Martin Witherspoon Gary

(18831 - 1881)
Home State: South Carolina
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Combined Arms
Unit: Hampton (SC) Legion

see his Battle Report

Before the Antietam Campaign:
He practiced law in Edgefield, SC, and was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1860. After secession he joined HamptonÌs Legion, beginning as an infantry Captain. He served until the warÌs end, participating in every major engagement in which the Legion fought.

At First Manassas the command of the legion devolved upon him after Colonel Hampton was wounded, Lieutenant-Colonel Johnson killed and Captain Conner disabled. At the reorganization in 1862 he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel of the infantry of the legion, a battalion of eight companies, and after it was filled to a regiment, he was promoted Colonel.

The remainder of the War:
By May 1864 he had attained the rank of Brigadier General and took command of a cavalry brigade in the defense of Richmond. At Appomattox, he refused to surrender. With some two hundred members of his command, he escaped and joined Jefferson Davis and his cabinet at Greensboro, North Carolina. Gary escorted the party as far as his motherÌs home in Cokesbury, where he turned over his command and ended his career as a Confederate soldier.

After the War:
He resumed his law practice in Edgefield, began cotton planting, and undertook a series of business and speculative ventures. He was also active in politics.

References, Sources, and other notes:
Additional Source: Confederate Military History, Vol. 5

More on the Web:
See a provocative bio sketch at SC Encyclopedia, from which much of the above is quoted. See his picture, too.

Birth Date: 3/25/1831    Place of Birth: Cokesbury, SC
College: Harvard    Graduating Year: 1854
Death Date: 4/9/1881    Death Place: Edgefield, SC    Burial Place: Tabernacle Cemetery, near Cokesbury, SC

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