Birkett D. Fry
Birkett Davenport Fry | |
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Birkett Davenport Fry (June 24, 1822 – January 21, 1891) was an adventurer, soldier, lawyer, cotton manufacturer, and a
brigadier general in the American Civil War. A survivor of four battle wounds, he commanded one of the lead brigades during Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg
.
Early life
Fry was born in
voltigeurs (skirmishers).[1]
Following the war, Fry moved to
expedition to Nicaragua[1] as a colonel (and later general) in Walker's mercenary army. Fry returned to California, living there until 1859 when he moved to Alabama and engaged in cotton manufacturing.[1] Fry had married Martha MiCou, whose family were among the owners of the cotton mills in Tallassee, Alabama.[2]
Civil War
With Alabama's
Peninsula Campaign. Colonel Fry was wounded in action at the Battle of Seven Pines.[1] He recovered in time to command his regiment during the Second Manassas Campaign and thereafter in Maryland in the fighting at Antietam, where he was again wounded, suffering a shattered arm.[1]
Fry rejoined his regiment and led it in Archer's Brigade during the 1863
Baltimore
,
There, rumors circulated that Fry had been involved in the August 1862 murder of Union general
Robert L. McCook in Alabama. Fry's West Point classmate, John Gibbon, who ironically commanded the troops that had shot Fry at Gettysburg, vouched for his character and the matter was forgotten.[3]
Exchanged in the spring of 1864, Fry was briefly assigned to Robert Ransom's Department of Richmond at the beginning of the
Bermuda Hundred Campaign, where he was assigned command of Seth Barton's brigade of Virginians, following that general's dismissal after the Battle of Chester Station. Fry was immediately ordered to move this brigade to Richmond to defend the capital against Philip Sheridan's Federal cavalry, which was thwarted at the Battle of Meadow Bridge on May 12. Fry's brigade then returned to Ransom at Drewry's Bluff, who had in the meantime been reinforced by P.G.T. Beauregard's army arriving from North Carolina. Fry's brigade then fought at the Battle of Proctor's Creek
.
Fry subsequently rejoined Lee's
A.P. Hill's Third Corps for the Battle of Cold Harbor. Fry served during the Siege of Petersburg.[4]
During the final months of the war, Fry was placed in command of a military district in South Carolina and Georgia.[4]
Postbellum
After surrendering in
Robert A. Toombs, and John B. Magruder, among others.[5] He did not return to the United States until 1868, when he returned to Tallassee, Alabama, as a businessman. He resided at No. 1, King Street, in a house built for Confederate Officers in charge of the Tallassee Armory.[2] His home is still standing and after renovations now serves as the law offices of The Segrest Law Firm. Fry later expanded his business career in Florida, and, in 1881, moved to Richmond, Virginia, where he was president of a cotton mill for a decade.[4]
Fry died in Richmond on January 21, 1891, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Montgomery, Alabama.
See also
Notes
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9. p. 95
- ^ a b Golden, Virginia Noble, A History of Tallassee, Tallassee Mills of Mount Vernon-Woodberry Mills, 1949, LC Control No.: 50034427. p. 27.
- ISBN 0-8078-2648-0. p. 367.
- ^ a b c d Warner, 1959, p. 96.
- ISBN 0-8203-2483-3. p. 19.
References
- Eicher, John H., and ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
- Hess, Earl J., Pickett's Charge: The Last Attack at Gettysburg, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8078-2648-0.
- Pérez, Louis A., Jr., Cuba and the United States: Ties of Singular Intimacy, Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2003. ISBN 0-8203-2483-3.
- Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
- ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.
- Golden, Virginia Noble, A History of Tallassee, Tallassee Mills of Mount Vernon-Woodberry Mills, 1949, LC Control No.: 50034427.