Major General
John Bankhead MaGruder



John B. MaGruder was born May 1, 1807 in Velleboro, Port Royal, Caroline County, Virginia. He attended the University of Virginia at Charlottesville and while there met some very influential people some of whom were classmates. Thomas Jefferson was an acquaintance and Edger Allan Poe was a classmate. Some of those classmates were later Generals in the Confederate Army. John MaGruder was appointed to West Point and started with the class in 1826. While at West Point he met old friends, Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis. MaGruder and Davis escaped a court-martial and almost expelled from West Point. MaGruder continued to drink and get demerits all through the Academy. He got high grades and was able to graduate fifteenth in his class. John MaGruder also placed seventeenth in Engineering, Rhetoric and Moral Philosophy and Artillery.
John Bankhead MaGruder graduated in 1830 but did not report for duty for one year. It was six years before he was promoted to First Lieutenant and eight more before promotion to Captain.
MaGruder spent sixteen years in minor assignments and then participated in the Mexican conflict from 1846 - 1848. John B. MaGruder did a lot of drinking and displayed a lavish lifestyle, this lavish lifestyle is the reason for his nick name "Prince John". He married Henrietta Von Kapff in Baltimore May 1831. There were three children born of the marriage, Isabell, Kate and Henry. Kate and Henry never married.
Captain MaGruder was promoted to Brevet Major and then Brevet Lieutenant Colonel in 1847. In 1861 when MaGruder resigned his commission in Washington and crossed the bridge into Virginia, he wasted no time in applying for a commission in the Virginia Military and the Confederate Army. Colonel MaGruder was assigned to the Peninsula and attained the rank of General in Command of the Peninsula Forces and successfully defended it turning back McClellans troops in the opening engagements of the Civil War. He later turned back Butler's troops in June. MaGruder was promoted to Brigadier General June 1861 and Major General October 7, 1861.
MaGruder was later assigned to Texas, New Mexico and Arizona District. Gen. MaGruder took Galveston from the Union on New Years Day 1863 and successfully defended the Coast.
Forces Engaged:
Companies D, G and I, 42nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment and the Blockading ships [US];
four Confederate gunboats and district of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona troops [CS]

Estimated Casualties: 650 total (US 600; CS 50)

Maj. Gen. John B. MaGruder, who became the Confederate commander of military forces in Texas on November 29, 1862, gave the recapture of Galveston top priority. At 3:00 am on New Year's Day, 1863, four Confederate gunboats appeared, coming down the bay toward Galveston. Soon afterward, the Rebels commenced a land attack. The Union forces in Galveston were three companies of the 42nd Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment under the command of Col. Isaac S. Burrell. The Confederates captured or killed all of them except for the regiment's adjutant. They also took Harriet Lane, by boarding her, and two barks and a schooner. Cdr. W.B. Renshaw's flagship, U.S.S. Westfield, ran aground when trying to help Harriet Lane and, at 10:00 am, she was blown up to prevent her capture by the Confederates. Galveston was in Confederate hands again although the Union blockade would limit commerce in and out of the harbor.

MaGruder, "leading the center assault in person," runs into difficulty, despite catching the Union garrison unprepared. "The water was deep, the wharf proving higher than anticipated, and the scaling ladders were to short to enable the men to accomplish their objective." With Colonel Burrell's men barricaded inside their quarters on the edge of the wharf, MaGruder's cotton-clads attack the Union fleet in the harbor.

HDQRS. DIST. for TEXAS, NEW MEXICO, AND ARIZONA, Galveston, - General S. COOPER, Adjutant and Inspector General, Richmond, Va. - SIR: The light of the stars enabled us to see the Federal ships. The enemy did not hesitate long in replying to our attack. He soon opened on us from his fleet with a tremendous discharge of shell, which was followed with grape and canister....After an obstinate contest the infantry were directed to cover themselves and fire from the buildings nearest this wharf....But at this moment...our gunboats came dashing down the harbor and engaged the Harriet Lane, which was the nearest of the enemy's ships, in the most gallant style, running into her, one on each side, and pouring on her deck a deadly fire of rifles and shot-guns....The Bayou City...drove her prow into the iron wheel of the Harriet Lane, thus locking the two vessels together. Followed by the officers and men of the heroic volunteer corps, Commodore Leon Smith leaped to the deck of the hostile ship, and after a moment of feeble resistance she was ours....Commodore Smith then sent a flag to Commodore Renshaw..., demanding the surrender of the whole fleet, and giving three hours' time to consider....When the truce expired the enemy's ships under our guns, regardless of the white flags still flying at their mast-heads, gradually crept off....We thus captured one fine steamship, two barks, and one schooner. We ran ashore the flag-ship of the commodore, drove off two war steamers, and sunk another..., and took 300 or 400 prisoners....I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. BANKHEAD MAGRUDER, Major-general, Commanding.

After the war, General MaGruder went to Mexico and served with Maximilian where he did some surveying of Mexico which was the first time Mexico had ever been surveyed. He later returned to Texas and lived in Houston were he died February 18, 1871.
Major General John Bankhead MaGruder was buried in Houston but later was exhumed and re-interred in Galveston, Texas.



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Stars and Bars

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Confederacy do pledge ourselves to commemorate and
honor the service of leadership these men rendered in the
cause of the fundamental American principles of self
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true history of their deeds for the edification of ourselves,
our society, and for generations yet unborn


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