Emory and Henry's Civil War

My friend, Eddie Wheeler, “Sarge” sent me his notes on Emory and Henry College, his alma mater, in the Civil War, which follow. For years, Eddie has supported my efforts, and I thought I would share his history of “Fighting WASPS.” He heard me speak about J. E. B. Stuart at the Salem Museum last week and wanted to make sure I had my facts correct.

                Emory and Henry College is located in Washington County, Southwestern Virginia, nine miles east of Abingdon, Virginia, just minutes off US Route 11 or Interstate 81. Emory and Henry was chartered in 1836, named for Bishop Emory, the first Methodist Bishop in America and Patrick Henry or oratory and Revolutionary War fame, and the first Governor of Virginia of the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the oldest four-year degree bearing institution in Southwest Virginia. It predates Virginia Intermont, UVA at Wise, Radford, Roanoke College, Hollins, VMI, and Virginia Tech. Pre-dated only by Washington and Lee, which traces its origins to Liberty Hall Academy.

                The main east-west line of the Norfolk Southern Railway, the Civil War era Virginia and Tennessee Railroad runs directly through the campus. The Confederate Congress realized this early on and in 1862 confiscated all college buildings and renamed it Emory Confederate Hospital. In the hospital, both Confederate and Union wounded were cared for. On the highest part of the highest hill in Emory, Virginia, 206 of the South’s finest are buried. The headstones are numbered, and a fifteen-foot obelisk with brass plates on all four sides lists those who gave their last full measure.

                In a swell, just west of this hill, the Union dead were buried in a long common grave. In 1938, the Grand Army of the Republic disinterred and carried them back up north.

                Six Confederate Generals are alumnus of Emory and Henry. It is the only liberal arts college that contributed six generals to the Confederate Army.

                Henry DeLamar Clayton was born in Pulaski County, Georgia, in 1827. In 1838, his family moved to Lee County, Alabama. He graduated from Emory and Henry College in 1848. In 1861, Clayton enlisted in the 1st Alabama Infantry, which was reorganized as the 39th Alabama Infantry in 1962. The following year Clayton became a Brigadier General of Infantry commanding the 18th, 32nd, 36th, 38th, and 58th Alabama Infantry Regiments. Clayton fought at Chickamauga, Rocky Face Mountain, and New Hope. In 1864, he received a promotion to Major General and commanding Alexander P. Stewart’s Infantry Division company of the brigades of Stovall, Baker, Gibbons, and Holtzclaw. Clayton fought at Nashville and at Bentonville at the end of the war. He returned to Alabama to farm and practice law. In 1866, he was elected as a Circuit Court Judge. Twenty years later he became President of the University of Alabama, where he also taught International Law. He died in 1889 and was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Eufaula, Alabama.

                James Byron Gordon was born in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, in 1822. He attended Emory and Henry College from 1841-43. He served with Hampton’s Legion as a Lieutenant Colonel. Commissioned as a Brigadier General of Cavalry in September 1863, commanding the North Carolina Brigade of J. E. B. Stuart’s Cavalry Division. Wounded on May 12, 1864, at the Meadows Bridge, just north of Richmond, which was part of the Battle of Yellow Tavern that also took Stuart’s life. He is buried in St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Wilkesboro. He was at Emory and Henry at the same time as “Grumble” Jones.

William Edward “Grumble” Jones was born in Washington County, Virginia, in 1824. He graduated Emory and Henry in 1844. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, that same year and graduated in 1848. Commissioned a Brigadier General of Cavalry in September 1862, Jones lost his life on June 5, 1864, at the Battle of Piedmont in the Shenandoah Valley. Jones is buried in Old Glade Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Glade Springs, Virginia.

A side note about Jones was that John Mosby, a lawyer practicing in Bristol, enlisted in Jones Company of Cavalry that became the 1st Virginia Cavalry on the Barter Green in Abingdon, Virginia, next to the Martha Washington Inn.

John Creed Moore was born in Hawkins County, Tennessee, in 1824. He attended Emory and Henry like many of the others listed here before going to West Point, where he graduated in 1849. He saw action in the Seminole War in Florida and served in such far flung posts as Santa Fe and Baton Rouge. He resigned from the US Army in 1855. In 1861, he organized the 2nd Texas Infantry. He fought at Shiloh and received promotion to Brigadier General in May 1862. He saw action at Corinth and Vicksburg, where he was captured and later released. He served under Braxton Bragg at Chattanooga before assigned to Mobile, Alabama, in December 1863, in the Eastern and Western Districts of the Gulf. He resigned his commission in February 1864. He taught school in Texas. He was the last Emory and Henry General to die on December 31, 1910 and is buried in Osage, Caryele County, Texas. 

James Ewell Brown Stuart was born in Ararat, Patrick County, Virginia in 1833. He attended Emory and Henry College from 1848-50. He went to West Point in 1850 and graduated in 1854. Started as Colonel of the 1st Virginia Cavalry and rose to Brigadier General of Cavalry in September 1861. A Major General by July 1862, Stuart commanded all of Robert E. Lee’s cavalry in the Army of Northern Virginia. Stuart received a mortal wound at Yellow Tavern, north of Richmond on May 11, 1864, and died the next day in Richmond, where he is buried at Hollywood Cemetery.

William Feimster Tucker was born in Iredell County, North Carolina, in 1827. He graduated from Emory and Henry in 1848. He moved to Houston, Mississippi and was elected probate judge in Chickasaw County, Mississippi, in 1855. He joined Company K of the 11th Mississippi Infantry. He fought at First Manassas with Bernard Bee’s Brigade. 11th Mississippi transferred west and joined the 41st Mississippi. He promoted to Colonel in May 1862. He served as Regimental C. O. at Perryville, Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. In March 1864, he received a promotion to Brigadier General. He fought in the Atlanta Campaign, where he received a severe wound at Resaca, Georgia on May 14, 1864. Incapacitated from field duty, he served in command of the District of the South Mississippi and East Louisiana in the closing weeks of the war. He returned to Chickasaw County and practiced law. He served in Mississippi legislature in 1876 and 1878. He was assassinated on September 14, 1881, in Okolona, Mississippi, where he is buried. Clayton, Moore, Tucker were at Emory and Henry at the same time.