George Gibson Garner was born in 1830 in Massachusetts. His father was an officer in the United States Army who died while serving in Florida. By the mid-1840s, he and his mother were living in Alexandria, Virginia. In 1846, he applied for admission to the United States Military Academy. As his mother explained, Garner wanted a “knowledge of the world not to be obtained in books.” He enrolled at the academy in 1847 and graduated four years later.

 

After graduation, he served as a 2^nd lieutenant in the 2^nd United States Artillery. He resigned in October 1856. He married Anna Elizabeth Wynn, and they had at least five children: William, born around 1857; George, born around 1858; Lucy, born around 1861; Lewis, born around 1864; and Lizzie, born around 1865. He lived in Assumption Parish, Louisiana, and he worked as a sugar planter.

 

He joined the Confederate army during the Civil War, serving as an assistant adjutant general on General Braxton Bragg’s staff. He eventually earned a promotion to colonel. According to an early biographer, “At the conclusion of the war he was on duty in Mobile and surrendered at the fall of that city.”

 

He settled in New Orleans, Louisiana, after the war, and he worked as an accountant. He died on May 28, 1877.

SOURCES