Portal:American Civil War/Selected biography/18

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John Bankhead Magruder (May 1, 1807 – February 19, 1871) was a career military officer who served in the armies of three nations. He was a U.S. Army officer in the Mexican-American War, a Confederate general during the American Civil War, and a postbellum general in the Imperial Mexican Army. Known as "Prince John" to his army friends, Magruder was most noted for his actions in delaying Federal troops during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign and in successfully defending Galveston, Texas, against the Union Army and Navy early in 1863. After the war, Magruder fled to Mexico and entered the service of Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico as a major general in the Imperial Mexican Army. However, by May 1867, the emperor's forces had succumbed to a siege and the emperor had been executed. Magruder returned to the United States and settled in Houston, Texas, where he died in 1871. He is buried in the Episcopal Cemetery at Galveston, the scene of his greatest military success.