William T. Wofford
William Tatum Wofford | |
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Brigadier General (CSA) | |
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William Tatum Wofford (June 28, 1824 – May 22, 1884) was an officer during the Mexican–American War and a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Early life and career
Wofford was born near
Toccoa in Habersham County, Georgia, to William H. Wofford and Nancy M. Tatum.[1] In 1827, the Wofford family drew a Cass (Bartow) County land lot during the Georgia Land Lottery and moved there shortly thereafter.[2] In 1836, at the age of 13, he was sent to the Gwinnett Manual Labor Institute in Lawrenceville, Georgia.[3] In 1839, he graduated from Gwinnett Institute and entered Franklin College, now part of the University of Georgia. He graduated from Franklin College in 1844. Wofford first experienced military life in 1847 during the Mexican–American War, where he was a captain in the Georgia Mounted Volunteers. Wofford was mustered out of the volunteer service on July 12, 1848, and afterward worked as a planter, served as a state legislator, and then became a lawyer. In 1852 he was editor of the Cassville Standard newspaper.[4][5]
Civil War service
Wofford had previously voted against
Peninsula Campaign. Wofford and the 18th also fought at Second Bull Run and Antietam,[6] where he commanded the Texas Brigade
.
In November 1862, Wofford and the 18th Georgia were transferred to the Georgia Brigade of Brig. Gen.
Peach Orchard
late in the afternoon of July 2. There Wofford's men drove Union troops out of the Wheatfield but had to stop short of the new Union line near Little Round Top.
Traveling to Georgia with
Richmond-Petersburg Campaign and assumed command of the Subdistrict of Northern Georgia, of the District of Georgia, Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on January 20, 1865, a post he held until he surrendered in Kingston, Georgia, and was paroled at Resaca, Georgia on May 2, 1865. Shortly afterward Wofford was pardoned by the U.S. government on July 24.[4]
He commanded the last significant group of Confederate soldiers east of the Mississippi to surrender to Union troops.
Postbellum career
After the war Wofford was a planter and active in the law,
Populist Party a decade later.[11] He died in Cass Station, Georgia, and is buried in nearby Cassville Cemetery
.
See also
State of Georgia portal
American Civil War portal
Biography portal
- List of signers of the Georgia Ordinance of Secession
- Confederate States of America, causes of secession, "Died of states' rights"
- List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)
Notes
- ^ Horney, Kylie A. (2013). W. T. Wofford (1824-1884). New Georgia Encyclopedia. Retrieved May 12, 2016.
- ISBN 9780881460605. Retrieved May 12, 2016.
- ISBN 1889332038.
- ^ a b c d Eicher, Civil War High Commands, p. 578.
- ^ Warner, p. 341.
- ISBN 9780817319045.
- ^ Eicher, Civil War High Commands, pp. 578, 592.
- ISBN 9781611210743.
- ^ Warner, p. 341, claims he was at Knoxville siege while Eicher, Longest Night, p. 616, claims Col. Solon Z. Ruff commanded the brigade.
- ^ Warner, p. 344.
- ^ Smith, p. 2142.
References
- ISBN 978-0-684-84944-7.
- Eicher, John H., and ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
- Folsom, James Madison. Heroes and Martyrs of Georgia: Georgia's Record in the Revolution of 1861. Baltimore: Butternut and Blue, 1995. ISBN 0-935523-49-9. First published 1864 by Burke, Boykin & Co.
- Polley, J. B. Hood's Texas Brigade: Its Marches, Its Battles, Its Achievements. Dayton, OH: Morningside Bookshop, 1976. ISBN 978-0-89029-037-8. First published 1910 by Neale Publishing Co.
- Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
- Simpson, Harold B. Hood's Texas Brigade: Lee's Grenadier Guard. Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, 1994. ISBN 1-56013-009-1. First published 1970 by Texian Press.
- Smith, Gerald J. "William Tatum Wofford." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-393-04758-X.
- Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg Archived October 22, 2014, at the ISBN 1-882810-30-9.
- ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.
External links
- "William T. Wofford". Find a Grave. Retrieved August 15, 2010.
- Grave of Gen. William Tatum Wofford historical marker