Do lawyers make good generals? Some of them have. Others, not so much. There were a slew of lawyers who became Confederate generals, such as Lawrence Branch, John B. Gordon, Theodore W. Brevard, Jr., Daniel W. Adams, and Alpheus Baker, just to name a few. Included in the bunch was Samuel Garland, Jr.
Born in Lynchburg, Virginia on December 16, 1830, Samuel Garland, Jr., was the great-grandnephew of United States President James Madison. His father was an attorney (who died when Samuel was ten years old). Samuel was educated in a private school in Nelson County, then at Randolph Macon College, and finally, the Virginia Military Academy, where he graduated in 1849, third in his class. He went on to study law at the University of Virginia, and after John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry organized a militia company. When the war came, that company became a part of the 11th Virginia Infantry, and Garland was commissioned the regiment’s colonel. Garland and his regiment fought at the battle of Manassas in July 1861, as a part of Brig. Gen. James Longstreet’s brigade. Following the battle of Seven Pines, in which Garland was wounded in the elbow, he was promoted to brigadier general. He commanded a North Carolina brigade composed of the 5th, 12th, 13th, 20th, and 23rd Regiments.
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| Garland Marker, Fox's Gap |
With the
reorganization of the Army of Northern Virginia following the Seven Days
campaign, Garland found his brigade in D.H. Hill’s Division, Jackson’s wing. During
the Maryland Campaign, while the rest of Jackson’s command invested Harper’s
Ferry, D.H. Hill’s command was sent to guard the gaps across South Mountain,
protecting the rear of Jackson’s forces capturing the town. At the beginning of
the fight, Garland was ordered to take his brigade and defend the National Pike.
D.H. Hill wrote after the battle that “The firing had aroused that prompt and
gallant soldier, General Garland, and his men were under arms when I reached
the pike. I explained the situation briefly to him, directed him to sweep
through the woods, reach the road, and hold it at all hazards, as the safety of
Lee's large train depended upon its being held. He went off in high spirits and
I never saw him again. I never knew a truer, better, braver man. Had he lived,
his talents, pluck, energy, and purity of character must have put him in the
front rank of his profession, whether in civil or military life.” During the fighting at Fox’s Gap, Garland was struck
in the back by a bullet that passed through his body. His last words were “I am
killed. Send for the Senior colonel.”
Following his
death, Garland was interred at the Presbyterian Cemetery in Lynchburg, next to
the graves of his wife and son who had passed in June and July 1861 of
influenza.
In September 1993,
the Sons of Confederate Veterans erected a commemorative marker near the spot
of Samuel Garland’s death. I last visited the site in May 2011.
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