Brig. Gen. Alexander Lawton

[jkBluesman]

Brig. Gen. Alexander Lawton (b. 1818, d. 1896). Born near Robertville, South Carolina Lawton would cast his lot with Georgia in the Civil War. After graduating from West Point in 1839 as 13th in a class of 39, he served one year on the Canadian frontier before resigning from the army in 1840. He studied jurisprudence at Harvard Law School and opened a legal office in Savannah after being admitted to the bar in 1843. Six years later he became president of the Augusta & Savannah Railroad and after another six was elected to the state’s House of Representatives. In 1860 he was elected senator and supported Georgia’s secession. As colonel of the state militia he was ordered to seize Fort Pulaski by Gov. Joseph Brown. He captured the fort and Oglethorpe Barracks in January 1861 although the state had not yet seceded, thus Lawton committed technically treason. Commissioned brigadier general on April 13, 1861 of the Confederate army he was responsible for the defence of Georgia. At the end of May 1862, he let a brigade of 3500 men to Virginia to join Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson for the last stages of his famous Valley Campaign. But Lawton did not fight in the valley because Jackson’s whole force was ordered to Richmond to attack the Army of the Potomac on the Peninsula. The Georgians performed well during the Seven Days and stayed with “Stonewall” when his command was sent north. When Lawton’s division commander Gen. Charles Winder was wounded at Cedar Mountain, Lawton as senior brigadier got temporarily in command of the division. However, Jackson disliked Lawton, thought him to be conscientious but slow and transferred him and his brigade to Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s division. When Ewell was wounded at Groveton on August 28, 1862 the Georgian finally got his division and let it through the Battle of Second Manassas during the following two days. Lawton and his men took part in the capture of Harper’s Ferry during the ensuing Maryland Campaign and were assigned to the defence of the East Woods and the Cornfield at Antietam. When the Federals attacked early on September 17, 1862, the division took high casualties by crossfire and long range artillery. Lawton was wounded and carried from the field. It was his last command. After recovering in August 1863, instead of returning to field duty, he was appointed quartermaster general of the Confederacy by Pres. Jefferson Davis. Challenged by the task of distributing shrinking resources with the help of dwindling infrastructure he served comparatively well until the Confederate government had to flee from Richmond in April 1865. After the war he returned to his life as lawyer and politician being chosen Pres. of the American Bar Association in 1882 and appointed minister to Austria in 1887. He stayed there until his retirement in 1889 before returning to the United States. Lawton died on July 2, 1896 in Clifton Springs, New York.

Ldr: 4
Tact: 4
Init: 3
Cmd: 3
Cav: 0

Teaches: Sustained Volley, Foragers

[Gil R.]

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