(1839 - 1913)
Home State: Texas
Education: U of Virginia, Class of 1860
Branch of Service: Infantry
Unit: 1st Texas Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
His family moved to Texas in 1840. He was a student at Hampton Academy (VA) for three years and the University of Virginia one year. He studied the law and was admitted to the bar in Jefferson, TX in early 1861. He enlisted as Private in Company A, First Texas Infantry and was appointed Regimental Sergeant Major in August 1861. He was elected Captain of Company A on 16 May 1862.
On the Campaign
He was wounded "by shell or shrapnel crushing his foot" in action at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.
The rest of the War
He "declined" to have his foot amputated at a field hospital, and travelled to Richmond, VA for treatment. He recovered sufficiently to return to his Company at Culpeper Court House, VA in November 1862. He resigned his commission and requested duty west of the Mississippi on 30 October 1863 and had service as Adjutant of W.P. Lane's Texas Cavalry (first Partisan Rangers) from May 1864 to the end of the War.
After the War
He returned to his practice in Jefferson and was briefly District Attorney. He was a prosecutor during the famous "Diamond Bessie" Moore murder trial in 1878 and he served a term as Representative in the State Legislature 1881-82. He wrote of his war experiences in Sketch of History: The First Texas Regiment, Hood's Brigade (1909).
References & notes
Service information from Davis1 and Simpson,2 who also has a post-war photo of him. Details from his bio sketch in the Handbook of Texas Online . His gravesite is on Findagrave.
More on the Web
Todd wrote of his war experiences in Sketch of History: The First Texas Regiment, Hood's Brigade. Originally run in a series in a local newspaper in 1909, they were published again in 1964, Harold B. Simpson, editor. The quotes above are from that work. That edition is available online from the Hathi Trust.
Birth
05/06/1839; Mathews County, VA
Death
02/02/1913; Jefferson, TX; burial in Oakwood Cemetery, Jefferson, TX