George W. Randolph: Difference between revisions

|spouse = Mary Elizabeth PopeAdams

|brotherrelatives = [[Thomas Jefferson Randolph]] (brother) [[Ellen Randolph Coolidge]] (sister)

|allegiance = {{Flag|United States of America|1846}}<br />{{flagicon|CSA}} [[Confederate States of America]]

|branch = {{navy|USA}}<br />{{army|CSA}}

|serviceyears = 1831–1839 (USA)<br />1861–1865 (CSA)

|rank = [[Midshipman]] (USN)<br />Major (Virginia Militia)<br /> [[Brigadier General (CSA)|Brigadier General]] (CSA)

|battles = [[American Civil War]]<br />[[Battle of Big Bethel]]

Following a private education appropriate for his class, Randolph briefly attended preparatory schools in [[Cambridge, Massachusetts]] (under the direction of his brother in law [[Joseph Coolidge]])<ref>Biographies of Notable Americans (1904) available on ancestry.com</ref> and Washington, D.C., where his mother sent him to give him distance from Virginia politics and family troubles. His father had incurred much debt, and creditors foreclosed after his term as Virginia's 21st governor ended. However, his elder brother [[Thomas Jefferson Randolph]] managed to buy the family's Edgehill plantation at a foreclosure auction in 1826. Meanwhile, G.W. Randolph became a [[midshipman]] in the [[United States Navy]] from 1831 to 1839, sailing on the ''USS John Adams'' and ''USS Constitution'' in the Mediterranean Sea as well as training at the Naval School in [[Norfolk, Virginia]]. Randolph also began attending the [[University of Virginia]] in Charlottesville near his home during his naval service in 1837, perhaps while recovering from tuberculosis contracted during his naval voyages (which went into a very long remission but which ultimately proved fatal).<ref name=Goldberg/>

On April 10, 1852, George W. Randolph married the young widow Mary Elizabeth (Adams) Pope (1830&ndash;18671871). Like Randolph, she descended from the First Families of Virginia. However, they had no children.<ref>''Genealogy of the Page Family in Virginia'' by Richard Channing Moore Page</ref> His wife Mary Randolph later became active in the Richmond Ladies Association, which organized welfare and relief for the Confederate war effort.<ref name=Goldberg/>

Several of the Randolphs, like Jefferson's teacher George Wythe, opposed slavery and freed slaves either during their lifetimes or in their wills. Following Nat Turner's Rebellion, his brother [[Thomas Jefferson Randolph]] introduced a [[Gradual emancipation (United States)|gradual emancipation]] plan as a bill in the [[Virginia House of Delegates]] but it was soundly defeated. In the 1860 federal census, George Wythe Randolph owned one slave, a 78 -year -old woman.<ref>1860 U.S. Federal Census for Ward 1, Richmond, Henrico County, Virginia p. 50 of 53</ref> However, like other [[plantations in the American South|plantation]]s in Virginia, Edgehill plantation used enslaved labor.

As the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] formed after southern states began seceding from the Union following the election of [[Abraham Lincoln]] as Presidentpresident, the United States divided into two hostile camps and the sections moved toward open conflict. Richmond voters elected Randolph and fellow attorneys [[William Hamilton McFarland|William H. McFarland]] and [[Marmaduke Johnson (Lawyer and Soldier)]] as their representatives to the [[Virginia Secession Convention of 1861]].<ref>Cynthia Miller Leonard, The Virginia General Assembly 1619-1978 (Virginia State Library 1978 p. 476</ref> Despite Randolph's speech in favor of secession, the first secession vote failed (Randolph among the ayes, McFarland and Johnson among the nays). Randolph's brother Thomas Jefferson Randolph was one of the Albemarle County delegates.<ref>Leonard p. 474</ref> A special delegation, composed of G.W. Randolph, [[William B. Preston]] and [[Alexander H.H. Stuart]], traveled to [[Washington, D.C.]] where they met newly inaugurated [[President of the United States|President]] [[Abraham Lincoln]] on April 12, 1861, the same day that South Carolina artillery militia fired at [[Fort Sumter]]. Finding the President firm in his resolve to hold the Federal forts in the South, the three men returned to Richmond on April 15.<ref name=Goldberg/> On April 18, the day after President Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers to suppress the Confederate show of force, the Convention approved a secession resolution, which was sent for voter approval at a referendum the following month.

On April 21 Governor Wise called the Richmond Howitzers into state service and sent them down the [[James River]] to stop the ''USS Pawnee'', allegedly en route to shell Richmond. They were then sent to barracks established at [[University of Richmond|Richmond Baptist College]] under Col. [[John B. Magruder]], who had fought as an artillery officer in the Mexican War and who requested ten cadets from the [[Virginia Military Institute]] as drill instructors. When enlistments proved heavy, the unit expanded into a battalion at the suggestion of Col. [[Edward Porter Alexander]] (who would later become CSA General Longstreet's artillery commander). On May 1, 1861, Randolph accepted a commission as [[Major (rank)|major]] and command of the Richmond Howitzers, with three companies designated (a fourth company was started in July but disbanded in August when recruitment lagged). He sent Lt. John Thomson Brown with several militiamen to [[Gloucester Point, Virginia|Gloucester Point]], where on May 7 they fired on the ''USS Yankee'', thus the first hostile shot fired in that conflict in Virginia. On May 13, the battalion left the college and encamped on the Mechanicsville Turnpike for a while until moving to [[Chimborazo Hill]], where they posted their guns overlooking the James River at [[Rockett's Landing]], where many slaves disembarked. Later in the month, First Company was sent to Manassas Junction (and returned for the battle below, but were then sent to Fairfax Court House where they were involved in a friendly fire incident on July 4, and were not actually called into action at the [[First Battle of Manassas]], only experienced hostile fire); Second Company to Yorktown (where they joined General Magruder's forces on May 27 and did not return, being reassigned) and Third Company to the lower Peninsula, where Randolph became General Magruder's artillery commander and designed fortifications to secure Yorktown and the [[Hampton Roads]] area. On June 10 Randolph's Howitzers fought the [[Battle of Big Bethel]] near Yorktown, their only engagement as a battalion during the war, and in which three men were wounded.<ref>Wallace pp. 1-2</ref> His defenses anticipated Union General George McClellan's campaign of the following spring.<ref name=Goldberg/>

In 1864, Randolph ran the U.S. naval blockade and took his family to Europe, receiving medical treatment in England and southern France. He took the oath of allegiance to the United States onin April 1866 in [[Pau, France]].<ref>ancestry.com</ref> The Randolphs then returned to Virginia. Randolph died of [[tuberculosis]] on April 3, 1867, at [[Edge Hill (Shadwell, Virginia)|Edgehill]].<ref name=Goldberg/> He is buried at [[Monticello]] in the Jefferson family graveyard.<ref name=Goldberg/>

*{{Find a Grave|11056|accessdateaccess-date=2008-02-13}}

[[Category:American plantersslave owners]]

[[Category:ConfederateExecutive Statesmembers Executiveof the Cabinet membersof the Confederate States of America]]