John Bankhead Magruder

John Bankhead Magruder (born May 1, 1807 in Port Royal , Virginia , † February 19, 1871 in Houston ) was an officer in the US Army until the beginning of the American Civil War , general in the Confederate Army and served as an officer of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico .

Life

John Bankhead Magruder was born to Thomas Magruder and his wife Elisabeth Magruder, nee Bankhead. On July 1, 1826, he entered the Military Academy at West Point , New York . He completed his training there in 1830 as the 15th of his class and became a lieutenant in the 7th US Infantry Regiment. In May 1831 he married Esther Henrietta von Kapff. In July 1831 he was transferred to the 1st US Artillery Regiment , where he was promoted to first lieutenant in 1836 .

Mexican War

Magruder took part in the campaign against Mexico under Winfield Scott . During the course of the campaign, he was promoted to captain on June 18, 1846 and already on April 18, 1846 for services in the battle of Cerro Gordo to major brevet . For personal bravery in storming Chapultepec during the Battle of Chapultepec , he was promoted to Brevet Lieutenant Colonel on September 13, 1847 . After the war, he served in California and Fort Leavenworth , Kansas Territory. On April 20, 1861, he retired from the US Army.

Civil War

After leaving the US Army, he joined the Confederation Army as a Brigadier General . He was promoted to major general shortly thereafter . At the beginning of the Civil War, Major General Magruder was stationed on the peninsula formed by the York and Pamunkey (Virginia Peninsula) in southern Virginia. He commanded the left wing of the Northern Virginia Army . His job was to protect Richmond , Virginia from the Union Forces under Major General Benjamin Franklin Butler in Fort Monroe , Virginia . In this context there was between his troops and the Union troops under Brigadier General Ebenezer Pierce to the first land battle of the Civil War, the Battle of Big Bethel . Magruder was able to decide this battle for the south after about an hour.

After the skirmish, he advanced toward Yorktown , Virginia. Here he was at the beginning of the peninsula campaign in 1862 with around 13,000 Confederate soldiers. During the siege of Yorktown he tied about 53,000 men of the Potomac Army under McClellan for a month . Magruder had marched his troops back and forth along his positions and had given McClellan the impression of a considerably larger force. It was only after heavy siege artillery had been brought in that the Potomac army attacked on May 4, 1862, but only found vacant positions. In the course of the further fighting as part of the peninsula campaign, Magruder and his troops took part in the seven-day battle (June 25 to July 1, 1862).

On November 29, 1862 Magruder was in command of the Texas , New Mexico, and Arizona Military Area. There he took the port city of Galveston , Texas, on January 1, 1863 , breaking the sea blockade that the north had imposed on the south as part of the Anaconda Plan . On August 17, 1864 he was appointed commander in the armed forces area Arkansas and in March 1865 took over his previous command again until the surrender of the Trans-Mississippi theater by Lieutenant General Edmund Kirby Smith .

After the Civil War

After the end of the civil war, Magruder entered the service of Maximilian during the Second Empire of Mexico . After Maximilian's rule collapsed in 1867, Magruder returned to the United States and settled in Houston, Texas, where he died in 1871.

Magruder was buried in Galveston.

literature

Paul D. Casdorph: Prince John Magruder. His Life and Campaigns . New York, NY 1996.
Thomas M. Settles: John Bankhead Magruder. A Military Reappraisal . Baton Rouge, LA 2009.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Magruder, John Bankhead
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American military officer, officer in the United States Army, and major general of the Southern States
DATE OF BIRTH	May 1, 1807
PLACE OF BIRTH	Port Royal , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH	February 19, 1871
Place of death	Houston , Texas