Georgia Born Confederate Generals
Confederate Generals From Georgia Who
Fought At The Battle Of Kennesaw Mountain


Stars and Bars - First Confederate Flag

Lt. General William Joseph Hardee
Maj. General William Henry Talbot Walker
Major General Joseph Wheeler
Brigadier General Robert Houstoun Anderson
Brigadier General John Carpenter Carter
Brigadier General Henry DeLamar Clayton
Brigadier General Alfred Cumming
Brigadier General Matthew Duncan Ector
Brigadier General James Thadeus Holtzclaw
Brigadier General Alfred Iverson, Jr.
Brigadier General John King Jackson
Brigadier General Hugh Weedon Mercer
Brigadier General Thomas Moore Scott
Brigadier General Marcellus Augustus Stovall

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Lt. General William Joseph Hardee, CSA
William Joseph Hardee was born on October 12, 1815, in Camden County, Georgia. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1838, and enjoyed an illustrious career in the US Army.

In the 1850s, he wrote an army manual entitled "Rifle and Light Infantry Tactics."  In 1861, he resigned his commission in the US Army which allowed him to accept a commission in the Confederate Army as a brigadier general.

He was promoted to major general on October 7, 1861, and he organized a brigade in Arkansas. Hardee operated in Arkansas and central Kentucky until March of 1862, when he joined the Army of Mississippi at Corinth. He fought well at Shiloh and in the Kentucky Campaign, and was affectionately called "Old Reliable."

Hardee was promoted to  the rank of lieutenant general on October 10, 1862. Although he strongly disliked working under Gen. Braxton Bragg, he remained under his command and fought at Chickamauga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge.

After Bragg resigned and Gen. Joseph E. Johnston took over, Hardee continued in command of his corps through the Atlanta Campaign. After Gen. John Bell Hood replaced Johnston, however, Hardee's concerns about Hood's fitness for the position forced him to seek a transfer. He was assigned to the Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida in September of 1864, and Hardee worked to defend Savannah against Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's attack on the ancient southern city. He was forced out of Savannah, and later was forced to surrender Charleston and Columbia in the Carolinas Campaign. His corps was joined with other troops to form the Army of Tennessee. Hardee's last battle was at Bentonville, North Carolina. He surrendered at Greensboro, on April 26, 1865. After the Civil War, he settled in Selma, Alabama, and became a planter. Hardee died on November 6, 1873, while traveling in Virginia.



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Maj. General William Henry Talbot Walker, CSA
Confederate military officer William Henry Talbot Walker was born in Augusta, Ga. After graduating from West Point in 1837, Walker served in both the Seminole and Mexican wars. He later became the commandant of cadets at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In December 1860, Walker resigned from the U.S. Army and returned to Georgia. He first served as a major general in the Georgia state volunteers in April 1861, he was later appointed as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army in May 1861. Walker resigned his commission in Oct. 1861 to hold the post of major general of Georgia State Troops (March 1863). In May 1863, he returned as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army (May 1863) commanding Walker's Brigade in the Vicksburg campaign. After the fall of Vicksburg, Walker commanded the reserve corps at Chickamauga. During Sherman's Atlanta Campaign, Walker commanded a division of Hardee's Corps, dying in the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864.
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Maj. General Joseph Wheeler, CSA
Only a handful of Confederate soldiers are buried in Arlington National Cemetery.  General Joseph Wheeler is one of them, having qualified on the basis of his later service as a major general of volunteers in the Spanish-American War.

The Georgia-born graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point (1859) had resigned his commission as a second lieutenant in the Regiment of Mounted Riflemen and, joining the South, had a quick rise.

