Confederate General Samuel Garland

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In the years following the Civil War, the loss of outstanding young leaders in that fratricidal conflict had an immeasurable effect upon state and local affairs. The war had rapidly expanded to a point where the relatively small number of professionally trained military officers could not provide all the leadership needed for the armies of both North and South. This leadership vacuum was filled by community leaders from hundreds of towns and villages.

As the size and organizational demands of the armies increased, it was natural that West Point­trained officers advanced rapidly to the rank of general. Thus, large numbers of company and regimental leadership positions came to be held by citizen-soldiers. In the military tradition of the day, company, regimental and brigade commanders were expected to lead from the front, resulting in extremely high casualty rates among field-grade officers.

In the postwar years, many small towns or cities suffered from a very real loss of leadership. Prospective governors, mayors, attorneys, businessmen and educators lay dead on the various fields of battle.

The problem was well typified in the small, central Virginia town of Lynchburg, which provided eight officers of general rank to the Confederate armies, only four of whom survived. A sad example was the life, career and death of Brig. Gen. Samuel Garland, Jr.

Garland was born into a well-known and prosperous Virginia family in Lynchburg on December 16, 1830. His father, Maurice H. Garland, was the youngest of four prominent brothers. Judge James Garland, the eldest, lived to be the oldest presiding judge in the state. Another brother, General John Garland, was a career U.S. Army officer whose daughter married future Confederate Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. General Garland’s sister-in-law became the wife of future Union commander U.S. Grant. Samuel Garland, Sr., the third brother and young Samuel’s namesake, was a partner in the law firm of which Maurice H. Garland was also a member. The elder Samuel accumulated considerable wealth from land speculation in Mississippi and constructed a large, Federal-style mansion on a hill in Lynchburg, which became known as Garland’s Hill.

After the death of his father, young Samuel maintained a close relationship with his mother. While at boarding school, Garland kept a daily diary that he submitted to his mother for weekly review. At age 14, he enrolled as a student at Randolph Macon College. A maternal uncle was president of the school and could closely supervise his studies. One year later, when his uncle accepted the presidency of Vanderbilt University, Samuel persuaded his mother to allow him to attend Virginia Military Institute in Lexington.

As a cadet, young Garland compiled an outstanding record in both academic and military studies. He was the founder and first president of the VMI Literary So-
ciety. During his second year, Garland was ranked first in a class of 35 and was deemed outstanding in French. In his junior term he was appointed first sergeant of the cadet corps and seemed destined
for a responsible position his senior year. But when a new demerit system was instituted, Garland resigned his rank and, in a respectfully correct letter to the superintendent, forcefully explained that he was opposed to any system that required one cadet to assign demerits to another. Thus, Garland held no rank his senior year, but still graduated second in his class.

Upon graduation Garland considered a military career, but on the advice of his uncles he enrolled instead in law school at the University of Virginia. Two years later he received a bachelor of laws degree, having again achieved an outstanding academic record. At the age of 21, Garland returned home to Lynchburg to practice law with the firm of Garland and Slaughter, where his father had been a member and his uncle was a senior partner.

Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures

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