John Bankhead Magruder (May 1, 1807 – February 18, 1871) often referred to as "Prince John Magruder", was an American and Confederate military officer. A graduate of West Point, Magruder served with distinction during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) and was a prominent Confederate Army general during the American Civil War (1861–1865). As a major general, he received recognition for delaying the advance of Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac, during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign, as well as recapturing Galveston, Texas the following year.
When the Civil War began in 1861, Magruder left the Union Army to accept a commission in the Confederacy. As commander of the Army of the Peninsula, he fortified the Virginia Peninsula and won the Battle of Big Bethel. In the Peninsula Campaign, he stalled McClellan's Army of the Potomac outside Yorktown, allowing Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to arrive with reinforcements, organize a retreat, and defend the Confederate capital, Richmond. Magruder was criticized for his leadership in battles at Savage's Station and Malvern Hill during the Seven Days Battles. He spent the remainder of the war administering the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona and the Department of Arkansas; in his tenure, Magruder lifted the naval blockade over Galveston and recaptured the city in 1863.
After surrendering the Trans-Mississippi Department in June 1865, Magruder fled to Mexico. He worked in an administrative role under Emperor Maximillian I before returning to the United States in 1867. In 1869, he embarked on a lecture tour, speaking on the Mexican monarchy. Magruder died in Houston in 1871.
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Early life and career
John Bankhead Magruder was born in Port Royal, Virginia, on May 1, 1807. He was the fifth child of ten, eight of whom lived past infancy. Magruder's father Thomas was from a family of Scottish plantation owners; on June 22, 1797, he married Elizabeth Bankhead, the eldest daughter of "noted millers" in Albemarle County. Thomas Magruder was an attorney and practiced in the Chancery Court of Fredericksburg, but he was negligent in his duties and a constant debtor. By 1820, he lost ownership of all his slaves, and his homestead was sold at public auction five years later. Thomas was eventually reduced to living on Elizabeth's property in Aberfoyle with his daughter Isabella, while his wife lived with their son Allan in Albemarle County.
John Magruder was not interested in the law but loved the idea of soldiering. His uncle James Bankhead, a military officer during the War of 1812, is assumed to have instilled in Magruder a fascination with combat, in large part because of the war stories that he and Colonel James Bankhead – Magruder's American Revolutionary War veteran grandfather – told. In 1825, on letters of recommendation from his father, uncle, and Virginian congressman Robert S. Garnett, Magruder was notified of his appointment to West Point where he was to report a year later. He spent one semester at the University of Virginia in the interim.
At West Point, Magruder was a hyperactive and ambitious cadet who was often at odds with superintendent Sylvanus Thayer's regulations. His closest friends were William N. Pendleton and Alexander J. Swift; the former was later a Confederate officer and the latter distinguished himself as top of Magruder's class. He graduated in 1830, fifteenth in his class of 42 cadets, and was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant in the 7th Infantry Regiment.
Magruder spent most of his furlough in the company of 20 year-old Henrietta von Kapff (March 27, 1810 – January 1, 1884), the wealthy daughter of businessman Johann von Kapff. The couple soon began a romance and married on May 18, 1831. They had three children; Isabella (1833 – July 20, 1869); Katherine Elizabeth (1836 – April 26, 1896); and Henry R. (1841 – January 31, 1907).
His family occasionally traveled with Magruder during his various assignments but, because of the unfavorable conditions in the various remote locales, Henrietta found it more practical to live in Baltimore where she could raise their children and stay close to her business interests. Thereafter, Magruder infrequently spent time with his family; he last saw them as he tended to Isabella during an illness that led to her death in 1869. Despite his absences, close family friends noted that Henrietta remained "in love with [her husband] to an uncommon degree".
U.S. Army career
On a request to the United States Department of War, Magruder arranged a transfer to the 1st Artillery with Albert Miller Lea, a correspondent from West Point, to stay close to Henrietta. Biographer Thomas M. Settles described the lieutenant as a great favorite among his men—"always charming, frivolous at times, but intelligent and obviously well read". Known as "Prince John", a resplendently uniformed man with a theatrical manner, Magruder attained a reputation for his social grace and etiquette.
The 1830s for Magruder, however, were largely regulated to garrison duty in North Carolina, Maryland, and Florida; the uneventful aspects of these assignments granted him time to study law and pass the bar examination. By 1844, Magruder, working as a recruitment officer, was dissatisfied with military service. The adverse northern climate found at his latest post, the Hancock Barracks in Maine, contributed to a bronchial infection, he had seen no military action, and felt slighted by the lack of recognition for organizing crucial supplies during the Second Seminole War.
In August 1845, Magruder volunteered for assignment in Corpus Christi, Texas, to join General Zachary Taylor's army there, occupying the former republic; the US was on the verge of war with Mexico over the question of annexation. After hostilities opened on April 25, 1846, Magruder first saw combat at the Battle of Palo Alto, 14 days later. On April 18, 1847, Magruder served with "zeal and ability", in General Winfield Scott's expedition, under heavy fire and turned Mexican artillery against them at Cerro Gordo, for which he was praised by his superiors and brevetted to major.