Wheeler's assignments included: first lieutenant, Artillery (1861); colonel, 19th Alabama (September 4, 1861); commanding Cavalry Brigade, Left Wing, Army of the Mississippi (September 14-November 20, 1862); brigadier general, CSA (October 30, 1862); commanding Cavalry Brigade, Polk's Corps, Army of Tennessee (November 20-22, 1862); commanding Cavalry Brigade, Hardee's Corps, Army of Tennessee (November 22-December 1862); commanding cavalry division, Army of Tennessee (December 1862-March 16, 1863); major general, CSA (January 30, 1863); commanding cavalry corps, Army of Tennessee (March 16, 1863-fall 1864); commanding Cavalry Corps, Department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida (fall 1864-March 1865); lieutenant general, CSA (February 28, 1865); and commanding corps, Hampton's Cavalry Command, Army of Tennessee (March-April 26, 1865).

He led an infantry regiment at Shiloh and during the operations around Corinth, Mississippi, but was then assigned in the summer of 1862 to be chief of cavalry for Bragg's Army of the Mississippi. He led a mounted brigade at Perryville and a division at Murfreesboro. Given command of a corps of mounted troopers, he led it in the Tullahoma Campaign and at Chickamauga was in charge of one of the two cavalry corps (the other was under Nathan Bedford Forrest). However, soon after the battle conflicts between Forrest and Wheeler and Forrest and Bragg led to the reassignment of Forrest. Thus Wheeler was again in charge of all the mounted troops with the Army of Tennessee. He fought thus at Chattanooga and led his men in the Atlanta Campaign. During these last two campaigns he was noted for his raids on the Union supply lines. Following the fall of Atlanta, Wheeler's corps was left behind to deal with Sherman while Hood launched his invasion of middle Tennessee. With the small force at hand Wheeler proved unsuccessful in hindering Sherman's March to the Sea.

During the course of the campaign in the Carolinas, Wheeler was placed under the orders of Wade Hampton who had been transferred from Virginia. Taken prisoner in Georgia in May 1865, Wheeler was held at Fort Delaware until June 8th. A longtime congressman from Alabama in the postwar years, he donned the blue as a major general of volunteers in the war with Spain. In 1900 he was retired with the regular army rank of brigadier general. His Confederate career had earned him the sobriquet "Fightin' Joe. " (Dyer, John Percy, "Fightin'joe" Wheeler and From Shiloh to San Juan)

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Maj. General Robert Houstoun Anderson, CSA

Robert Houstoun Anderson would become Chief of Police in Savannah after the war.

