UNDER THE CONFEDERACY
71
at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville and
Gettysburg. In September, 1862, he was
promoted to brigadier-general, made chief
of artillery of the Second Corps, and con-
ducted artillery operations with masterly
skill in the movement on Washington, the
operations in the Shenandoah Valley, and to
the surrender. After the war he was chief
engineer of the James River & Kanawha
Canal. He soon afterward lost his eye-
sight, and at Charlottesville passed the last
twenty years of his life in total darkness,
during which time he wrote his "Memoirs
of Gen. Robert E. Lee," a model of bio-
graphical history and military operations.
He died April 29, 1891.
Magruder, John Bankhead, born in Win- chester, Virginia, August 15, 1810; enter- ed the University of Virginia in 1825, where he remained two years ; then entered the Military Academy at West Point, from which he was graduated in 1830 ; entered the Mexican war and served with distinc- tion as a captain of artillery ; for gallantry a1 Cerro Gordo he was brevetted major, and dt Chapultepec, where he was wounded, he v/as brevetted lieutenant-colonel ; after the war he was stationed at Newport ; at the outbreak of the civil war he came south and offered his services to his native state ; he was in command of the Confederate forces in the Peninsula, and made a great reputation for efficiency there, with a small command, having greatly deceived his op- ponent, and having won the battle of Big Bethel ; for services there rendered he was made major-general, and took part in the fights around Richmond, having been in the terrible fight at Malvern Hill ; in the fall of 1862 he was given command of the de-
partment of Texas, and in 1863 recovered
Galveston, capturing the United States ship,
Harriet Lane, with land forces alone ; after
the close of the war he went to Mexico and
took service as major-general under the ill-
fated Maximilian, upon whose downfall he
returned to Houston, Texas, where he died
February 19, 1871.
Mahone, William, born near Monroe, Southampton county, Virginia, December i, 1826, son of Col. Fielding J. Mahone, who commanded a regiment of militia during the "Nat Turner Insurrection." He began his education under his father, attended school two years, and then entered the Virginia ]\Iilitary Institute, from which he was grad- uated in 1847. He taught for two years at the Rappahannock Military Academy, stud- ied engineering, and became chief engineer and instructor on the Norfolk & Petersburg Railroad. In 1861 he entered the Confed- erate army as lieutenant-colonel of volun- teers, and soon became colonel of the Sixth Virginia Infantry Regiment. He was pres- ent at the capture of the Norfolk navy yard in April, 1861, participated in most of the battles of the Peninsula campaign, on the Rappahannock, and at Petersburg, where he won the sobriquet of "the hero of the crater," for his bravery at the time of its explosion under Grant's mining operations, July 30, 1864. He was commissioned briga- dier-general in March, 1864, and major- general in August, for distinguished services at Petersburg. Gen. Lee held him as in- ferior only to "Stonewall" Jackson. Later he commanded a division in A. P. Hill's corps, and was at Bermuda Hundred when Lee surrendered. After the war he devoted himself to railroad matters, and became
