George William Brent
George William Brent was born around August 1821 in Alexandria, Virginia, to George F. Brent and Elizabeth Parsons. His father was a tax collector. Brent studied law at the University of Virginia in the early 1840s before establishing his legal practice in Warrenton, Virginia.
He married Cornelia Wood on December 16, 1844, but she died several years later. He then married Lucy Goode on January 30, 1851, and the couple had at least seven children: Thomas, born around 1852; Lucy, born around 1854; Samuel, born around 1856; Mary, born around 1858; George, born around 1861; Cornelia, born around 1864; and Alice, born around 1864. The couple returned to Alexandria in the early 1850s. Brent supported the Democratic Party, and he served in the state senate in the early 1850s.
He initially opposed secession, and he supported Stephen Douglas in the election of 1860. He served as a Unionist delegate to the Virginia secession convention during the spring of 1861. Although President Abraham Lincoln’s call for 75,000 volunteers on April 15, 1861, shattered many of his colleagues’ Unionism, Brent stood firm. He voted against secession on April 4 and again on April 17.
Ultimately, however, he sided with the Confederacy. On May 2, 1861, he received a commission as a major in the 17th Virginia Infantry. He served on the staffs of General P. G. T. Beauregard and General Braxton Bragg. He eventually earned a promotion to lieutenant colonel and then to colonel. A Virginia writer later declared him “Brave and intrepid” and noted that he “claimed no discharge from the hardships and dangers” of military service. He surrendered on April 26, 1865, as part of Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee.
Brent returned to Alexandria after the war and resumed his work as a lawyer. By 1870, he owned $1,000 of real estate. He was seriously injured in April 1870 when the Virginia Capitol building partially collapsed. He reportedly never fully recovered. He died of “typhoid pneumonia” in Alexandria on January 2, 1872.
DATABASE CONTENT
| (3978) | Brent, George William | 1821-08 | 1872-01-02 |
- Conflict Side: Confederacy
- Role: Soldier
- Rank in: Major
- Rank out: Colonel
- Rank highest: Colonel
- Gender: Male
- Race: White
Documents - Records: 13
- (11191) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to James P. Anderson, 4 August 1863
- (11194) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 7 August 1863
- (11195) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 10 August 1863
- (11203) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 17 August 1863
- (11206) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 19 August 1863
- (11233) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 24 August 1863
- (11234) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 25 August 1863
- (11239) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 30 August 1863
- (11244) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 12 September 1863
- (11258) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 19 September 1863
- (11263) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 24 September 1863
- (11264) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 25 September 1863
- (11265) [writer] ~ George W. Brent to Leonidas Polk, 27 September 1863
Places - Records: 1
- (53) [birth, death] ~ Alexandria, Virginia
Regiments - Records: 1
- (736) [officer] ~ 17th Virginia Infantry
SOURCES
1870 United States Federal Census, available from Ancestry.com; Kitty Guy, “’From the Archives’: George Brent, Reluctant Rebel,” Basilica of St. Mary, available from https://stmaryoldtown.org/from-the-archives-george-brent-reluctant-rebel/; Alexandria (VA) Gazette, 3 January 1872.
