This past Friday, I had a chance to spend a couple of hours with J. Timothy Cole and Bradley R. Foley, authors of a new book on Brig. Gen. Collett Leventhorpe. I’ve spent a lot of time studying Leventhorpe over the past few years, and have written a couple of articles about him and his service.
Leventhorpe was a remarkable man, born in England, well educated, and had a decade plus of service in the British Army as a captain of the 14th Regiment of Foot before coming to the United States. Once in the states, he obtained a medical degree, mined for gold, and married into a prominent family.
Once the war began, he quickly obtained the rank of colonel of the 34th North Carolina, then the 11th North Carolina (Bethel Regiment). While he held brigade level commands at various times, he was never promoted to brigadier general until the last days of the war. I feel that his backwater commands, and his wounding at Gettysburg, kept him from moving up in the ranks.
I am really looking forward to reading Cole’s and Foley’s book on Leventhorpe.
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