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Brigadier General John Carpenter Carter, CSA
John Carpenter Carter was born in Waynesborough, Georgia, on December 19, 1837. He studied at Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee, then attended the University of Virginia. Returning to Tennessee, he taught law at Cumberland University. He left the university and set up a law practice in Memphis, Tennessee, shortly before the Civil War. Early in 1861, he joined the Confederate armed forces as a captain in the 38th Tennessee Infantry. Carter led troops at Shiloh, exhibiting courage and presence of mind. His skills impressed his superiors, and led to his rapid promotion through the ranks. He commanded troops at Perryville and Stone's River, where he won more praise for his conduct. After Chickamauga, Carter and his troops were on detached duty, so that they were not able to take part in the Chattanooga Campaign. In 1864, Carter took over Brig. Gen. Marcus J. Wright's command, and led forces in the Atlanta Campaign. Carter was commissioned a brigadier general to rank from July 7, 1864. He temporarily took over Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham's division at the Battle of Jonesborough, then returned to Tennessee to participate in the Union invasion of the state. Carter was mortally wounded on November 30, 1864, in a charge against the Confederates at Franklin; and died on December 10, 1864.
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Major-General Henry DeLamar Clayton was born in Pulaski county, Ga., March 7, 1827. He was graduated at Emory and Henry college, Virginia, after which he read law under John G. and Eli S. Shorter in Eufaula. In 1849 he was licensed as an attorney, and began the practice of law in Clayton. He devoted himself so completely to business that he kept entirely out of politics until 1857, when he was chosen to represent Barbour county in the Alabama legislature. He served as a member of the house of representatives until 1861. Upon the very first threat of war he urged Governor Moore to accept the volunteer regiment of trained companies of which he was colonel. Two of the companies were accepted in February, and he enlisted in one of them as a private, but was not allowed to remain in this position. He was ordered to go at once to Pensacola and take command of the Alabama troops as they should arrive. On March 28, 1861, the First Alabama regiment was organized, with him as colonel. He remained at Pensacola in this service, part of the time in command of a brigade, for a year, and then organized a new regiment, the Thirty-ninth Alabama, which he led as colonel in the Kentucky campaign and in the sanguinary battle of Murfreesboro. In this last-named battle he was severely wounded, and immediately after he was promoted to brigadier-general. The brigade to which he was assigned at Tullahoma, in April, 1863, consisted of the Eighteenth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-eighth, Fifty-second and Fifty-eighth regiments. Clayton's brigade bore a conspicuous part at Chickamauga, in the fighting around Dalton, at New Hope church, and in all the battles of the Atlanta and Tennessee campaigns, and the final campaign in the Carolinas. General Clayton's splendid conduct in the Atlanta campaign obtained for him the commission of major-general, July 7, 1864, and he became the successor of A. P. Stewart in division command, the brigades under his command being Gibson's, Stovall's, Baker's and his own, under Holtzclaw. He led this superb division during the battles around Atlanta, at Jonesboro, in the Nashville campaign, and up to the surrender in North Carolina. After the defeat at Nashville, Clayton, with his division and the brigade of General Pettus, covered the retreat of the army until relieved by General Stevenson on the next day. General Hood said: "Order among the troops was in a measure restored at Brentwood, a few miles in rear of the scene of disaster, through the promptness and gallantry of Clayton's division, which speedily formed and confronted the enemy, with Gibson's brigade and McKenzie's battery of Fenner's battalion, acting as rear-guard. General Clayton displayed admirable coolness and courage in the discharge of his duties." At the close of the war General Clayton turned his attention to planting, till elected judge of the circuit court in May, 1866. This position he held until removed, under the reconstruction acts of Congress, in 1868. From that time he practiced law and planted, until his death at Tuscaloosa, Ala., October 13, 1889. He was an active, laborious man, a gallant soldier, and a Christian gentleman.
General Clayton's Family Bible
General Clayton and his wife donated the land for Grace Episcopal Church
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Brigadier General Alfred Cumming, CSA
Alfred Cumming was the second governor of Utah Territory. A native of Augusta, Georgia, where he was born in 1802, Cumming was of a distinguished family and was widely experienced in Western political and business affairs. He had served as mayor of Augusta, as sutler to Zachary Taylor's army in the Mexican War and at Jefferson Barracks in Missouri, and as superintendent of the Upper Missouri Indian Superintendency before his appointment in May 1857 by President James Buchanan to succeed Brigham Young as Governor of Utah Territory. This appointment came at a time of national and territorial tension as conflict over the "twin relics of barbarism," slavery and polygamy, joined the issues of states' rights versus centralized national authority to create bitterness and misunderstanding. Cumming was sent to Utah along with the Utah Expedition under Colonel Albert Sidney Johnston, accompanied by hardline federalist judges Delana Eckels, John Cradlebaugh, and Charles Sinclair, in a poorly conceived effort to bring the Mormons into a more conventional relationship with the nation.

Cumming's assumption of office began with the controversy and difficulties known later as the Utah War. Forced to winter near Fort Bridger, Cumming had begun to take a somewhat moderate position on the Mormon question by the time he actually arrived in Utah in the spring of 1858. This placed him in opposition to the three hardline judges and Johnston, who as army commander had been badly embarrassed by Mormon resistance. Despite initial Mormon jeers, Cumming's essential moderation was quickly recognized by Mormons with whose efforts to maintain a degree of self-determination he often sided in the give-and-take that characterized territorial politics in the wake of the Utah War and the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Given the oncoming Civil War, this was a particularly difficult time for Cumming, a Southerner. Nevertheless, he occupied the gubernatorial chair with dignity and fairness, and even achieved a degree of success in helping to define the nature of political authority in the federal territorial system that was emerging in the area that had been taken from Mexico.
With Governor Cumming was his wife Elizabeth, a sensitive and observant lady. She shared the difficult winter near Fort Bridger and with her husband occupied the William Staines home (or Devereaux House as it was later known) during the three years of their stay in Utah. Her letters provide a rare insight into events of that time, and record her impressions of the Utah landscape and social life as well as politics among the federal appointees, especially during 1857 and 1858.
At the end of his four-year term Cumming returned to Washington, D.C. He settled the details of his administration and prepared to return to Augusta. However, his return was postponed by the Civil War until the summer of 1864. His wife passed away in 1867, and Cumming himself died in 1873 at the age of seventy-one. His term as governor of Utah Territory had been one in which the issues of self-determination, shared sovereignty, and territorial/federal relationships were tested as in few other times in the long American effort to create a democratic substitute for centralized colonial rule. Although many other distinguished individuals occupied the Utah's gubernatorial chair during territorial times, few of them served Utah better.

