John McCausland


John McCausland, Jr. was a brigadier general in the Confederate army, famous for the ransom of Hagerstown, Maryland, and the razing of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, during the American Civil War.

Early life and education

McCausland was born in St. Louis, Missouri on September 13, 1836, the son of an immigrant from Ireland. Orphaned in 1843, he lived first with his grandmother until her death, then he and his brother went to live with his aunt Jane Smith near Point Pleasant, Virginia, now in Mason County, West Virginia. McCausland attended the Buffalo Academy in Putnam County, Then he traveled to Harrisonburg, Virginia, studied engineering at the Virginia Military Institute and graduated with first honors in the class of 1857. In 1858, after a year of further studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, McCausland became an assistant professor of mathematics at VMI until 1861. In 1859 he and VMI professor Stonewall Jackson commanded a group of VMI cadets at the execution of John Brown at Charles Town for the uprising at Harpers Ferry.

Career

American Civil War

Immediately after Virginia seceded, McCausland recruited an artillery company from Rockbridge County but refused a command, instead recruiting in the Kanawha Valley at General Robert E. Lee's request. On July 16, 1861, McCausland was commissioned as a colonel and placed in command of the 36th Virginia Infantry Regiment. The regiment had been formed from the 2nd Kanawha Regiment and part of the 3rd Kanawha Regiment, which had been recruited heavily from the south-western counties of what became West Virginia during the war. McCausland's regiment fought in the brigade of Brigadier General John B. Floyd in western Virginia and was transferred to Bowling Green, Kentucky, to serve in General Albert Sidney Johnston's army. McCauland and his men fought at the Battle of Fort Donelson and escaped before the Confederates surrendered the fort in February 1862. For the remainder of 1862 and 1863, McCausland's troops fought in the Department of Southwest Virginia. There, McCausland gained the nickname "Tiger John" for his fearless partisan raids.
After Confederate Brigadier General Albert Gallatin Jenkins was mortally wounded during the Union Army victory at the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain on May 9, 1864, McCausland took command of the Confederate forces in western Virginia. McCausland was promoted to brigadier general on May 18, 1864; Soon citizens credited him with saving Lynchburg from a raid by Union Army Major General David Hunter, who had invaded the Shenandoah Valley and burned the Virginia Military Institute as well as the house of former Virginia Governor turned Confederate General John Letcher. McCausland sent units to harass the Union supply trains, as well as burned bridges and fired upon the crews sent to rebuild them, buying time for Generals Grumble Jones and John Imboden to join forces at Staunton and then reinforce Lynchburg, where a train ruse about other reinforcements led Hunter to turn back.
McCausland fought as a cavalry brigade commander during the Valley Campaigns of 1864, under Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early, using his 2,800 men in various configurations to raid into Maryland and Pennsylvania. Under Early's orders, on July 30, 1864, McCausland burned the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, after it failed to pay a $100,000 extortion demand, justifying it as retaliation for the private property destroyed during Hunter's Shenandoah Valley campaign. In fact, Early's orders left little room for compromise or negotiation, and bankers had removed most of the money from Chambersburg days earlier. Plus despite Union General Darius Couch's early morning telegrams about the oncoming raiders, General William Averell's cavalry did not arrive from nearby Greencastle until after 2p.m., only to find still-burning ruins, displaced civilians and a trail of miscellaneous merchandise looted, then dropped by McCausland's departing raiders. The Union army relentlessly pursued McCausland's cavalry, ambushing and routing them at the Battle of Moorefield on August 8th.
After Early's campaign failed, McCausland rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia in the Siege of Petersburg, the Battle of Five Forks, and the Appomattox Campaign. As at Fort Donelson, McCausland refused to surrender but escaped with his cavalry from Appomattox Court House before Robert E. Lee's surrender, but withdrew to Lynchburg and disbanded his unit soon after. He was paroled in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 22, 1865.

Later life

After the war, McCausland spent two years in Europe and Mexico before returning to the United States. He faced arson charges for the burning of Chambersburg, but was pardoned by President Ulysses S. Grant. With part of his inheritance from his father, he purchased a tract of 6,000 acres 17 miles from Point Pleasant in Mason County, West Virginia. He also married Emmett Charlotte Hannah on October 3, 1878, and they would have four children: 3 sons and a daughter. During the next six decades, McCausland became known as a progressive farmer, draining his land using tiles from a relative's factory, and increasing his acreage. In his final years, he lived with his daughter Charlotte, his sons operating farms nearby.

Death and legacy

McCausland died at his farm, "Grape Hill", in Pliny, near Point Pleasant, West Virginia, on January 22, 1927, the last fully confirmed Confederate general to die. McCausland is buried in the Smith family cemetery in Henderson, West Virginia.
Eight years after his death, McCausland's son, Sam McCausland, shot and killed World War I Medal of Honor recipient Chester H. West, who was working for Sam as a farmhand, over what may have been a fight over Gen. John McCausland's gun. Sam was convicted of second-degree murder. Much of his former farm was acquired by the State of West Virginia in 1981, and initially operated as John McCausland Memorial Farm. The living history museum is now known as Smithland Farm. McCausland descendants still farm nearby. The tiling method was abandoned in another part which became the McClintic Wildlife Management Area.