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Monday, October 29, 2018
Page #15
Texas History Minute He was called “Prince John,” but he was far from royalty. He was part of two losing wars but was popular among his Dr. Ken troops. Gen. Bridges John Magruder, a Virginia-born Confederate general, took charge of Texas defenses from late 1862 onward, and led a series of colorful adventures along the way.
stronger than they were, and delayed the Union advances for several critical days. However, as Robert E. Lee took command and attempted to reorganize Confederate forces into a counteroffensive by late June, Magruder was bogged down by poor communication and poor coordination. He was accused of being drunk, and faced the charge without resorting to character attacks against his critics. In the end, the charges never stuck.
He was transferred to command John Bankhead Magruder was born the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in October in 1807 in Port Royal, Virginia, a 1862. By this point, the Union small port city not far from Washington, DC. His father was a Navy had just seized Galveston. planter and attorney, but he fell into He organized a counterattack of bankruptcy and lost everything by artillery and Confederate gunboats. Magurder attacked on 1820. He began attending the University of Virginia in 1825 and New Year’s Eve. By the next soon received an appointment to the day, he had captured three Union United States Military Academy at ships and forced the rest to flee. Galveston remained in West Point. Confederate hands for the He enrolled at West Point in 1826. remainder of the war. Magruder was an able cadet, graduating fifteenth out of forty-two Magruder maintained his headquarters in Houston while in his class in 1830. The newly commissioned lieutenant was then directing officers throughout Texas to enforce the draft and assigned to the 7th Infantry and maintain order. Working with soon transferred into artillery. It was a quiet time for the army, and Confederate units in Louisiana and Arkansas, he managed to he went from post to post. He found time to study law and became keep Union forces from invading Texas. After Lee surrendered in a licensed attorney. In 1845, he was transferred to General Zachary Virginia in April 1865, Magruder Taylor’s forces in Corpus Christi as , along with Gen. Kirby Smith, tried to hold out against Union the United States prepared for the admission of Texas into the Union forces but realized all was lost. and to enforce American claims on On June 2, they formally the Rio Grande. War with Mexico surrendered. But he understood how leaders in the losing side of erupted a few months later, and uprisings and civil wars had been Magruder served ably in the treated historically. Fearing for Mexican War, and slightly his life, as did many other wounded in 1847. He served alongside many other officers who Confederate officers and officials, would lead armies in the Civil War Magruder fled to Mexico. some fifteen years later. Magruder offered his services to After the war ended in 1848, he was Emperor Maximilian, the puppet king installed by the French after assigned to a post in California where he managed to also become a they seized control of Mexico in 1862. France had used the popular attorney, real estate speculator, saloon owner, and also pretense of Mexico’s immense ran a railroad while still tending to foreign debt owed to France as a pretense for invasion and the his army duties. distraction of the American Civil As Abraham Lincoln assumed the War as a cover. The everpresidency in 1861, Magruder was unpopular Maximilian found himself the target of increased assigned to a post in Washington, uprisings in 1865 and welcomed DC. When Virginia seceded in the services of a respected April, Magruder chose to defend Virginia and joined the Confederate general. army as a colonel. Given his But Magruder soon realized just extensive knowledge of military defenses in the area, he was put in how perilously close to the abyss charge of the Arm of the Peninsula that Maximilian had become. east of Richmond. Popular among The United States had made it his troops, it was said by one friend, quite clear that French “he could fight all day and dance all intervention in Mexico would not be tolerated. With unrest night.” With successful efforts growing, the French pulled their against Union incursions into the area, Magruder was rewarded with army out of Mexico in 1866 and urged their puppet king to leave promotion to major general later as well. Convinced he was that summer. beloved by the people, he decided to stay instead. As rebel armies By spring 1862, Gen. George advanced and Maximilian’s McClellan attacked the eastern armies crumbled, Magruder read peninsula of Virginia. Magruder was outnumbered nine-to-one, but the writing on the wall. He fled managed to use the bogs and thick back to the United States in early 1867. Not long afterward, forests to his advantage. He Maximilian was overthrown, managed to fool McClellan into believing Confederate forces were captured, and executed by firing
squad.
circuit making a tidy living regaling audiences with his tales. Magruder died at his home in Houston in 1871.
The one-time Confederate soldier and Mexican advisor found a general amnesty for Confederate Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, officers in the United States and writer, and history professor. He capitalized on his wartime can be reached at adventures. He spent the next drkenbridges@gmail.com. several years off-and-on the lecture
