John Echols

John Echols

John Echols (born March 20, 1823 in Lynchburg , Virginia , † May 24, 1896 in Staunton , Virginia) was a politician and brigadier general of the Confederate States of America in the Civil War .

Life

After his normal school days, John Echols attended the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington , then Washington College, founded in 1749 (later Washington and Lee University ), then went to Harvard College in Massachusetts and studied law. After graduating, he returned to Virginia, opened a law firm in Staunton and engaged in politics. As an advocate of secession , he played an important role in Virginia's secession Convent of 1861. Even before the outbreak of war he offered the Provisional Army of the Confederate his services, was raised to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (Lt. Col.) and got by General Robert Edward Lee to Order to recruit volunteers.

Civil War

When the Civil War broke out, Echols was given command of the 27th Virginia Infantry Regiment, with which he took part in the First Battle of the Bull Run on July 21, 1861 under the command of General Thomas Jonathan Stonewall Jackson . He was then promoted to colonel and took part in 1862, again under Jackson, in whose Shenandoah campaign with the Northern Virginia Army in the course of which there were several skirmishes and battles and Echols was wounded several times on March 23, 1862. After his recovery, he was promoted to brigadier general in April of that year.

In 1863 Echols carried out several attacks against the Northern Army and on May 15, 1864 commanded the right flank under General John Cabell Breckinridge at the Battle of New Market in the Shenandoah Valley , Virginia. Then Echols' Brigade was ordered by General Lee to support the Northern Virginia Army, which was in various skirmishes near Petersburg . On August 22, 1864, he was given command of the District of Southwest Virginia and on March 29, 1865 of the District of West Virginia, replacing General Breckinridge, who had been called to the staff of President Jefferson Davis .

On April 2, 1865, Echols began a forced march with nearly 7,000 men to unite his troops with those of General Lee. He reached Christiansburg, in Montgomery County , Virginia, on April 10th, where he received a telegram that Lee had surrendered at Appomattox Court House the previous day . He then led two brigades towards North Carolina to unite them with Johnston's army and then accompanied President Davis himself on his escape to Augusta , Georgia .

Late years

After the war, Echols returned to Staunton, continued his legal practice and became a politician in the Virginia government. He subsequently became President of Staunton National Valley Bank and General Manager of the Chesapeake, Ohio & Southwestern Railroad . In 1886 he moved to Kentucky in order to be able to pursue his work as a manager of the railway company better .

Echols was married twice. First with a sister of Allen T. Caperton , a politician and senator from West Virginia , and after her death with Mary Cochrane Reid from New York. He died during a visit to the estate of his son Edward Echols , a Senator and Deputy Governor of Virginia, where he was also buried.

See also

• List of Confederate Generals in the Civil War
• List of generals of the Union in the Civil War

literature

• David J. Eicher, The Civil War in Books: An Analytical Bibliography , University of Illinois, 1997, ISBN 0-252-02273-4 .
• Richard N. Current, Encyclopedia of the Confederacy (1993) (4 vol.) ( ISBN 0132759918 )
• John H. Eicher & David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands , Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3 .
• Ezra J. Warner, Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders , Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5 .

Web links

• John Echols in the database of Find a Grave (English)