Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 20.djvu/402

 396 Southern Historical Society Papers.

Engineering class were deemed by Professor D. H. Mahan as equal to any executed at the celebrated German school at Metz, and they were kept at West Point as studies.

He was appointed brevet second lieutenant First United States Artillery July i, 1833, and served in the war with the Creek Nation of Indians until March 6, 1834, when he was promoted second lieu- tenant First Artillery, and March 18, 1834, assigned to duty as Assistant Professor of Engineering at West Point, serving as such until his resignation, August 31, 1835, at the request of his father, and against his own inclinations, which were predominantly for a military life. His resignation was much to the regret of General Winfield Scott, who wrote to his father that he was the most promis- ing young officer in the army. He served as assistant engineer in the construction of the James River and Kanawha canal, 1835-1837, and latterly in some railroad surveys in the mountains of Virginia. In 1835 he joined a relative in large operations in tobacco at Clover- port, Kentucky, meeting with much success financially. He originated the Scrap hogshead, in which a large business has since been done. He visited Europe in 1848, and met in London Miss Eliza L. Knight, who became his wife in 1849. He engaged in farming at his seat, " Woodville," Goochland county, Virginia, from 1845 to 1861, never relinquishing, however, his operations in tobacco at Frederick's Hall and Petersburg. He was also interested in other mercantile ven- tures. He, like many other Virginians, was not an original Seces- sionist, and hoped that the impending strife might be averted. The call, however, of President Lincoln for troops from Virginia in 1861 instantaneously decided him, and he tendered his services to the Confederacy. A command was offered him, which, from his long abandonment of military life, he felt a hesitancy in accepting. At the request of General Lee he was assigned to the Engineer corps as captain. He it was, it is said, who placed General Jackson in the position, the stern holding of which gained for him the famed soubri- quet of " Stonewall. " He planned the fortifications of Centreville and other points, and made, it is said, the most correct map of the battle- field of Manassas extant. Accompanying General Beau regard to the West, he planned the fortification of Island No. 10, Fort Hilton, and Vicksburg. He also accompanied a reconnoitering expedition into Kentucky, sent out by General Bragg. When General Beauregard was ordered to Charleston, by his request, General Harris accom- panied him as engineer, and constructed the defences there with such