Theophilus H. Holmes

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Theophilus Hunter Holmes (November 13, 1804 – June 21, 1880) was a career U.S. Army officer and a Confederate general in the American Civil War.

Holmes was born in Clinton, North Carolina. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1829, near the bottom of his class, and was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 7th U.S. Infantry. During the Mexican-American War, he was brevetted to major for the Battle of Monterrey in September 1846 and received a full promotion to major of the 8th U.S. Infantry in 1855.

Almost immediately after the firing on Fort Sumter, Holmes resigned his commission in the U.S. Army (April 22, 1861), having accepted a commission as a colonel in the Confederate States Army in March. He commanded the coastal defenses of the Department of North Carolina and then served as a brigadier general in the North Carolina Militia. He was appointed brigadier general on June 5, 1861, commanding the Department of Fredericksburg. He was promoted to major general on October 7, 1861. During the Seven Days Battles of the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, he fought under Robert E. Lee, although part of the Department of North Carolina rather than the Army of Northern Virginia. He was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department in July 1862, was promoted to lieutenant general on October 10, and commanded the District of Arkansas. Western Confederates are described as having complained Holmes was simply not fit for this assignment, accusing him of mismanagement and tyranny.

For the final year of the war he commanded the Reserve Forces of North Carolina and surrendered along with General Joseph E. Johnston to William Tecumseh Sherman on April 26, 1865. He returned to North Carolina, where he spent the rest of his life as a farmer.

Holmes died in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is buried there in McPherson Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

[edit] References

• Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Walther, Eric H., "William Lowndes Yancey and the Coming of the Civil War", The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill, ISBN 0-8078-3027-5