{⋆★⋆} MG Magruder, John B.

John Bankhead Magruder

:CSA1stNat:
Magruder.jpg


Born: May 1, 1807

Birthplace: Port Royal, Virginia

Father: Thomas Magruder 1779 – 1830

Mother: Elizabeth Bankhead M. Magruder 1778 – 1849
(Buried: Maplewood Cemetery, Charlottesville, Virginia)​

Wife: Esther Henrietta Von Kapff 1812 – 1884

Married: May 18, 1831 in Baltimore, Maryland

Children:

Isabel Bankhead Magruder Buckler 1832 – 1869​
Henry R. Magruder 1838 – 1907​
Kate Elizabeth Magruder 1841 – 1896​
Education:

1830: Graduated from West Point Military Academy- (15th in class)​

Occupation before War:

1830: Brevet 2nd Lt. United States Army, 7th Infantry Regiment​
1830 – 1831: 2nd Lt. United States Army, 7th Infantry Regiment
Magruder 1.jpg
1831 – 1836: 2nd Lt. United States Army, 1st Artillery​
1836 – 1846: 1st Lt. United States Army, 1st Artillery​
1846 – 1861: Captain United States Army, 1st Artillery​
1847: Brevetted Major for Gallantry at Battle of Cero Gordo, Mexico​
1847: Brevetted Lt. Colonel for Gallantry at Battle of Chapultepec​
1861: Resigned from United States Army on April 20th
Civil War Career:

1861: Colonel in the Confederate States Army​
1861: Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army​
1861 – 1865: Major General in the Confederate States Army​
1862: Small Army Commander on the Virginia Peninsula​
1862: Division Commander during the Battle of Yorktown, Virginia
Magruder 2.jpg
1862: Division Commander during the Battle of Malvern Hill, Virginia​
Commander of the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona​
1863: Won the Battle of Galveston, Texas on January 1, 1863​
1864 – 1865: Commander of the Department of Arkansas​
1865: Commander of District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona​
Occupation after War:

1865 – 1867: Major General in the Mexican Imperial Army​
1867 – 1871: Lived in Houston, Texas​

Died: February 18, 1871

Place of Death: Houston, Texas

Age at time of Death: 63 years old

Burial Place: Old City Cemetery, Galveston, Texas

Grave Location: First Row – East End – South of Entrance Gate
 
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Magruder is a personal favorite of mine from this period. He was quite the colorful commander, and had some out of the box solutions to many problems he faced in the field, case in point being his ruse at Yorktown and his combined land-sea attack at Galveston. Its a shame he was stuck in Texas for most of the war, I imagine if Lee had given him a chance after Seven Days, he would have made a solid corps commander.
 
That transfer from fighting in Virginia to being ordered out to Texas, I had always assumed Lee had him sent West due to some poor performances during some of the Peninsula Campaign . But it seems he was sent west on his own request. He was recalled before he took command due to charges of drunkeness and cowardice but he was cleared and then took command of Texas in November 1862.

After the war he fled to Mexico where he offered his services ti Emporer Maximillian .He was turned down and then Him and a band of followers set up a colony in Cordoba, Mexico. He did return to the States in 1867.

Most every follower or fan of the Civil War knows He had the nickname "Prince John" but I'll mention it anyway.

I see where he tried the lecture circuit after his return to the United States but failed to earn an income that would keep in him in "his style of living". Bon vivant! He died in relative poverty.

He certainly climbed the "rank ladder" quickly, he went from a Colonel in May 1861 to Major General in October of 1861.

Had Edgar Allen Poe finished and graduated from West Point it would have been in Magruder's class.As it were there were only 2 other ''Civil War Generals" in that class.

It was at Houston's Fannin Hotel. which happened to be Magruder's Headquarters, that Col.George Baylor shot General Wharton on April 6, 1865.
 