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Brigadier General Matthew Ector, CSA
Mathew Duncan Ector, Confederate general and judge, son of Hugh Walton and Dorothy (Duncan) Ector, was born in Putnam County, Georgia, on February 28, 1822, and raised in Merriweather County. He received his education at La Grange, Georgia, and Centre College in Danville, Kentucky. In 1841 he began studying law at Greenville, Georgia, under the supervision of Hiram B. Warner, a state Supreme Court justice, and was elected to one term in the state legislature. After marrying Louisa Phillips in 1842, Ector gave up the law and turned to farming for the next seven years. After his wife's death in 1848, he traveled to California for a brief period, returned briefly to his native state, and moved to Texas in 1850. He settled in Henderson and returned to the study of law under Judge William Wright Morris.qv In 1851 he was admitted to the bar, opened a law office in Henderson, and married Letitia M. Graham. In 1855 he became the editor of the Henderson Democrat and was elected to represent Rusk County in the Sixth Texas Legislature. Ector's second wife died in 1859.
At the beginning of the Civil Warqv he enlisted as a private in the Third Texas Cavalry and was shortly elected first lieutenant and appointed adjutant to the brigade commander, Gen. James L. Hogg.qv He saw combat with the Third Texas in the battles of Wilson's Creek, Missouri, Chustenahlah, Cherokee Nation, and Pea Ridge, Arkansas, before being promoted to colonel and command of the Fourteenth Texas Cavalry (dismounted). Ector was leading his men in the battle of Richmond, Kentucky, when he was promoted to brigadier general on August 23, 1862. He led his new command, known as Ector's Brigade, at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, before joining Joseph E. Johnstonqv in Mississippi in an attempt to relieve the Confederate garrison at Vicksburg. By September he had rejoined the Army of Tennessee in time to fight at Chickamauga, Georgia, where he received three slight wounds. His military career ended at Atlanta after he was wounded in the left leg on July 27, 1864, and the leg was amputated just below the knee. He was to have taken command of the Confederate forces at Mobile, Alabama, in 1865, but the war ended before he had recovered enough to assume those duties.

Ector married Sallie P. Chew of Mississippi in 1864 and in 1866 returned with her to Henderson, where he resumed his law practice and was elected district judge. He was removed in 1867 by Gen. Joseph J. Reynoldsqv for being a "Southern obstructionist." The following year he moved to Marshall and formed a law partnership with N. H. Wilson. He was appointed judge of the new Seventh District, and in 1875 he was elected to the Court of Appeals. The next year Ector's colleagues elected him presiding judge, a position he held until his death in Tyler on October 29, 1879. Ector was a member of the Methodist Church and is buried in Marshall. Ector County, established in 1874, was named in his honor.

Odessa, Texas article regarding historical marker for Gen. Ector
The Ector County, Texas marker
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James Thadeus Holtzclaw was born in McDonough, GA, 17 December 1833. Holtzclaw came to Montgomery and read law, declining an appointment to West Point. He passed the bar in 1855 and practiced law until the outbreak of war.

