Edmund Kirby Smith was an American soldier who rose to the rank of general with the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was born in 1824 in St. Augustine, Florida, the son of a U.S. District Judge. He joined the army in 1841 as a cadet in the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After four years of military training, he graduated as a temporary (brevetted) second lieutenant, before being appointed a permanent second lieutenant the following year.
Service in the Civil War
Smith joined the Confederate Army in 1861. In his first major conflict, he led his brigade in the First Battle of Bull Run in July 1861. During the battle, he was wounded and was out of action for nearly three months. During his recovery, he returned to Florida where he was made commander of the Department of Middle and East Florida. In October, he returned to the Civil War front as a major general, commanding a division of the Army of Northern Virginia. Smith was transferred to the Army of East Tennessee in February 1862, where he took part in the attempted invasion of Kentucky. Following his success at the Battle of Richmond in Kentucky, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general.
Trans-Mississippi Department
In January 1863, Smith was once again transferred, this time west of the Mississippi to take command of the Trans-Mississippi Department, which was made up mainly of Texas, Western Louisiana and Arkansas. He was stationed there for the remainder of the Civil War, where he became virtually cut off from the main Confederate forces. He had about 30,000 men under his command, but these were spread over a huge area, which greatly restricted any opportunities for him to challenge the Union forces.
Surrender
Despite the surrender of Confederate armies in the East, some Southern soldiers wished to continue the fight. Nearly a month after Lee’s surrender, General Edmund Kirby Smith declared his intention to keep fighting. As a result the last battle of the Civil War took place in Texas. At the Battle of Palmito Ranch on May 13, 1865, the Union soldiers could not stand up to the Confederate cavalry, and the Northern troops retreated. The battle resulted in only a few dozen casualties, although more than 100 Union soldiers were captured.
A few days later, Confederate governors in Texas and nearby states advised General Smith to end the fighting. Smith complied, and Palmito Ranch became the last battle of the Civil War.
On May 26, 1865, after signing the surrender documents, Smith went to Mexico and then to Cuba to avoid the possibility of being tried for treason. He returned to America the following year under an amnesty agreement, where he lived until his death in 1893.
John Bell Hood – Lieutenant General – June 29, 1831-August 30, 1879
Born in Owingsville, Kentucky in 1831 and a West Point Graduate at the age of 22, John Bell Hood was one of the most rapidly promoted leaders in the Confederate history of the Civil War. After serving in California and Texas for the United States Military, he resigned his commission in April of 1861 to join the Confederacy as a cavalry captain but soon promoted to colonel of the Texas 4th Infantry. Thereafter he distinguished himself on a dozen fields, beginning in the Peninsula Campaign and at Second Manassas. At the Battle of Gaines' Mill on June 27, he distinguished himself by leading his brigade in a charge that broke the Union line; this is arguably the most successful Confederate performance in the Seven Days Battles. While Hood escaped the battle without an injury, every officer in his brigade was killed or wounded. He was promoted to major general in 1862 serving with distinction at Sharpsburg and at Fredericksburg. Hood was a significant player at Gettysburg, being ordered by Longstreet to attack the Union’s left flank against his own wishes. His command was bloodily blunted by union forces in Devils Den, and finally undone at Little Round Top. Hood was severely wounded in the arm at Gettysburg and was forced to hand off command, and soon thereafter lost a leg at Chickamauga. After some recovery, he was appointed to lieutenant general serving under J.E. Johnston, whom he would surpass in rank in the spring of 1864. Hood conducted the remainder of the Atlanta Campaign with the strong aggressive actions for which he was famous. He launched four major offensives that summer in an attempt to break Sherman's siege of Atlanta, starting almost immediately with an attack along Peachtree Creek; however, all of the offensives failed, with significant Confederate casualties. Finally, on September 2, 1864, Hood evacuated the city of Atlanta, burning as many military supplies and installations as possible. Hood marched his army into Tennessee where his forces were crippled trying to break through Union breastworks at the Battle of Franklin. His army suffered again at the battle of Nashville from Union forces lead by General Thomas. Hood was relieved of his rank (at his own request) in January of 1865 and returned to his post as lt. general. He was to have taken control of the Texas army, but they surrendered before his arrival. In May 1865, Hood gave himself up to Union forces in Natchez, Mississippi. After the war, Hood moved to New Orleans and lived there with his wife and children until he died in 1879 of yellow fever.
