Raleigh Edward Colston ( October 1, 1825 - July 29, 1896 ) - French-born American, military, cartographer and writer. He served as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army during the US Civil War and commanded a division at the Battle of Chancellorsville. After the war he served in Egypt.
| Rayleigh Edward Colston | |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | October 1, 1825 |
| Place of Birth | Paris |
| Date of death | July 29, 1896 (aged 70) |
| A place of death | Richmond, Virginia |
| Affiliation |  KSA |
| Type of army | army |
| Years of service | 1861–1865 (KSA) |
| Rank | Brigadier General (KSA) |
| Battles / wars | U.S. Civil War
|
Content
- 1 Early years
- 2 Civil War
- 3 At the cinema
- 4 notes
- 5 Links
Early years
Colston was born in Paris. He was the adopted son of Maria Theresa, Duchess of Valmy (1775-1845) and Virginia physician Rayleigh Edward Colston (1796-1881), who gave him his name. The first husband of his mother was Napoleonic General Etienne Kellerman . Colston did not know his real parents.
In 1842, young Colston was sent to study in the United States and settled with his uncle in the Virginia district of Berkeley. Uncle wanted to make him a Presbyterian priest, but Colston chose a military career. In 1843 he entered the Virginia Military Institute, which he graduated on July 4, 1846, 4th in a class of 14 cadets. After graduation, he remained at the academy to teach French. Since 1859, he taught military strategy and history. He soon married Louise Marywyther Bouver of Rockbridge County. They had two daughters: Mary Frances and Louise Elizabeth. Colston and a group of academy cadets were present as guards at the execution of John Brown .
Civil War
In April 1861, Virginia left the Union and the governor ordered Colston to send the Cadet Corps to Richmond for training. He soon became a colonel in the 16th Virgin Regiment , which was stationed in Norfolk. Colston witnessed the battle of the Hampton Roads , about which he then wrote a detailed report to the newspaper.
December 24, 1861 Colston became a brigadier general. During the campaign on the peninsula, he commanded three regiments under the command of General Longstreet : 3rd Virgin , 13th and 14th North Carolina. However, the command was extremely dissatisfied with his actions at the battle of Seven Pines . This forced Colston to temporarily leave the North Virginia Army . In December he returned back and from January to March 1863 he commanded the Petersberg garrison. In April, his colleague at the institute, General Thomas Jackson , recommended him to the post of division commander [1] - Colston began to command the former division of Isaac Trimble , which included 4 brigades [2] :
- Brigade of stone wall , under the lump. General Elisha Paxton
- Colston Brigade, under the command of Colonel Warren
- John Robert Jones Brigade
- Francis Nichols Brigade
During the Battle of Chancellorsville, Thomas Jackson undertook the famous flank maneuver by three divisions: the first was attacked by the Rhodes division, the next was the Colston division, and the third was Ambrose Hill division . However, Colston was unlucky in this battle, his division lost almost all brigade commanders: Elisha Paxton died, John Jones left the battlefield, Thomas Garnett was mortally wounded, and Generals Warren and Nichols were wounded. Colston lost control of the division, which mixed with the ranks of the Rhodes division and thereby weakened the effect of the attack. General Lee was unhappy with Colston and on May 20 removed him from command of the division, passing it to Edward Johnson . Some officers asked to leave Colston: in particular, officers of the 1st and 3rd North Carolina regiments signed a request to leave Colston as commander [3] .
In 1864, Colston participated in the defense of Petersberg , and at the beginning of 1865 he served in Lynchburg, guarding one of the last active railways of the Confederation.
In the movie
In 2003, Scott Watkins played the role of Colston in the film " Gods and Generals "
Notes
- ↑ Sears, Stephen W. Chancellorsville. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.S. 50
- ↑ Trimble's / Johnson's Division
- ↑ General Colston and the Cape Fear Academy