William T. Wofford

William Tatum Wofford

Born	(1824-06-28)June 28, 1824 Habersham County, Georgia
Died	May 22, 1884(1884-05-22) (aged 59) Cass Station, Georgia
Place of burial	Cassville Cemetery, Cass Station, Georgia
Allegiance	United States of America Confederate States of America
Service/branch	United States Army Confederate States Army
Years of service	1847–48 (USA) 1861–65 (CSA)
Rank	Captain (USA) Brigadier General (CSA)
Battles/wars	Mexican-American War American Civil War Battle of Yorktown Battle of Eltham's Landing Battle of Seven Pines Second Battle of Bull Run Battle of Antietam Battle of Fredericksburg Battle of Chancellorsville Battle of Gettysburg Battle of the Wilderness Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
Other work	planter, educator, politician

William Tatum Wofford (June 28, 1824 – May 22, 1884) was an officer during the Mexican-American War and a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.

Early life and career

Wofford was born in Habersham County, Georgia, to William H. Wofford and Nancy M. Tatum. In 1844 he graduated from Franklin College, now part of the University of Georgia. Wofford first experienced military life in 1847 during the Mexican-American War, where he was a captain in the Georgia Mounted Volunteers. Wofford was mustered out of the volunteer service on July 12, 1848, and afterward worked as a planter, served as a state legislator, and then became a lawyer. In 1852 he was editor of the Cassville Standard newspaper.^[1]^[2]

Civil War service

Wofford had previously voted against secession, but offered his services to his state and the Confederate Army. He was appointed a colonel in the Georgia State Militia, then a captain in the 18th Georgia Infantry in April 1861. On April 25 Wofford was promoted to colonel, and served in North Carolina and Virginia before being assigned to Brig. Gen. John Bell Hood's Texas Brigade.^[1] He saw action at Yorktown, Eltham's Landing, and Seven Pines during the Peninsula Campaign. Wofford and the 18th also fought at Second Bull Run and Antietam, where he commanded the Texas Brigade.

In November 1862, Wofford and the 18th Georgia were transferred to the Georgia Brigade of Brig. Gen. Thomas R. R. Cobb.^[3] They fought under Cobb at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December, defending the famous stone wall at the base of Marye's Heights. Cobb was mortally wounded in the battle, and Wofford assumed command of his brigade and was promoted to brigadier general on January 17, 1863.^[1] He led the brigade, now referred to as Wofford's Brigade, at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, where he followed William Barksdale's Mississippi brigade in the assault through the Peach Orchard late in the afternoon of July 2. There Wofford's men drove Union troops out of the Wheatfield but had to stop short of the new Union line near Little Round Top.

Traveling to Georgia with Longstreet's First Corps to reinforce the Army of Tennessee, Wofford arrived on the field too late to participate in the Battle of Chickamauga. His whereabouts are unknown during Longstreet's siege of Knoxville, Tennessee.^[4] Wofford fought in the Overland Campaign at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House, and was wounded in both battles. He left the Army of Northern Virginia before the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign and assumed command of the Subdistrict of Northern Georgia, of the District of Georgia, Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida on January 20, 1865, a post he held until he surrendered in Kingston, Georgia, and was paroled at Resaca, Georgia on May 2, 1865. Shortly afterward Wofford was pardoned by the U.S. government on July 24.^[1] He commanded the last significant group of Confederate soldiers east of the Mississippi to surrender to Union troops.

Postbellum career

After the war Wofford was a planter and active in the law, Democratic politics, and education.^[5] As a delegate to the Georgia Constitutional Convention of 1877, he argued for the repeal of convict leasing, for Confederate veterans' benefits, and for African-American education. Many of his ideas appeared in the platform of the Populist Party a decade later.^[6] He died in Cass Station, Ga. and is buried in nearby Cassville Cemetery.^[1]

Notes

1 2 3 4 5 Eicher, Civil War High Commands, p. 578.
↑ Warner, p. 341.
↑ Eicher, Civil War High Commands, pp. 578, 592.
↑ Warner, p. 341, claims he was at Knoxville siege while Eicher, Longest Night, p. 616, claims Col. S.Z. Ruff commanded the brigade.
↑ Warner, p. 344.
↑ Smith, p. 2142.

References

Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001. ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
Folsom, James Madison. Heroes and Martyrs of Georgia: Georgia's Record in the Revolution of 1861. Baltimore: Butternut and Blue, 1995. ISBN 0-935523-49-9. First published 1864 by Burke, Boykin & Co.
Polley, J. B. Hood's Texas Brigade: Its Marches, Its Battles, Its Achievements. Dayton, OH: Morningside Bookshop, 1976. ISBN 978-0-89029-037-8. First published 1910 by Neale Publishing Co.
Simpson, Harold B. Hood's Texas Brigade: Lee's Grenadier Guard. Gaithersburg, MD: Olde Soldier Books, 1994. ISBN 1-56013-009-1. First published 1970 by Texian Press.
Smith, Gerald J. "William Tatum Wofford." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-393-04758-X.
Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. ISBN 1-882810-30-9.
Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. ISBN 0-8071-0823-5.

External links

"William T. Wofford". Find a Grave. Retrieved August 15, 2010.

Gettysburg figures

Confederate leaders	Lee Alexander R. Anderson G. Anderson Archer Armistead Barksdale Benning Brockenbrough Chambliss Daniel Davis Doles Early Ewell Garnett Gordon Hampton Hays Heth Hill Hood Humphreys Imboden Iverson Jenkins Johnson J. Jones W. Jones Kemper Kershaw Lane Law F. Lee W. Lee Longstreet Mahone Marshall McLaws O'Neal Oates Pender Pettigrew Perrin Pickett Posey Ramseur Robertson Rodes Scales Semmes Smith G. Steuart J. E. B. Stuart Thomas Trimble J. Walker R. Walker Wilcox Wofford Wright

Union leaders	Meade Ames Ayres Barlow Barnes Baxter Biddle Birney Buford Caldwell Candy Carpenter Carr J. Chamberlain Claflin Cross Curtin Cushing Custer Cutler Crawford Doubleday Farnsworth Geary Gibbon Gilsa Graham Greene Gregg Hancock Harrow Hays Hooker Howard Humphreys Hunt Kilpatrick Krzyzanowski Lincoln Meredith Merritt Newton Nolan Paul Pleasonton Reynolds Rice Robinson Rowley Ruger Schimmelfennig Schurz Sedgwick Sickles Slocum Stannard Starr Steinwehr Sykes Tilton Tyler Vincent Wadsworth Ward Warren Weed Webb Willard Williams Zook

Other notable military personnel	Alger Avery Baker Belo Berdan Biddle Brooke Brown Bryan Burgwyn Burling Carroll Carter T. Chamberlain Colvill Corby Coster Dearing Devin Ellis Enderlin Fremantle Fry Gamble Garrard Godwin Goree Gregg Grimes Gwyn Hall Harrison Haskell Hazlett Howell Humiston Jeffords Jones Kelly Keogh Lang Latimer Lewis McCandless McDougall McFarland McIntosh Mayo Melcher Morrill Muhlenberg O'Rorke Pardee Pegram Perrin Poague Salomon Smith Sorrel Spear Stone Taylor Trobriand Wainwright Ward

Local civilians	Broadhead Bryan Burns McClean McConaughy McPherson Wade Wills

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