Francis R. Lubbock (1815-1905)
Francis Lubbock was born in South Carolina on October 15, 1815. Lacking a formal education, he engaged in an unsuccessful mercantile trade while still in his youth. He moved to New Orleans, then to Texas soon after the revolution was won. In 1837, he entered into public service as a clerk of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Texas. President Houston named him comptroller, but he soon transferred to the field, as adjutant of a command organized to protect the Texas frontier. In 1841, Houston again appointed him comptroller, but again Lubbock resigned after only a short time in office, as he was elected district clerk of Harris County. After serving sixteen years in that position, he was elected as Lieutenant-Governor in the Runnels administration. Lubbock was elected Governor of Texas during the early years of the Confederacy. He declined to run a second term, however, preferring to enter the military and serve in the field. After serving briefly in Louisiana, however, he was recruited by Confederate President Jefferson Davis to serve on Davis' staff in Richmond, Virginia. Lubbock served and developed a close relationship with Davis throughout the balance of the war. He was with Davis when captured and imprisoned by Union troops after the fall of the Confederacy. Lubbock was kept in solitary confinement until released in late 1865. After returning to Texas, Lubbock served as State Treasurer throughout the 1880's. He recorded his personal experiences in business, war, and politics in his memoirs, Six Decades in Texas, published in 1900. He died June 22, 1905 in Austin, where he is buried in the state cemetery. Thomas Green (1814-1864)
As a 21-year-old college graduate when he first came to Texas in 1835, Tom Green was no doubt one of the most schooled of all Texans. Over the next twenty nine years in Texas, he would also prove to be one of the most courageous. Green was born in Virginia on June 8, 1814, but moved with his family to Tennessee at an early age. In his youth, he attended Jackson College in Tennessee and Princeton College in Kentucky before graduating from the University of Tennessee. Then after studying law for about a year, he left Tennessee to join the Texans in their struggle for independence. In Texas, Green entered the Texas army at Nacogdoches, only a few months before the Battle of San Jacinto. At that historic battle, Green helped man one of the "Twin Sisters" artillery pieces. In the new Republic, Green served as clerk for the House of Representatives for the first terms of Congress. He was then elected to represented Fayette County in the Fourth Congress. In addition to these "desk jobs", Green served the Republic in several of its more militant struggles. He participated in several frontier skirmishes with the Indians, and accompanied General Alexander Somervell to Mexico in the ill-fated Somervell Expedition. In the Mexican-American War, Green raised a company of volunteers and served under Jack Hayes regiment in the taking of Monterrey. He then settled back into a relatively sedate life during the early years of statehood. During that time, he married, began a family, and served as clerk of the Supreme Court of Texas. Green entered the Civil War as a colonel in the brigade of General H. H. Sibley. Early in the War, the brigade saw service in New Mexico. On January 1, 1863, Green was back in Texas and led the forces on board the two Texas "cottonclads" used in the Battle of Galveston. After the success at Galveston, Green and his men participated in several major battles in Louisiana, including the Battles of Mansfield and Pleasant Hill in early 1864. Then, on April 12, 1864 at the Battle of Blair's Landing, he was killed at short range by the cannon of a Federal gunboat on the Red River.
John Reagan (1818-1905)
Reagan was born in Sevier County, Tennessee, in 1818. His rural raising denied Reagan much education until he left home; then he attended several academies and seminaries before settling down to the study of law. He migrated to Nacogdoches, Texas, in time to participate in the Battle of the Neches, near Tyler, in 1839, that resulted in the removal of most of the Indians from East Texas. During the 1840s and 1850s Reagan became active in politics. He served as the first judge of Henderson County, in both houses of the Texas legislature, and represented the Eastern District in the US House of Representatives. Reagan supported the secession of Texas in 1861, and when this was accomplished he resigned from Congress and soon won appointment as postmaster general of the Confederacy by President Jefferson Davis. Only Reagan and Secretary of the Navy Stephen Mallory held their posts continuously throughout the Civil War, and, at the end, Reagan was the last cabinet member remaining with Davis when they were captured near Abbyville, Georgia. For the next 22 months Reagan was held in Fort Warren, in Boston harbor. In August 1865, while in prison, he sent a letter advising Texans to accept the terms of Reconstruction as quickly as possible to get it behind them. The "Fort Warren Letter" made Reagan unpopular with fellow Texans who were determined to resist Federal requirements as long as possible, but several years of Radical Reconstruction convinced many of the wisdom of his unheeded advice. They likened him to Cincinatus, who had led Rome's legions, then lost popularity when he opted for peace. Thereafter, Reagan was affectionately called the "Old Roman." Reagan continued to serve Texas and the restored nation often and well before his death in 1905. He was returned to Congress, representing the First District, and chaired the House committee that produced the Interstate Commerce Act in 1887. Reagan returned to Texas in 1890 when Governor Jim Hogg asked him to chair the Texas Railroad Commission, and held the post until he retired in 1903. On March 6, 1905, the "Old Roman" of Texas died of pneumonia; he was buried in Palestine.
John Magruder (May 1, 1807-February 18, 1871)
Civil War Confederate Major General. John Magruder was born to a traditionally Southern family who provided him every advantage they could. He studied at the University of Virginia, then began his military schooling in 1826, attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, and upon his graduation in 1830 was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Seventh Infantry. He married Esther von Kapff in May 1831, but they were rarely together - towards the end of his life, many people were surprised to find out he was married after years of knowing him. His life was the Army, and he excelled at it, no matter where he was assigned; he served in the First Artillery in 1831, participated in the Second Seminole War, then saw battle again during the Mexican War where he was promoted from first lieutenant to lieutenant colonel rapidly under General Winfield Scott's brigade, fighting valiantly at both Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec. When the Civil War broke out, Magruder's loyalty lay with his home state, so he resigned from the Army in April 1861 and enlisted with the Confederacy. Commissioned a brigadier general at first, his skill in the field led to a speedy promotion to major general while commanding his army in Virginia. His specialty was in tricking the opposing forces into making desperate moves; at Yorktown he caused Union general George McClellan weeks of delay by making him believe Magruder's forces had an overwhelming advantage when it actually was much smaller than McClellan's. However, both his hesitancy to attack quickly during the Seven Days Battles and acting on outdated orders during the Battle of Malvern Hill caused him to lose his Virginia command and he was reassigned to oversee the Texas, New Mexico and Arizona district. Arriving in Texas in October 1862, he set up headquarters in Houston and administered his commands from there. The highlight of his career was his brilliant strategic retaking of Galveston from Union forces on January 1, 1863; however, his preference for planning strategy over direct combat caused him to be replaced and transferred to Arkansas in late summer 1864. He was returned to his Texas, New Mexico and Arizona command by Jefferson Davis in the spring of 1865, but by the time he arrived, Texas was already in the process of surrendering to the Union. With the Civil War over, Magruder traveled to Mexico and enlisted as a major general in the Imperial Mexican Army; however, the Mexican empire was already in decline and Emperor Maximilian was executed shortly afterwards. He returned to his former headquarters of Houston, Texas in 1867 and there spent his remaining years as a much- admired socialite gentleman until his death.