Major General Benjamin Huger

• Son of Francis Kinloch Huger
• Born 1805 - Charleston, SC
• Died 1877 - Charleston SC
• Married : Elizabeth Celestine Pinckney 7 Feb, 1831
• Children : Benjamin, Eustis, Francis, Thomas Pinckney and Celestine Pinckney
  

Campaigns: Norfolk, Roanoke Island, Seven Pines, White Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill.

Born in Charleston, S.C., 1805, died, Dec., 1877. Graduate of U.S. Military Academy, 1825 and served through the Mexican War as chief of ordnance to General Scott's Army. Sent by the government with Generals McClelland and Mordecai to observe and report on the war in the Crimea, 1856. At the beginning of the Civil War he entered the Confederate Army as a Brigadier General and soon made a Major General. In the battles of the Peninsula and near Richmond.

Major-General Benjamin Huger was born at Charleston in 1806, son of Francis Kinlock Huger, whose wife was a daughter of Gen. Thomas Pinckney. His father, who was aide-de-camp to General Wilkinson in 1800, and adjutant-general in the war of 1812, suffered imprisonment in Austria for assisting in the liberation of Lafayette from the fortress of Olmutz; his grandfather, Benjamin Huger, was a famous revolutionary patriot, killed before Charleston during the British occupation; and his great-great-grandfather was Daniel Huger, who fled from France before the revocation of the edict of Nantes and died in South Carolina in I711. General Huger was graduated at West Point in 1825, with a lieutenancy in the Third artillery. He served on topographical duty until 182 8, then visited Europe on leave of absence; after being on ordnance duty a year was promoted captain of ordnance in 1832, a department of the service in which he had a distinguished career. He was in command of Fortress Monroe arsenal twelve years, was me mber of the ordnance board seven years, and one year was on official duty in Europe. He went into the war with Mexico as chief of ordnance on the staff of General Scott, and received in quick succession the brevets of major, lieutenant-colonel and colonel , for gallant and meritorious conduct at Vera Cruz, Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. In 1852 he was presented a sword by South Carolina in recognition of the honor his career had cast upon his native State. After this war he was a member of the board which prepared a system of artillery instruction for the army, and was in command of the armories at Harper's Ferry, Charleston and Pikesville, Md., with promotion to major of ordnance, until his resignation from the old army to follow his State in h er effort for independence. He was commissioned colonel of artillery in the regular army of the Confederate States, in June, brigadier-general in the provisional service, and in October, 1861, major-general. In May, 1861, he was assigned to command of the department of Southern Virginia and North Carolina, with headquarters at Norfolk, and after the evacuation of Norfolk and Portsmouth in the spring of 1862, he commanded a division of the army under General Johnston and General Lee, during the campaigns w hich included the battles of Seven Pines and the series of important actions ending at Malvern hill. Subsequently he was assigned as inspector of artillery and ordnance in the armies of the Confederate States, and in 1863 was appointed chief of ordnance o f the Trans-Mississippi department. After the conclusion of hostilities he was engaged for several years in farming in Fauquier county, Va. His death occurred at his native city of Charleston, December 7, 1877. His son, Frank Huger, a graduate of the Unit ed States military academy, 1860, entered the Confederate service as captain of the Norfolk light artillery and had a conspicuous career with the army of Northern Virginia, rising to the rank of lieutenant-colonel and the command of a battalion of artille ry of the First corps. Brigadier-General Micah Jenkins was born on Edisto island in 1839. After his graduation at the South Carolina military academy, at the head of his class, he with the co-operation of his classmate, Asbury Coward, founded the King's Mountain military school in 1855. His military genius was valuable in the first organization of troops in 1861, and he was elected colonel of the Fifth regiment, with which he went to Virginia, in the brigade of Gen. D. R. Jones. In the latter part of 1861 he was in command of t hat brigade, and had grown greatly in favor with his division commander, General Longstreet.

Benjamin Huger was born in Charleston, South Carolina, on November 22, 1805. His family had a long-standing military reputation, and young Huger himself graduated from West Point in 1825. He was assigned to the artillery, but spent three years working on topographical duty, then became an ordinance officer. For about twelve years, he commanded the armory at Fort Monroe, in Virginia. Huger was also part of the War Department ordnance board, and spent a year studying methods of Continental warfare in Europe. In the Mexican War, Huger became chief of ordnance to Winfield Scott. He received several brevets for his service in three campaigns. Upon his return to the US in 1848, Huger served on a board to develop new artillery tactics, and then was superintendent of armories in Virginia, Maryland and other states of the South. In 1861, he joined the Confederate army, and was made a brigadier general on June 17, 1861. Less than four months later, he was promoted to major general. Huger was placed in command of the Department of Norfolk, and soon declared that his district was held too weakly to be effective against Union forces. In May of 1862, when Union troops were approaching, Huger ordered the destruction of the city's works and naval yard, had the CSS "Virginia" dismantled and evacuated the area. While in command of Roanoke Island, North Carolina, he failed to reinforce the troops, and they had to surrender to the Union expeditionary force. Although the Confederate Congress investigated Huger's part in this defeat, Confederate President Jefferson Davis gave him divisional command under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Huger led the division at Seven Pines and in several battles in the Seven Days' Campaign. He was relieved of duty on July 12, 1862, because of his lackluster leadership in battles such as White Oak Swamp and Malvern Hill. Placed on artillery and ordnance-inspection duty, he served in the Western theater and in the Trans-Mississippi Department. By the end of the war, he was in poor health. He retired from the military and worked as a farmer, first in North Carolina, then in Virginia. He returned to his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina, at the end of his life, and died there, on December 7, 1877.

Letter

Brigadier General L. A. ARMISTEAD,
Commanding at Petersburg:

GENERAL: I have received you letter of the 26th instant to General Cooper, in which you express the opinion that the obstructions in the Appomattox River should have been placed at the Point of Rocks, instead of above Port Walthall. General Huger wrote on the 21st instant that he was endeavoring to obstruct the river at the Point of Rocks, and would if possible render the barrier effective. This work if incomplete should be continued with the utmost energy, unless it has been decided to be impracticable.

The engineer officer assigned to the charge of the work in obstructing the river is unquestionably under your direction as commanding officer of the district. He was under the immediate control of the Engineer Bureau only until General Huger was assigned to the command of the Department of the Appomattox.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

R. E. LEE,
General

Battle of Seven Pines (Chesapeake Bay) 1862

exerpt

On May 30th it rained heavily and this the River Chickahomaney and the bridges across were flooded.

This isolated the two Union Corps in the South from the rest of the Union Army across the river in the north.

Confederate General Joseph Johnston ordered General Longstreet to make the main attack striking east to Seven Pines. It was to be a three pronged attack : Major General Huger on the Charles City Road : D.H.Hill on the Williamsburg Road and General Longstreet himself on the Nine Mile Road.

The timing of the attack [ set at 8.00 am ] was down to General Huger who, when in position, was to signal Hill who would commence the attack: the gunfire would be heard by Longstreet who would then throw his troops into the action.

It was a sound plan and if all went well the two Union Corps would be attacked on the left, in front and on the right.

Unfortunately all did not go to plan.

General Longstreet, in a rare moment, misunderstood his orders and marched south to Williamson Road-----thus reducing the three pronged attack to two, but in many ways more important, caused chaos on the Williamson Road where Hill was to attack on Huger's signal.

This chaos and misunderstanding delayed the start of the attack until after midday

Longstreet's version