Alexander Robert Lawton

(1818 - 1896)
Home State: Georgia
Command Billet: Commanding Division
Branch of Service: Artillery
Unit: Ewell's Division

Before the Antietam Campaign:
He served in the US 1st Artillery until resigning in 1840. He then attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1842. He settled in Savannah, Georgia, and entered the fields of law, railroad administration and state politics.

At the outbreak of the War, he was Colonel of the 1st Georgia which seized Fort Pulaski as Georgia's first act of war. He was promoted to B.G. on 13 April 1861 and was in charge of the Georgia coast defenses, until he joined General Stonewall Jackson in his valley campaign in June of 1862.

In the Antietam Campaign:
Commanded Ewell's Division in Jackson's Command until wounded (relieved by BGen Jubal Early).

The remainder of the War:
Disabled by his Sharpsburg wound until May 1863, he was appointed the Quartermaster General of the Confederacy.

After the War:
After the war he was involved in Georgia politics and railroads. He lost the 1880 election for the US Senate. Chosen president of the American Bar Association in 1882, he was appointed minister to Austria in 1887.

References, Sources, and other notes:
Source: Heitman, Francis Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, Washington, US Government Printing Office, 1903.; and,
Appleton's Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited by James Grant Wilson and John Fiske. Six volumes, New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1887-1889

More on the Web:
See his gravesite from find-a-grave.

Birth Date: 11/4/1818    Place of Birth: Beaufort, SC
College: US Military Academy, West Point, NY    Graduating Year: 1839    Class Rank: 13
Death Date: 7/2/1896    Death Place: Clifton Springs, NY    Burial Place: Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, GA

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