service as a Major of artillery. He participated in the bombardment of Fort Sumter, South Carolina, and on 8 July of that year he became Colonel of the 6th South Carolina Infantry. COL Winder was promoted to Brigadier General on 7 Mar 1862 and he was selected by Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson to command the Stonewall Brigade. A strict, disciplinarian, he enforced the rules, and veterans despised him. BG Winder commanded the Brigade during Jackson's 1862 Shenandoah Valley Campaign. Then, on 9 Aug 1862, during the Battle of Cedar Mountain, he was badly wounded by an exploding shell and died on the field a few hours later.

BG Winder rests forever at Wye House Cemetery in Easton, Maryland.

BG Winder is survived by several living descendants.  His father died at home of an unknown disease contracted while serving at Fort Heilman, Florida in the Second Seminole War. Grandfather, MG Levin Winder, served in the Maryland Line during the revolution and commanded the Maryland Militia after the war and was elected Governor of Maryland, 1812-1815.

 

BG William Terry

BG William Terry was born 14 Aug 1824 in Amherst County, Virginia. He was the son of Thomas and Katherine (Robinson) Terry. His family on both sides had fought in the Revolution and was prominent in local affairs. William received a good, private, education and then attended at the University of Virginia where he graduated in 1848. 

Post graduation he moved to Liberty, Virginia (in Bedford County) where he taught school to support himself while he studied law. William was admitted to the bar in 1851 and began practicing law in Wytheville, Virginia as well as editing a newspaper of which he was part owner. He had been boarding with a local family near Liberty and in 1852 he married their daughter, Emma Wigginton. The couple would have seven children. William joined the local masonic lodge as well as the local militia unit, the Wytheville Grays, and was elected Lieutenant. It was he who led the unit to the execution of John Brown at Harper's Ferry in 1859. William was a slave owner with 5 slaves in 1860.

Upon Virginia's vote to succeed on 17 Apr 1861, William joined A Company 4th Virginia Infantry as a Lieutenant and was promoted to Captain soon after then moving to a staff position. He was promoted to Colonel in February 1864 and then to Brigadier General on 20 May 1864. On the next day he took command of a Brigade formed from remnants of several units including the Stonewall Brigade, the 1st Virginia Brigade. BG Terry had been wounded several times and was home recovering from wounds when Lee surrendered at Appomattox, Virginia. BG Terry attempted to join General Johnston but returned home upon learning of his surrender. 

After the war William resumed his law practice in Wytheville. After he received his pardon he was elected to the House of Representative in 1870, served until 1873 having lost a reelection bid but was again elected in 1874. He again lost an attempted reelection in 1876 and returned to his law practice. He was a delegate at the Democrat National Convention of 1880. 

BG Terry drowned when returning home from Grayson County Courthouse when he attempted to cross Reed Creek near Wytheville on 5 Sep 1888. 

BG Terry is buried in East End Cemetery in Wytheville, Virginia. 

Brother, Colonel John Fletcher Terry, commanded the 37th Virginia Infantry. 

Note: this memorial was published on the 100th anniversary of his death.