William Ruffin Cox

William Ruffin Cox

William Ruffin Cox (born March 11, 1832 in Scotland Neck , Halifax County , North Carolina , †  December 26, 1919 in Richmond , Virginia ) was a Brigadier General of the Confederate Army in the Civil War and later a politician and member of Congress .

Life

Cox was the grandson of a British naval officer who settled in North Carolina in the early 19th century. In his youth he moved to Tennessee with his widowed mother , where he graduated from Franklin College in 1853 and then studied law at Lebanon College . After his admission to the bar, he first worked as a lawyer in Nashville for two years , then he went back to North Carolina and ran a plantation. As a committed secessionist, he formed a company of volunteers even before the outbreak of the civil war.

When the Civil War broke out, Cox was promoted to major in the 2nd North Carolina Infantry and assigned to Virginia . During the Peninsula Campaign (March to July 1862) he fought a. a. on June 26, 1862 at the Battle of Mechanicsville and on July 1, 1862 at the Battle of Malvern Hill . At the Battle of Chancellorsville from May 1-4, 1863, Cox was wounded five times and lost three-quarters of his regiment in 15 minutes. Due to his wounds and this defeat, he did not take an active part in the war for the next few months. It was not until the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House from May 8 to 21, 1864 that he led his troops again. A month later he was given command of the troops from General Stephen Dodson Ramseur and was promoted to brigadier general. From April 2 to 9, 1865, he supported General Robert Edward Lee in his Appomattox campaign , where he surrendered to General of the Union Army Ulysses S. Grant .

After the war, Cox lived in North Carolina again, practiced law, became president of a railroad company, judge in a district court, member of the university, writer, and engaged in politics. From March 4, 1881 to March 3, 1887 he served as a Democrat in the US House of Representatives and then as the successor to Anson G. McCook Secretary of the Senate . On January 31, 1900 he resigned his office and returned to his plantation in Edgecombe County , was active in addition to the requirements of his plantation only in the local politics of North Carolina and founded the North Carolina Journal of Education .

Works (excerpt)

• Increase of officers of the House (1884)
• American labor and Chinese immigration (1886)
• Classification and compensation of public officers (1886)
• Address by General William Ruffin Cox, Army Northern Virginia (1911)

See also

• List of Confederate Generals 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 volumes, ISBN 0-13-275991-8
• 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

• William Ruffin Cox in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• William Ruffin Cox in the database of Find a Grave (English)