David.........he was a pretty sordid fellow. I did some more research and found the following on him in a book called "Men of Fire" by Jack Hurst. He was cashiered from the army during the Mexican War for trying to bribe a superior officer into allowing the transport of some smuggled personal civilian property. As punishment he was never given credit for four battles that he participated in and was relegated to menial supply duty. He also was stricken with yellow fever during this time and almost died. But President Polk wouldn't give him a second chance and he was discharged "quietly" in 1847 after 11 years of service and returned home where he began a teaching career. His wife died in 1850 and left him with their only child, a severely retarded son. It says he was a very private and closed mouth man harboring his past and the fact that several officers knew of his record. Ezra Warner's "Generals in Grey" states that he resigned in 1847 to become a teacher and was associated with Western Military Institute at Georgetown, Kentucky and the Military College of the University of Nashville and was active in militia units in both states with rank of colonel. He entered Confederate service as a colonel of engineers and was appointed brigadier general on 24 January 1862. He was captured at Fort Donelson but escaped. He was severely wounded at Shiloh but recovered and served at Murfreesboro, Chickamauga, and Knoxville under Longstreet. He was then promoted to major general on 21 May, 1864 and remained with the ANV in the trenches at Petersburg. His division was shattered at Sayler's Creek but he escaped and was without a command at Appomattox. He was paroled in 1866 where he returned to Tennessee and in 1870 became chancellor of the University of Nashville, which became a prep school a later closed.

Keith