Robert Hall Chilton

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Robert Hall Chilton (born February 25, 1815 in Loudoun County , Virginia , † February 18, 1879 in Columbus , Georgia ) was an officer in the US Army and brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the War of Civilizations .

Life

Chilton finished his training at the Military Academy at West Point , New York in 1837 as the 48th of his class. He was then assigned to the Dragoons and served in Kansas , Texas and the Indian territories . From 1847 to 1848 he took part in the Mexican-American War , where he was honored after the Battle of Buena Vista for his bravery in rescuing the wounded Jefferson Davis and a Colonel of the Mississippi Volunteers. In 1852 he was promoted to captain in the 1st US Dragoons Regiment. After being transferred to the staff, he served as purser in Washington, DC , New York, and Texas from 1854 to 1861 .

After the outbreak of the American Civil War he quit his service in the US Army in 1861 and switched to the Confederate side , where he took up his service as adjutant general with the rank of lieutenant colonel and under his friend, General Robert Edward Lee , until after the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 . served.

In October 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general for the first time. This promotion was not approved by the Confederate Congress . Disagreements with some commanders, particularly Major General John Bankhead Magruder , are cited as a possible cause . In the following years he continued to serve under General Lee as inspector of the troops operating off Richmond . In 1864 he was again promoted to brigadier general.

He received his only command of a combat unit in May 1864. He commanded a Virginia infantry regiment and cavalry in battle and held the Confederate ranks along the Richmond & Petersburg Railroad . He then took up his old post as General Inspector until the end of the war. Chilton was the person who signed General Lee's Special Orders 191 , which went down in history as the Lost Dispatch .

After the war, Chilton became president of a manufacturing company in Columbus, Georgia, where he died on February 18, 1879.

See also

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

personal data
SURNAME Chilton, Robert Hall
BRIEF DESCRIPTION General of the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Loudoun County , Virginia
DATE OF DEATH February 18, 1879
Place of death Columbus , Georgia