Confederate States Army general
Brigadier-General
Samuel Wragg Ferguson
(November 3, 1834 – February 3, 1917) was a senior
officer
of the
Confederate States Army
who commanded
cavalry
in the
Western Theater
of the
American Civil War
. After the civil war, Ferguson served as a member of the
Mississippi River Commission
.
[1]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
Samuel Wragg Ferguson was born in
Charleston, South Carolina
, on November 3, 1834, to James, a
planter
, and Abby Ann (
nee
Barker) Ferguson. Educated at a private school in Charleston, he entered the
United States Military Academy
in 1852 and graduated in 1857.
[2]
Before graduation, he joined Colonel
Albert Sidney Johnson
's
Utah Expedition
. He then went to
St. Louis
to join his
regiment
. After the expedition, he was assigned to
Fort Walla Walla
in the
Washington Territory
, where he stayed from 1859 to 1860. This all changed when he received the results of the
1860 presidential election
. Hearing of the election of
Abraham Lincoln
, he immediately resigned and left for
Charleston, South Carolina
.
[3]
American Civil War
[
edit
]
In March 1861, Ferguson was commissioned a
captain
in the
South Carolina militia
, afterwards being appointed
Lieutenant
and
aide-de-camp
to
C.S. Army
Brigadier-General
P. G. T. Beauregard
. He was one of the officers who received the formal surrender of
U.S. Army
Major
Robert Anderson
at
Fort Sumter
, raised the first
Confederate States flag
, and posted the first guards at Fort Sumter. After the siege, he was sent to present the first Confederate flag struck by enemy shot to the
Provisional Congress of the Confederate States
.
[3]
He was a
lieutenant-colonel
and aide-de-camp to General Beauregard during the
Battle of Shiloh
. During the
Battle of Farmington
, he was in the
28th Mississippi Cavalry Regiment
. He commanded the unit while defending
Vicksburg
, and helped stop attacks made by
U.S. Major-General
William T. Sherman
and
U.S. Commodore
David Porter
.
On July 28, 1863, Ferguson was promoted to brigadier-general. He was subsequently recommended for promotion to
Major-General
, but
Joseph Wheeler
quickly objected.
[4]
During
Sherman's March to the Sea
, Ferguson and his cavalrymen harassed the flank of the
United States Army
. When Sherman got close to
Savannah
, Ferguson's men left their horses and covered the Confederate retreat. He was then ordered to
Danville, Virginia
, but before arriving was ordered to go to
Charlotte, North Carolina
. From Charlotte he escorted
Jefferson Davis
into Georgia, where his unit was disbanded.
[5]
Later life
[
edit
]
After the war Ferguson moved to
Greenville, Mississippi
, where he practiced
law
. He married
Catherine Sarah Lee
, daughter of Henry William and
Eleanor Percy Lee
who was a cousin of
Robert Edward Lee
.
[5]
In 1876, he was appointed as president of the United States Board of Mississippi River Commissioners. He was also secretary and treasurer of the Mississippi Levee Board. In 1894, twenty thousand
[6]
to forty thousand dollars
[7]
mysteriously disappeared from the Mississippi Levee Board, of which Ferguson was both secretary and treasurer.
[6]
Later that year, he suddenly left and moved to his hometown of Charleston where worked as a
civil engineer
. After staying in Charleston, Ferguson moved to
Ecuador
. It would be many years before he returned.
[6]
At the outbreak of the
Spanish?American War
, he tried to join the war effort but he was turned down.
[3]
On February 3, 1917, Ferguson died in
Jackson, Mississippi
, where he is buried at the
Greenwood Cemetery
along with other famous Confederate generals.
[4]
Selected works
[
edit
]
- Personal Memoirs of S. W. Ferguson
(1900)
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"The Cavalry Reunion".
Weekly Democrat-Times
. Vol. 20, no. 31. Greenville, Miss. February 18, 1888. p. 1.
- ^
Losson, Christopher T. (2017).
"Samuel Wragg Ferguson"
.
Mississippi Encyclopedia
. Center for Study of Southern Culture
. Retrieved
May 19,
2020
.
- ^
a
b
c
Kansas State Historical Society's Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society
(1912) pg. 303.
- ^
a
b
Warner, Ezra J.
Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.
Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959, p. 89,
ISBN
978-0-8071-0823-9
.
- ^
a
b
Wyatt-Brown, Betram,
The Literary Percys: Family History, Gender & the Southern Imagination
(1994) pg. 107.
- ^
a
b
c
Black, Patti Carr and Marion Barnwell,
Touring Literary Mississippi
(2002) pg. 9–10.
- ^
Wyatt-Brown, Betram,
The Literary Percys: Family History, Gender & the Southern Imagination
(1994) pg. 46–47.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Allison, David (2018). "Chapter III: The Confederates".
Attacked On All Sides: The Civil War Battle of Decatur, Georgia, the Untold Story of the Battle of Atlanta
. With chapters by Lisa Rickey and Blaise J. Arena. North Charleston, South Carolina:
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
. pp. 40?55.
ISBN
9781977761903
.
LCCN
2017915794
.
OCLC
1029354282
.
OL
39611957M
.
- Eicher, John H., and
David J. Eicher
,
Civil War High Commands.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
ISBN
978-0-8047-3641-1
.
- Sifakis, Stewart.
Who Was Who in the Civil War.
New York: Facts On File, 1988.
ISBN
978-0-8160-1055-4
.
External links
[
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]
- Official
- General information
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