Holtzclaw was a part of a militia company, the Montgomery True Blues, and volunteered with that company for service at the capture of the Pensacola Navy Yard. In August 1861, President Jefferson Davis appointed Holtzclaw Major of the 18th Alabama, then Lt. Col. in December. At Shiloh, Holtzclaw was badly wounded standing by the regimental colors, but he rejoined his regiment within about 90 days. He received a colonel's commission dated from Shiloh, and in the autumn of 1862, he was sent to Mobile where he remained in command of a brigade, briefly. Holtzclaw led his regiment at Chickamauga and was injured; his regiment, too, suffered heavy losses. Since Gen'l Clayton had been wounded at Chickamauga, Holtzclaw commanded Clayton's Brigade at Lookout Mountain and was able to hold off the Union advance for several hours. In July 1864, Holtzclaw was promoted Brig. Gen'l to succeed Clayton, now division commander. He commanded his brigade during Gen'l Joseph E. Johnston's retreat to Atlanta and throughout Gen'l John Bell Hood's campaign, sometimes acting as rear guards. On 20 January 1865, Holtzclaw was ordered to Mobile and took command of a division consisting of his own and Matthew D. Ector's Texas Brigade, which with Gibson's Brigade and I. W. Patton's artillery, formed the garrison of Spanish Fort until they withdrew, 8 April 1865. In May 1865, Gen'l Holtzclaw and his brigade were paroled at Meridian.
Following the war, Holtzclaw resumed the practice of law in Montgomery and became a leader in the Democratic Party. He provided service in the state railroad commission prior to his death, 19 July 1893. He is buried in Montgomery.
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Alfred Iverson, Jr.
Brigadier General
Confederate States Army
Born
Clinton, Jones County, Georgia,
February 14, 1829
Died
Atlanta, Georgia
March 31 1911
He was the son of
Alfred Iverson, Sr.
United States Senator for Georgia
and
Caroline Goode Holt
General Iverson's career
as a soldier
began at the age of 17 years, when he was
Captain of volunteers in War with
Mexico 1846 to 1848
Subsequently
He was First Lieutenant, First Cavalry,
United States Army
In the Confederate States Army
He was successively Captain, Colonel, and
Brigadier General, taking part with distinc-
tion in many battles, especially in Virginia.
While General Iverson was commanding a
Division under General Joseph Wheeler, his
services culminated in the defeat and capture
of General George Stoneman, of the United
States Army and the latter's forces in 1864
near Macon, Georgia
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JACKSON, John King, soldier, born in Augusta, Georgia, 8 February, 1828; died in Milledgeville, Georgia, 27 February, 1866. He was graduated with honors at the Columbia university, South Carolina, in 1846, and practised law till the beginning of the civil war. He then raised the 1st Georgia infantry and the Augusta volunteer battalion for the Confederate army, was made colonel of the 5th Georgia regiment in 1861, and subsequently brigadier-general. He commanded a brigade in Bragg's corps at Shiloh, and in August, 1864, took charge of the Department of Florida. After the war he resumed his law practice in Augusta.
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Brigadier General Hugh Weedon Mercer, CSA

Hugh Weedon Mercer was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia, on November 27, 1808. He graduated from West Point in 1828, and served in the US Artillery, spending much of his service time in Georgia. After an assignment as an aide to Bvt. Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, he left the army, married a woman from Savannah and settle in that city. He worked as a bank cashier, and was an artillery officer in the local militia. In 1861, he enlisted in the Confederate army, and was promoted to brigadier general by the end of October. In August of 1862, he played a major role in impressing the first group of slaves and free blacks into service for the Confederacy. By November, however, he lost his authority to impress workers, and depended on Gov. Joseph E. Brown and local sheriffs to provide slaves to join the Confederate effort. At the beginning of the Atlanta Campaign, he left Savannah and took command of the Army of Tennessee. Fighting at Dalton, Marietta, Kennesaw Mountain, and the Battle of Atlanta, he became ill during the campaigning in Tennessee. Mercer was relieved of command, and sent to Savannah, serving under Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee. When Hardee retreated in December of 1864, Mercer left the city, returning after the fighting ended. He resumed his work in banking, and moved to Baltimore in 1869, where he worked as a commission merchant. Mercer traveled to Baden Baden, Germany, in order to find a cure for illness. He died there, on June 9, 1877.
His grandfather was General Hugh Mercer , a hero of the Revolutionary War.
His great grandson was Johnny Mercer .
Mercer House , site of the Jim Williams murder (" Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil "), was built by Gen. Mercer.
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Brigadier General Thomas Moore Scott, CSA
Thomas  Moore Scott  was born in Athens, Georgia in 1829.  He went to New Orleans, Louisiana as a young man, but later returned to Georgia residing in La Grange for some years. At the outbreak of the War for Southern Independence, he was engaged in farming in Claiborne Parish near the town of Homer. On 13 August 1861, he enlisted in the 12th Louisiana Infantry, then being organized at Camp Moore.