By September 12, US forces had begun targeting Chapultepec, in one of a series of engagements in the Battle of Mexico City. Magruder—lightly wounded—ordered the first shots in the early morning on the 13th and offered pursuit, despite superior Mexican numbers, to capture the Anzures, Veronica, and Belen intersection—a crucial crossroads that would block efforts by General Santa Anna to relieve the palace.
From the conflict in Mexico, Magruder learned the value of deceiving and flanking forces outnumbering his own. He also saw the war as demonstrating "the science of artillery is continually advancing", and submitted a detailed plan for separating the light artillery from "ordnance, field, and sea coast artillery"—in theory, "resulting in an enlightened division of labor" and specialization; however, in a post-war cost-cutting decision, the War Department rejected the proposal and ordered Magruder's men to serve as foot soldiers.
Civil War
At the onset of the Civil War Magruder was posted in Washington, D.C. on the side of the Union. However, Magruder, whose loyalties were with his home state of Virginia, resigned his commission in the army four days after the state seceded on April 17, 1861, to join the Confederate States of America (CSA); subsequently, Governor John Letcher appointed him to colonel in the Confederate Army. His superiors—perhaps impressed by his detailed inventory of Richmond's defenses—placed Magruder in command of forces, soon officially termed the Army of the Peninsula, on the Virginia Peninsula, east of Richmond where the city seemed most vulnerable to Union attack.
Immediately after establishing his headquarters at Yorktown, Magruder surveyed the region and found the circumstances favorable: the marshy terrain, dense undergrowth, and watercourses led him to surmise that a successful defense of the Peninsula was plausible. He ordered the construction of three fortified lines to counter mounting Union forces under the command of Maj. Gen. Benjamin Franklin Butler at Fort Monroe.
On May 27, Butler sent a force 8 miles (13 km) north to occupy the lightly defended town of Newport News and expanded Camp Hamilton, established in the adjacent town of Hampton. Magruder, seeking to delay his opponent while awaiting men and supplies, prepared a well-defended advanced outpost at Big and Little Bethel just 8 miles (13 km) from Union camp at Newport News to goad Butler into a premature attack; Butler complied and suffered a defeat in the Battle of Big Bethel on June 10. Civilian intelligence reports and a friendly fire incident during the night exposed the position of Butler's troops whose initial advance and subsequent thrusts were thwarted despite a Confederate disadvantage of manpower.
The praise for Magruder following Big Bethel far superseded its tactical importance but it nonetheless had a profound psychological impact. His victory reaffirmed the belief of many southerners in the Confederate cause, and Civil War historian Douglas Southall Freeman wrote Magruder was one of its earliest heroes—"second only to Beauregard in the esteem of the Confederacy" prior to the Seven Days Battles. By August 1861, he rose to the rank of major general.
Peninsula Campaign
The victory of the Confederates at the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21, 1861, had paralyzed Union forces there for the remainder of the year, and presented the Confederate government time to consolidate its manpower. With the new year, preparations for the Union campaign of 1862 were urged forward by the Federal government, impatient for an advance on Richmond. Following the withdrawal of the Army of Northern Virginia, under Maj. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, south of the Rappahannock River, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan revised plans for the spring offensive. As part of his Peninsula Campaign, McClellan ordered his army—the Army of the Potomac—to disembark for Fort Monroe from Alexandria, Virginia, and Annapolis, Maryland, on March 17, 1862. McClellan sought to turn on Johnston's position and advance toward Richmond before the Confederates could readily defend their capital.
As McClellan's plans were gradually revealed to the Confederates, the mass of Johnston's army was ordered to the Peninsula by early April. Magruder's Army of the Peninsula—about 13,600 men—was tasked with delaying McClellan's 121,500-man force. Finding that his advanced line required more force than was at his command, Magruder fell back behind the Warwick River to his secondary position, the Warwick Line. He described his position:
Yorktown and redoubts Nos. 4 and 5, united by long curtains and flanked by rifle-pits, form the left of the line, until at the commencement of the military road it reaches the Warwick River, here a sluggish and boggy stream, twenty or thirty yards wide, and running a dense wood fringes by swamps. Along this river are five dams–one at Wynne's Mill, one at Lee's Mill, and three constructed by myself. The effect of these dams is to back up the water along the course of the river, so that for nearly three fourths of its distance its passage is impractical.
Two garrisons, amounting to 6,000 men, were stationed at Gloucester Point and Mulberry Island with heavy artillery to block Union passage of the York and James Rivers.
The Army of the Potomac marched forward with four divisions and cavalry—about 58,000 men—in two columns under Brigadier Generals Samuel Heintzelman and Erasmus Keyes on April 4. The following day, downpours bogged down the march. As Union forces emerged from patches of woods on Magruder's right flank and towards Lee's Mill, artillery and rifle fire erupted to repel Keyes's advance. Heintzelman was also brought to a halt by Yorktown's defensive works. Magruder's tactics—the constant marching of his forces and sporadic artillery barrages—created the illusion of a much larger military presence and persuaded McClellan to call for a siege of Yorktown. His only attempt to break Magruder's line, at Dam No. One on April 16, was repelled after the 3rd Vermont Infantry briefly held rifle-pits on the West side of the Warwick.
