Of all the major figures of the Civil War era, Confederate
general John Bankhead Magruder is perhaps the least understood. The
third-ranking officer in Virginia's forces behind Robert E. Lee and
Joseph E. Johnston, Magruder left no diary, no completed memoirs,
no will, not even a family Bible. There are no genealogical records
and very few surviving personal papers. Unsurprisingly, then, much
existing literature about Magruder contains incorrect information.
In John Bankhead Magruder, an exhaustive biography that reflects
more than thirty years of painstaking archival research, Thomas M.
Settles remedies the many factual inaccuracies surrounding this
enigmatic man and his military career.
Settles traces Magruder's family back to its seventeenth-century
British American origins, describes his educational endeavors at
the University of Virginia and West Point, and details his early
military career and his leading role as an artillerist in the war
with Mexico. Tall, handsome, and flamboyant, Magruder earned the
nickname "Prince John" from his army friends and was known for his
impeccable manners and social brilliance. When Virginia seceded in
April of 1861, Prince John resigned his commission in the U.S. Army
and offered his services to the Confederacy.
Magruder won the opening battle of the Civil War at Big Bethel.
Later, in spite of severe shortages of weapons and supplies and a
lack of support from Jefferson Davis, Judah P. Benjamin, Samuel
Cooper, and Joseph E. Johnston, Prince John, with just 13,600 men,
held his position on the Peninsula for a month against George B.
McClellan's 105,000-man Federal army. This successful stand, at a
time when Richmond was exceedingly vulnerable, provided, according
to Settles, John Magruder's greatest contribution to the
Confederacy.
Following the Seven Days' battles, however, his commanders
harshly criticized Magruder for being too slow at Savage Station,
then too rash at Malvern Hill and they transferred him to command
the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. In Texas, he
skillfully recaptured the port of Galveston in early 1863 and held
it for the Confederacy until the end of the war. After the war, he
joined the Confederate exodus to Mexico but eventually returned to
the United States, living in New York City and New Orleans before
settling in Houston, where he died on February 18, 1871.
John Bankhead Magruder offers fresh insight into many aspects of
the general's life and legacy, including his alleged excesses, his
family relationships, and the period between Magruder's death and
his memorialization into the canon of Lost Cause mythology. With
engaging prose and impressive research, Settles brings this vibrant
Civil War figure to life.
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