Portal:American Civil War/Selected biography/40

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Basil Wilson Duke (May 28, 1838 – September 16, 1916) was a Confederate general during the American Civil War, perhaps most noted for his service as a brigade commander in the 1863 Morgan's Raid, of which Duke later wrote a popular account. Duke also fought at the Battle of Shiloh. He was the brother-in-law of John Hunt Morgan, and took over Morgan's command after Morgan was shot by Union soldiers in 1864. Toward the end of the war, Duke was among Jefferson Davis's bodyguard after the Confederate president's flight from Richmond, eventually parting ways with him at Philomath, Georgia, after being at the last war council at the Burt-Stark Mansion.

In postbellum Louisville, he served as chief counsel for the Louisville & Nashville Railroad from 1882 to 1894. He was slightly-built, with a resonant voice. A relative described him as "essentially a man of the 17th century, that century in half armor, torn between chivalry and realism."