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Magruder is a personal favorite of mine from this period. He was quite the colorful commander, and had some out of the box solutions to many problems he faced in the field, case in point being his ruse at Yorktown and his combined land-sea attack at Galveston. Its a shame he was stuck in Texas for most of the war, I imagine if Lee had given him a chance after Seven Days, he would have made a solid corps commander.
The evidence of any ruses at Yorktown is thin indeed. There are no primary reports of any, and McClellan estimates of enemy strength at Yorktown were accurate.

The earliest suggestion I've found that Magruder made an attempt to deceive McClellan was the 1874 Benson Losing pictorial history. His evidence was Freemantle's "Three Months", wherein Freemantle recorded a conversation a year after the event:

"[Magruder] spoke very favorably of McClellan, whom he knew to be a gentleman, clever, and personally brave, though he might lack moral courage to face responsibility. Magruder had commanded the Confederate troops at Yorktown which opposed McClellan's advance. He told me the different dodges he had resorted to, to blind and deceive the latter as to his (Magruder's) strength; and he spoke of the intense relief and amusement with which he had at length seen McClellan with his magnificent army begin to break ground before miserable earth-works, defended only by 8,000 men. Hooker was in his regiment, and was "essentially a mean man and a liar." Of Lee and Longstreet he spoke in terms of the highest admiration."

That is pretty much the extent of the evidence. No-one ever recorded marching in circles at Yorktown, and the evidence is thin, as I note here.
 
He certainly climbed the "rank ladder" quickly, he went from a Colonel in May 1861 to Major General in October of 1861.

He was a Lt Col in the US regular army when he resigned, and was appointed a full colonel in the ACSA (regular CS army) in the artillery branch, and was probably the colonel of the never formed 1st CS Artillery Regiment. His general officer ranks were all in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States (PACS, the wartime volunteer force). He stood high in seniority in the ACSA as best I can tell had the Colonelcy of the Regular Arty (there were 9 regular ACSA line colonelcy's, 6 infantry (1st-6th*) and one each for artillery, cavalry and engineers).

Thus, Magruder was in the top 13 line officers in the CS Army (4 BG's and 9 Cols) early on.

* Exactly who had which infantry regiment is unknown, but we know Hardee was Col of the 1st Inf and Van Dorn was Col of the 2nd.
 
He told me the different dodges he had resorted to, to blind and deceive the latter as to his (Magruder's) strength; and he spoke of the intense relief and amusement with which he had at length seen McClellan with his magnificent army begin to break ground before miserable earth-works, defended only by 8,000 men.
I know this has come up before, but Magruder here is of course remembering his weakest state (in late March) rather than the state he had when McClellan's army actually arrived in front of his fortifications.

As for the earthworks, they may or may not have been miserable but they were certainly fronted by a largely unfordable river! It tends to make it easier to defend somewhere if the enemy has to swim to get to you...
 
