Thomas Garland Jefferson
Thomas Garland Jefferson | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | January 1, 1847 Winterham, Virginia |
| Died | May 18, 1864 (aged 17) New Market, Virginia |
| Allegiance |  Confederate States of America |
| Service |  Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1864 |
| Rank | Cadet private |
| Unit | Company B, Corps of Cadets |
| Battles / wars | American Civil War |
Thomas Garland Jefferson (January 1, 1847 – May 18, 1864) was one of the VMI Cadets killed at the Battle of New Market. He died three days after the battle from wounds suffered during it. He was 17 years old and the great-grand nephew of former US president Thomas Jefferson.[1]
Early years
[edit]Thomas Garland Jefferson was a son of John Garland Jefferson and Otelia Mansfield Howlett of Winterham.[2] He was their oldest son, one of 14 children, on a plantation growing cotton and tobacco.[3][4]
New Market
[edit]On May 15, 1864, at the Battle of New Market, Major General John C. Breckinridge reluctantly ordered the charge of the young cadets to fill a gap in his right wing; the cadets pushed further and overran a Union artillery position, ensuring their place in the Confederacy's last major battlefield victory of the war.[5]
Jefferson was shot in the stomach. When two fellow cadets ran to assist him, he told them to carry on fighting, reportedly saying: "You can do me no good."[6] He died three days later, resting in the home of a local resident, Lydie Clinedinst, after he was found by his sergeant, Moses Ezekiel, wounded and laying in Clinedinst's farmhouse.[7][8] Ezekiel (who was Jewish) read from John 14 by his bedside as a makeshift last rites. He is buried below the statue of Virginia Mourning Her Dead sculpted by Ezekiel in his later years.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ "Thomas Garland Jefferson and "Mother Crim" – Shenandoah at War".
- ^ "VMI Archives Historical Rosters: Thomas Garland Jefferson". archivesweb.vmi.edu.
- ^ Graves, James R.; Crim, John D. (22 June 2019). Around New Market. Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 9780738542805 – via Google Books.
- ^ Walker, Charles D. (1875). Memorial, Virginia Military Institute: Biographical Sketches of the Graduates and Élèves of the Virginia Military Institute who Fell During the War Between the States. J.B. Lippincott & Company. p. 290.
- ^ Davis, William C. The Battle of New Market. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc., 1975.
- ^ Wise, Jennings Cropper (22 June 2019). "The Military History of the Virginia Military Institute from 1839 to 1865: With Appendix, Maps, and Illustrations". J. P. Bell – via Google Books.
- ^ "The Invincible A Magazine of History". 22 June 2019 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Southern Practitioner". 1917.
- ^ "...and May God Forgive Me for the Order". American Battlefield Trust. 13 July 2010.