William Terry

William Terry (August 14, 1824 – September 5, 1888) was a nineteenth-century politician, lawyer, teacher, slaveowner, and Confederate soldier from Virginia. The last commander of the famed Stonewall Brigade during the American Civil War also twice won election to the U.S. House of Representatives after the conflict. Early and family life Born in Amherst County, Virginia, to the former Katherine Robinson (1795-1867) and her husband Thomas Terry (1793-1874), Terry could trace his lineage on both sides to soldiers who had fought in the American Revolutionary War. He received a private education suitable for his class and went on to graduate from the University of Virginia in 1848. After graduation, he boarded with a local farming family and taught school in Liberty, the county seat of Bedford County, as he read law. In 1852, Terry married one of the daughters of the family with whom he boarded, Emma Wigginton (1828-1909), and they would raise four sons (the eldest of whom, Benjamin, would become a lawyer by 1880) and three daughters before his death. Career Admitted to the bar in 1851, Terry began his private legal practice in Wytheville, the county seat of Wythe County. He also engaged in newspaper work for eighteen months as editor and co-owner of the Wytheville Telegraph. By 1860, he owned 5 enslaved individuals, a 38 year old Black man, a 25 year old mulatto woman, and mulatto girls ages 8, 6 and 4.