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R.G. Cole
(1830 - 1887)
Home State: Virginia
Education: US Military Academy, West Point, NY, Class of 1850;Class Rank: 37th
Command Billet: Staff Officer
Branch of Service: Staff
Before Sharpsburg
After graduating from West Point he was appointed brevet 2nd Lieutenant of Infantry and was sent to posts in the Indian Territory and Texas. He was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant, 8th United States Infantry on 25 May 1852 and First Lieutenant on 4 September 1855. He resigned his commission on 28 June 1861.
He was Captain of Infantry, CSA on 16 March 1861 and assigned to General R.S. Garnett's staff in June. He was promoted to Major and Commissary of Subsistence (CS), PACS on 1 July 1861 and appointed to General J.E. Johnston's staff. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and CS and sent to the Army of Northern Virginia as Chief CS on 5 July 1862 (rank to date from 9 December 1861).
On the Campaign
He was Chief Commissary of Subsistence of the Army on the Maryland Campaign.
The rest of the War
He remained as Chief Commissary of Subsistence to the Army of Northern Virginia to the surrender at Appomattox Court House, VA in April 1865.
After the War
He was a planter in Florida and at Savannah, GA.
References & notes
Birth
09/29/1830; Manchester, VA
Death
11/07/1887; Savannah, GA; burial in Bonaventure Cemetery, Savannah, GA
1 Heitman, Francis Bernard, Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army 1789-1903, 2 volumes, Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1903, Vol. 1, pg. 316 [AotW citation 29366]
2 Cullum, George Washington, Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the US Military Academy, 2nd Edition, 3 vols., New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1868-79, Vol. II, pg. 433 [AotW citation 29367]
3 Krick, Robert E.L., Staff Officers in Gray; A Biographical Register of the Staff Officers in the Army of Northern Virginia, Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003, pg. 100 [AotW citation 29368]
4 Miller, Francis Trevelyan, editor in chief, Photographic History of the Civil War, 10 vols., New York: The Review of Reviews Co., 1911-12, Vol. 10. pg. 71 [AotW citation 29369]