John B. Magruder - Civil War

Civil War

At the start of the Civil War, Magruder was assigned to the artillery in the garrison forces of Washington, D.C.. However, he resigned from the U.S. Army when his native Virginia seceded, whereupon he was commissioned a colonel in the Confederate States Army. He was quickly promoted to brigadier general (June 1861) and major general (October 1861). He commanded the small Army of the Peninsula defending Richmond, against Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's invasion of the Virginia Peninsula in the early portion of the Union's Peninsula Campaign in 1862. This separate army was incorporated as a division in the Army of Northern Virginia on April 12, 1862.

During the Battle of Yorktown, Magruder completely deceived McClellan as to his strength by ostentatiously marching small numbers of troops past the same position multiple times, appearing to be a larger force. He moved his artillery around frequently and liberally used ammunition when Union troops were sighted, giving the impression of a large, aggressive defending force. This subterfuge caused McClellan's Army of the Potomac weeks of needless delay and brought Magruder praise from his superior, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. However, Magruder performed poorly and unaggressively in the subsequent Seven Days Battles. Some blame heavy drinking for his erratic performance, others point to the unrelenting stress of his fending off McClellan at Yorktown. At the Battle of Malvern Hill, the last of the Seven Days, local guides led him and his men astray, causing a considerable delay in his arrival in the line of battle. Orders from new commander Robert E. Lee to attack, dispatched earlier in the day but with no time marked on them, were received only after Magruder finally got into proper position some hours later. They were mistaken as currently issued; the error was compounded when fresh orders from Lee arrived which, based on faulty intelligence, reaffirmed the attack. Magruder's execution of those orders as if they were current and accurate resulted in an uncoordinated assault that suffered considerable losses and made no headway. Lee afterward, when he personally surveyed the field, thought that no commander on the scene should have gone ahead with an attack. When he asked Magruder, "Why did you attack?" Magruder replied, "In obedience to your orders, twice repeated."

Lee reorganized his army after the Seven Days, replacing those he thought were ineffective commanders, and Magruder was soon reassigned to command the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

On January 1, 1863, Magruder's forces won the Battle of Galveston, recapturing the city and port for the Confederacy. The First Confederate Congress published its official thanks:

... The bold, intrepid, and gallant conduct of Maj. Gen. J. Bankhead Magruder, Col. Thomas Green, Maj. Leon Smith, and other officers, and of the Texan Rangers and soldiers engaged in the attack on, and victory achieved over, the land and naval forces of the enemy at Galveston, on the 1st of January, 1863, eminently entitle them to the thanks of Congress and the country. ... This brilliant achievement, resulting, under the providence of God, in the capture of the war steamer Harriet Lane and the defeat and ignominious flight of the hostile fleet from the harbor, the recapture of the city and the raising of the blockade of the port of Galveston, signally evinces that superior force may be overcome by skillful conception and daring courage.

From August 1864 to March 1865, Magruder commanded the Department of Arkansas, but then returned to command the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona during the last months of the war until the entire Trans-Mississippi region was surrendered by General Edmund Kirby Smith.