He was elected Colonel, and accompanied the 12th to Columbus, Kentucky for the battle of Belmont, athough it was not actively engaged. The 12th  subsequently formed part of the garrison of Island No. 10, and in April 1862 at Fort Pillow under  General John B. Villepique. In late 1862 and early 1863, Scott's 12th Louisiana was in the Port Hudson area as part of General William W. Loring's division . Taking part in the battle of Baker's Creek in the Vicksburg campaign, joining the forces of General Joseph E. Johnson in their operations. Scott's command remained in Mississippi until they accompanied General Leonidas Polk to Dalton, Georgia, in 1864. He distinguished himself in the ensuing Atlanta campaign, and was promoted brigadier general the 10 May 1864.
Brigadier General Thomas Moore Scott led his brigade in Hood's ill-fated Tennessee campaign, and was severely wounded at the battle of Franklin in November by an shell explosion. He apparently saw no further service, for there is no record of his capture or parole.
Returning to Louisiana, he again engaged in farming near Homer, and for some years operated a sugar plantation on the Gulf Coast. He died in New Orleans on 21 April 1876, and was buried in Greenwood Cemetery.

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Brigadier General Marcellus Augustus Stovall, CSA

Marcellus A. Stovall was born at Sparta, (Hancock county) Georgia on September 18, 1818.  He was the son of Pleasant Stovall, a successful merchant in Augusta, Georgia.  M. A. Stovall was educated at Wesleyan Academy [later Wilbraham & Monson], Wilbraham, Massachusetts.  In 1835 he returned to Georgia to enlist, at age 17, in the Richmond Blues, Augusta, Georgia, for service in the Seminole Wars.  In 1836 he entered the U. S. Military Academy at West Point but left because, as one obituary noted, he "was compelled to return to the South on account of rheumatism contracted in the uncongenial latitude of a Northern clime."   From West Point he toured Europe in 1839 before returning to Augusta, Georgia, where he was active in business and volunteer military companies including captaincy of the Clinch Rifles.   In 1842, he married Sarah G. McKinne of Augusta.
In 1846 he moved to Floyd County, Georgia, where he was in business and captain of the Cherokee Volunteer Artillery.  At the outbreak of war he volunteered for service to the State of Georgia.  He was made a colonel of artillery assigned to the 2nd Brigade, Georgia Volunteers and on October 8, 1861 made lieutenant colonel of the 3rd Georgia Battalion and assigned at Richmond, Virginia. He saw duty at Lynchburg, Va., Goldsboro, N. C., and East Tennessee. His first engagement was at Waldren's Ridge in 1862 from where he accompanied General Kirby Smith into Kentucky.
Following the Kentucky Campaign he received assignment to General Braxton Bragg and participated in the Battle of Murfreesboro.   For "splendid work" he was promoted to brigadier general on January 20, 1863.  He was also assigned to the First Brigade of Breckinridge's Division, D. H. Hill's Corps, Army of Tennessee.   While here he commanded the First and Third Florida Regiments, the Fourth Florida, Forty-Seventh Georgia and the Sixtieth North Carolina in a battle at Jackson, Mississippi.    He surrendered with General Johnston at Nashville, Tennessee, in 1865.
He returned to Augusta and continued his cotton business and civic life.  He served as a city alderman, first police commissioner and was active in the Confederate Survivors Association. In 1878 he married again to Courtney Augusta Peck and on August 4, 1895 died at the age of 77 of a "critical illness."