Civil War Confederate Brigadier General. The son of transplanted Virginians, he was educated at Oglethorpe University, near Milledgeville, and later at the University of Virginia, from whose law school he graduated in 1841. He led an uneventful life in Madison City, Georgia, until early 1861, when he volunteered as a private in the 4th Georgia Infantry, whose adjutant he became after being sent with the regiment to Portsmouth, Virginia. His military experience in the Seminole War stood him in good stead during the 4th Georgia's early campaigning on the Virginia peninsula in 1862. By the close of the Seven Days' Campaign, he had sufficiently distinguished himself to earn the lieutenant colonelcy of the regiment. Present for Second Bull Run and Antietam, he was promoted to Colonel on November 1, 1862. He led the 4th Georgia at Second Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, being wounded in the leg and cited for gallantry during the latter engagement. After 3 months' convalescence, he retook the field, then secured leave to sit in a session of the Georgia legislature. When his brigade commander, Brigadier General George P. Doles, was killed at Cold Harbor in June 1864, he succeeded him. In the Siege of Petersburg he was again wounded, then went to the Shenandoah Valley, fighting under Major General Stephen D. Ramseur at Cedar Creek. Returning to Petersburg, he was wounded again, in the arm, during the aborted Confederate assault on Fort Stedman on March 25, 1865. He spent the final weeks of the war in a local hospital and was captured when the city was evacuated on April 3, 1865. Following Lee's surrender, he settled in Americus, Georgia, practicing law and remaining active in politics. From 1873 to 1883 he represented his district in Congress and in 1890 became Georgia's secretary of state, meanwhile serving on the commission that erected the new state capitol in Atlanta. After his death there, it was said that "no man in Georgia was more entirely beloved by the people of the state."