George W. Randolph

George Wythe Randolph (March 10, 1818 – April 3, 1867) was a Virginia

Following a private education appropriate for his class, Randolph briefly attended preparatory schools in Cambridge, Massachusetts (under the direction of his brother in law Joseph Coolidge)^[2] and Washington, D.C., where his mother sent him to give him distance from Virginia politics and family troubles. His father had incurred much debt, and creditors foreclosed after his term as Virginia's 21st governor ended. However, his elder brother Thomas Jefferson Randolph managed to buy the family's Edgehill plantation at a foreclosure auction in 1826. Meanwhile, G.W. Randolph became a midshipman in the United States Navy from 1831 to 1839, sailing on the USS John Adams and USS Constitution in the Mediterranean Sea as well as training at the Naval School in Norfolk, Virginia. Randolph also began attending the University of Virginia in Charlottesville near his home during his naval service in 1837, perhaps while recovering from tuberculosis contracted during his naval voyages (which went into a very long remission but which ultimately proved fatal).^[1]

Randolph read the law with an established lawyer, probably in part guided by George Tucker, who was a professor of moral philosophy at the University of Virginia (at which his eldest brother Thomas Jefferson Randolph was rector) and also wrote the first widely read biography of Thomas Jefferson (in 1837) and various treatises about economics and slavery before retiring from the faculty and moving to Philadelphia in 1845.

Marriage and family

On April 10, 1852, George W. Randolph married the young widow Mary Elizabeth (Adams) Pope (1830–1871). Like Randolph, she descended from the First Families of Virginia. However, they had no children.^[3] His wife Mary Randolph later became active in the Richmond Ladies Association, which organized welfare and relief for the Confederate war effort.^[1]

Slaveholdings

Several of the Randolphs, like Jefferson's teacher George Wythe, opposed slavery and freed slaves either during their lifetimes or in their wills. Following Nat Turner's Rebellion, his brother

Career

After admission to the bar in 1840, Randolph practiced law in Charlottesville, Virginia, and he and Mary lived at the family's Edgehill plantation. They moved to the capital of Richmond between 1849 and 1851. Randolph became active in the community as well as continued a law practice. He founded the Richmond Mechanics' Institute and was an officer in the Virginia Historical Society.^[1]

Following John Brown's raid at Harper's Ferry, rumors arose that abolitionist raiders would raid the jail at Charles Town to free him. Randolph responded by organizing the Richmond Howitzers, which were among the troops that Virginia Governor Henry A. Wise sent to secure the town until Brown's execution. On their return, they received the naval howitzers that gave their unit their name, and first paraded in Richmond on July 4, 1860. Late in 1860, they received the designation, Company H of the First Regiment of Volunteers in the Virginia militia.^[5]

As the

George W. Randolph depicted on an 1863 Confederate $100 banknote (with Lucy Pickens).

On April 21 Governor Wise called the Richmond Howitzers into state service and sent them down the

On September 13, 1861, General Magruder organized ten artillery companies (including the Richmond Howitzers) into a regiment, with Major Randolph promoted to colonel. It was initially called the 2nd Regiment Virginia Artillery but by January 1862 became the 1st Regiment Virginia Artillery. He was promoted to brigadier general on February 12, 1862, but saw no combat as such, initially assigned to plan the defense of Suffolk.^[9] He was officially mustered out on December 18, 1864.^[10] Confederate President Jefferson Davis appointed Randolph as Secretary of War on March 18, 1862, and he took office on March 24, 1862. Randolph helped reform the department, improving procurement and writing a conscription law similar to one he had created for Virginia. He strengthened the Confederacy's western and southern defenses, but came into conflict with Jefferson Davis. He also was involved in a controversy over the use of hidden shells, which Union troops found upon capturing Yorktown; Randolph argued the explosive devices contravened the laws of civilized warfare but were acceptable if left on a parapet of a fort to prevent its capture or allow defenders to retreat more safely.^[11] With weakening health due to tuberculosis (TB), he resigned on November 17, 1862.

However, Randolph did accept election as Richmond's state senator, and served in the Virginia Senate during the remainder of the conflict.^[12]

Post-Civil War

In 1864, Randolph ran the U.S. naval blockade and took his family to Europe, receiving medical treatment in England and southern France. He took the oath of allegiance to the United States in April 1866 in

List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)

References

Further reading

• Eicher, John H., and
  ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1
  .
• Daniels, Jonathan. The Randolphs of Virginia: America's Foremost Family, Garden City, New York: Doubleday, 1972.
• Janney, Caroline E. Burying the Dead but Not the Past: Ladies' Memorial Associations and the Lost Cause, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008.
• Moore, Richard Channing. Genealogy of the Page Family in Virginia.
• Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988.
  ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4
  .
• Shackelford, George. George Wythe Randolph and the Confederate Elite, Athens, Georgia and London: University of Georgia Press, 1988.
• ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9
  .

• Media related to George W. Randolph at Wikimedia Commons
• "George W. Randolph". Find a Grave. Retrieved 2008-02-13.