District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona
Magruder's predecessor, Paul Octave Hébert, surrendered Galveston, Texas on October 9 in the face of a Union blockade under Captain William B. Renshaw. Shortly after his arrival Magruder drew up plans with naval captain Leon Smith to recapture the city against forces that enjoyed advantages in manpower and naval superiority. On December 31, Confederate men and artillery positioned themselves to fire at enemy vessels. An artillery duel ensued and Smith's two improvised cottonclad warships— the CS Bayou City and CS Neptune—arrived at daybreak on January 1, 1863, to open a second front on the Union fleet. The Bayou City rammed and captured the USS Harriet Lane, prompting a three-hour truce to allow Renshaw to agree to terms of surrender. Renshaw, however, died while scuttling his flagship, the USS Westfield, and the remainder of the fleet fled from the harbor. The unlikely victory lifted the blockade and captured two Union barques and a schooner at the cost of only 26 casualties.
With Galveston in Confederate hands, Magruder retired to his headquarters in Houston on February 13 to attend to administrative duties. He attempted unsuccessfully to revise the cotton contract system, and soldiers of the Trans-Mississippi Department suffered from lack of provisions. Magruder strenuously enforced the draft, commanders in subdistricts held dictatorial powers, and he occasionally suspended habeas corpus; commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department Edmund Kirby Smith opined that Magruder had an "utter disregard for the law".
During his tenure, east Texas was under constant threat from Union forces under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks; Banks' failed invasion of Red River Valley in 1864 prompted an order from his superior, Ulysses S. Grant, to abandon efforts to attack the Gulf Coast. In September 1864, Magruder led the Department of Arkansas until he returned to his previous position in March 1865.
Despite Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, Magruder and Smith urged their men to continue the struggle. Having exhausted all options, on June 2 the two generals signed the Canby-Buckner Convention aboard the USS Fort Jackson.
Later years
Though Confederate officers were not under threat of detainment, Magruder joined the Confederate exodus to Mexico. Magruder stayed in the country for 17 months, from July 1865 to November 1866. There, he gained an audience with Emperor Maximillian I in Mexico City to negotiate the establishment of Confederate colonies. By September 17, having become a naturalized Mexican citizen, Magruder was appointed chief of the Land Office of Colonization.
In 1866, Napoleon III's troop withdrawal from Mexico crippled the monarchy. Before fleeing to Havana, Magruder appealed to Maximillian I to escape the country; the Emperor refused to abandon his followers, fell under siege in Querétaro, and was executed on June 19, 1867.
In early 1867, Magruder returned to the United States with little money and no prospects for employment. He arrived in New York City to establish a law practice, yet he was constantly on the move in the final years of his life.
In 1869, Magruder was invited to lecture in New Orleans on Mexican politics, speaking "kindly of the well-intentioned emperor [Maximillian I] and his ambitious wife and judged that they were genuinely concerned about the welfare of Mexico". A "natural at the podium", Magruder's lectures were well-attended in New Orleans, Baltimore, Galveston, and elsewhere. After a group of wealthy Texan admirers pledged to purchase him a plantation, Magruder traveled to Galveston in April 1870—to his disappointment, the offer never materialized.
Weakened by failing health, Magruder moved into the Hutchins House, a luxurious hotel in Houston.
On February 18, 1871, "Magruder, having been unwell for several days, suffering from disease of the heart, breathed his last about 3 o'clock Saturday morning at the Hutchins House". He was buried in Houston's Episcopal cemetery. Soon after his death, the citizens of Galveston formed a committee to have Magruder's remains moved to the island. On January 10, 1876, his body was reinterred in Galveston's Episcopal cemetery and a monument was erected there in 1894.
Legacy
The third highest-ranking officer in the Army of the Northern Virginia, Magruder never published any memoirs. He cultivated a flamboyant, distinctive image and personality in the belief that it would inspire his troops. His affinity for pomp and showmanship often became a topic of discussion among his men and wings of the officer corps. Likewise, his extravagant social life led to many, largely unfounded, rumors of drunkenness on duty. As a leader, Magruder was an "experienced artillery officer of shrewd intelligence", developed an ability to deliver charismatic speeches, and was quick to credit his men for his successes.
At a time when Richmond was vulnerable to attack, Magruder's command of the Army of the Peninsula in April and May 1862 was, according to Settles, his "greatest contribution to the Confederacy". Later, as he reflected in his 1874 book Narrative of Military Operations, Johnston wrote Magruder's efforts on the Virginia Peninsula "saved Richmond and gave the Confederate government time to swell that officer's handful to an army".
In nineteenth century assessments of Confederate leadership, it was frequently asserted that Magruder's poor field command during the Seven Days campaign cost the Confederacy a decisive victory—particularly at Malvern Hill—or even that Magruder's judgement allowed McClellan's army to escape. According to historian Stephen W. Sears, however, Magruder's "peculiar talent for accomplishing what he did in the trench lines at Yorktown"—a talent which "probably none other army's generals had"—contributed greatly to delivering Richmond from siege.