Thomas H. Carter (Colonel)

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Thomas Henry Carter (June 13, 1831 – June 2, 1908) was an artillery officer in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. His battalion played an important role in the Battle of Gettysburg.

Carter was a member of an old and distinguished Virginia family, born the third of five children to Thomas Nelson Carter and Juliet (Gaines) Carter in King William County. His father was a first cousin to Robert E. Lee, who would gain fame as perhaps the South's most beloved military officer. Carter was a member of the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Class of 1849. He became a doctor, as well as a farmer when he inherited his father's plantation.

He entered what became the Army of Northern Virginia in the late spring of 1861 as captain of the King William Artillery, a unit that was detained for distinction as the war progressed. An older brother, Julian Carter of the 4th Virginia Cavalry, was killed in 1862 at a minor skirmish near Malvern Hill. Carter was wounded at Sharpsburg. By the Gettysburg Campaign of 1863, as a lieutenant colonel Carter commanded a battalion of artillery in Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps. His guns unlimbered on Oak Hill northwest of Gettysburg and contributed to the eventual withdrawal of the Union First Corps of the Army of the Potomac. Carter's guns later supported Pickett's Charge on July 3. Later promoted to colonel, he served as Chief of Artillery for Maj. Gen. D. H. Hill and Maj. Gen. Jubal Early. He commanded the artillery of the Army of the Valley during Early's Raid on Washington and the Valley Campaigns of 1864, fighting in several important battles, including the Battle of Cedar Creek. Carter substituted in these cases for BG Armistead Lindsay Long, the assigned commander of Early's artillery.

Following the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox Court House, Carter returned to his ancestral family plantation, "Pampatike," which was located near the Pamunkey River in eastern Virginia, where he lived with his wife Susan Elizabeth and three small children. Carter later served as proctor and superintendent of grounds and buildings for the University of Virginia. He also served for several years as as a member of the board of arbitration of the Southern Railway and Steamship Association.

He is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Va.

[edit] Reference

• Files of the Virginia Historical Society (Richmond, VA)