John Bankhead Magruder: A Military Reappraisal by Thomas Settles

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Of all the major figures of the Civil War era, Confederate general John Bankhead Magruder is perhaps the least understood. The third-ranking officer in Virginia's forces behind Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston, Magruder left no diary, no completed memoirs, no will, not even a family Bible. There are no genealogical records and very few surviving personal papers. Unsurprisingly, then, much existing literature about Magruder contains incorrect information. In John Bankhead Magruder, an exhaustive biography that reflects more than thirty years of painstaking archival research, Thomas M. Settles remedies the many factual inaccuracies surrounding this enigmatic man and his military career. Settles traces Magruder's family back to its seventeenth-century British American origins, describes his educational endeavors at the University of Virginia and West Point, and details his early military career and his leading role as an artillerist in the war with Mexico. Tall, handsome, and flamboyant, Magruder earned the nickname "Prince John" from his army friends and was known for his impeccable manners and social brilliance. When Virginia seceded in April of 1861, Prince John resigned his commission in the U.S. Army and offered his services to the Confederacy. Magruder won the opening battle of the Civil War at Big Bethel. Later, in spite of severe shortages of weapons and supplies and a lack of support from Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, Samuel Cooper, and Joseph E. Johnston, Prince John, with just 13,600 men, held his position on the Peninsula for a month against George B. McClellan's 105,000-man Federal army. This successful stand, at a time when Richmond was exceedingly vulnerable, provided, according to Settles, John Magruder's greatest contribution to the Confederacy. Following the Seven Days' battles, however, his commanders harshly criticized Magruder for being too slow at Savage Station, then too rash at Malvern Hill and they transferred him to command the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. In Texas, he skillfully recaptured the port of Galveston in early 1863 and held it for the Confederacy until the end of the war. After the war, he joined the Confederate exodus to Mexico but eventually returned to the United States, living in New York City and New Orleans before settling in Houston, where he died on February 18, 1871. John Bankhead Magruder offers fresh insight into many aspects of the general's life and legacy, including his alleged excesses, his family relationships, and the period between Magruder's death and his memorialization into the canon of Lost Cause mythology. With engaging prose and impressive research, Settles brings this vibrant Civil War figure to life.


Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
In War of the Rebellion serial 101 page 1411. Kirby Smith writes a letter that recommend Magruder's promotion to lieutenant general on March 6, 1865 with rank to January 1, 1863 on his victory at Galveston or subsequent to the rank of Simon Buckner which was September 20, 1864. If the promotion was to January 1, 1863, He would outrank Ewell and A.P. Hill and would be the 4th most senior lieutenant general after Longstreet, Hardee and Holmes.

Information:
 
One fact of which I was not aware until recently was that Magruder had already been ordered to the Trans-Mississippi before the Battle of Seven Pines / Fair Oaks and while Joseph Johnston was still in command of the Army of Northern Virginia. OR Series 1, Volume XI, Part 3, page 540. The order was suspended until after the Seven Days Campaign, apparently at Magruder's request. On July 2 Magruder wrote to the Secretary of War asking that the suspension be lifted and his readiness to assume his assigned command. The suspension of the order was lifted the following day. Magruder's transfer had nothing to do with his Seven Days' performance or Lee's displeasure.
 
One fact of which I was not aware until recently was that Magruder had already been ordered to the Trans-Mississippi before the Battle of Seven Pines / Fair Oaks and while Joseph Johnston was still in command of the Army of Northern Virginia. OR Series 1, Volume XI, Part 3, page 540. The order was suspended until after the Seven Days Campaign, apparently at Magruder's request. On July 2 Magruder wrote to the Secretary of War asking that the suspension be lifted and his readiness to assume his assigned command. The suspension of the order was lifted the following day. Magruder's transfer had nothing to do with his Seven Days' performance or Lee's displeasure.
I did see the word "reordered" when referring to his transfer to the Trans Miss Dept but did not look into the matter.
 
I did see the word "reordered" when referring to his transfer to the Trans Miss Dept but did not look into the matter.
What's missing in the OR appears to be a letter from Randolph ordering Johnston to "modify" Johnston's order reassigning Magruder. Johnston objected strenuously in a May 26 letter to Randolph regarding the misleading impression that he, and not Randolph, had made the initial decision, stating that to obey Randolph's second order would place him in a "false position" with respect to Magruder. Johnston told Randolph that it was he, and not Johnston, who should rescind the original order.
 
6/21/62 Adjt Gen Cooper reporting to Pres Davis from Columbia-Pemberton doing all a zealous, active & intelligent officer could do w/ means placed in his command. Discussed change of Cdrs w/Gov-reluctantly agreeing Pemberton should be replaced due to loss of confidence by citizens –he should be replaced by Magruder or D H Hill-believing exchange w/Hill would be less embarrassing to Pemberton

6/21/62 Gov Pickens to Davis-after conferring w/Cooper asks that Pemberton & Hill be allowed to exchange commands. Magruder will be acceptable.
 
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