John Bankhead Magruder was born on May 1, 1807, in Port Royal, Virginia, to Thomas Magruder and Elizabeth M. Bankhead. His father was a lawyer, and Magruder was one of ten children. His father ran into debt, and in the 1820s, the family lost possession of their house and their enslaved laborers.

 

Magruder spent one semester at the University of Virginia before enrolling at West Point in 1826. He graduated fifteenth in his class in 1830, and he received a commission as a brevet 2^nd lieutenant in the 7^th United States Infantry. He married Henrietta von Kapff on May 18, 1831, and they had at least three children: Isabella, born around 1833; Katherine, born around 1836; and Henry, born around 1841.

 

He spent the 1830s on garrison duty in North Carolina, Maryland, and Florida. He was promoted to 1^st lieutenant in 1836 and then to captain in 1846. He took part in the Second Seminole War and the Mexican American War.

 

Magruder was stationed in Washington, D.C., in the early 1860s. In April 1861, however, he resigned his commission and became a colonel in the Confederate army. He received a promotion to brigadier general soon afterwards, and he commanded the Army of the Peninsula in eastern Virginia. He was promoted to major general in August 1861, and he took part in the Seven Days’ Battles. In October 1862, Confederate officials transferred him to the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. He was devoted to the Confederate war effort, and he hoped to continue fighting even after General Robert E. Lee surrendered in April 1865.

 

Magruder finally accepted Confederate defeat in June 1865, and he fled to Mexico after the war. He became a naturalized Mexican citizen, and he received an appointment as chief of the Land Office of Colonization. Magruder returned to America in early 1867, and he died in Houston, Texas, on February 18, 1871.

 

Image: John B. Magruder (courtesy Wikicommons)

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