Robert Withers Memminger was born on June 16, 1839, in Charleston, South Carolina, to Christopher G. Memminger and Mary A. Wilkinson. His father was a lawyer and politician who served as Confederate Secretary of the Treasury. He grew up and attended school in Charleston, South Carolina, before enrolling at Harvard University in the late 1850s. He graduated in 1859 and spent the next few years studying law in Charleston.

 

He received a commission as a captain in the Confederate army on January 14, 1862. He was promoted to major and assistant adjutant general on December 29, 1862. He served on the staff of General John C. Pemberton. Union forces captured him at Vicksburg, Mississippi, on July 4, 1863, and he received a parole later that day.

 

According to one historian, after his parole, “Memminger remained in a kind of limbo, not seeking another [appointment] while waiting to see where Pemberton would receive a new command.” As Memminger’s father explained, he did not “wish to take any step which would seem to indicate a disposition to leave his old Commander.” He eventually received an appointment on the staff of General Daniel H. Hill. He surrendered as part of General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee on April 26, 1865.

 

Memminger returned to Charleston after the war. He married Susan Mezyck, and they had six children: Charles, born around 1868; William, born around 1868; Robert, born around 1870; Willis, born around 1876; Henry, born around 1878; and Lucien, born around 1879. They moved to Hillsborough County, Florida, in the 1870s, and he earned a living as a minister. They moved to Hendersonville, North Carolina, in the late 1800s. He died at Flat Rock, North Carolina, on April 19, 1901.

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