Montgomery Dent Corse

In 1846, he mustered a company of volunteers for service in Mexico, serving as their captain. He sailed for California in 1849 and participated in the Gold Rush. He returned permanently to Alexandria in 1856. He served as 1st lieutenant of the Alexandria Home Guard in 1859 and was elected Captain of the Old Dominion Rifles on January 7, 1861

At the outbreak of the Civil War, he was commissioned Colonel of the 17th Virginia Infantry, and took part in the major battles of the Army of Northern Virginia. He was wounded at Second Manassas.

He commanded the regiment in Maryland and may have been wounded on South Mountain and/or Sharpsburg.

Promoted Brigadier General after Antietam, Corse's brigade was on detached service in the Blackwater River area southeast of Petersburg. After attempting to retake New Bern, NC, the brigade returned to Howlett's Line, between Petersburg and Richmond, where he was wounded for the fourth time. At the battle of Saylor's Creek, Corse was captured and held prisoner-of-war at Fort Warren, Boston, Massachusetts until July 24, 1865.

After returning to Alexandria, he went into a trading business with his brother and was a charter member of the R.E. Lee Camp, United Confederate Veterans. He donated his $8.00 monthly pension from the Mexican War to the cost of the Confederate Monument and thereby claimed that the Yankee government had a hand in paying for the memorial to Alexandria's fallen Confederates. Corse was honored at the dedication of the Monument at South Washington and Prince Streets in 1889.

Source: The Prisoner-of-war letters of BGen Montgomery Dent Corse, CSA, found online as a project of the Alexandria (VA) Library - material quoted above. His gravesite is on Findagrave.

See a dramatic rendition of his military career from the Confederate Military History, available online.

03/14/1816; Alexandria, VA

02/11/1895; Alexandria, VA; burial in Saint Paul's Cemetery, Alexandria, VA