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B.G. Humphreys
(1808 - 1882)
Home State: Mississippi
Command Billet: Commanding Regiment
Branch of Service: Infantry
Before Sharpsburg
He was briefly a Cadet at the West Point, but was expelled with at least 10 others after taking part in the Eggnog Riot - a drunken brawl - at Christmas 1826. He was a planter in Claiborne County and was a member of Mississippi State Legislature in 1837 and the a Mississippi State Senator from 1839-44. In 1860 he was a 52 year old planter at Port Gibson in Claiborne County, MS.
He enrolled on 2 July 1861 in Sunflower County, MS as Captain of Company I, 21st Mississippi Infantry and mustered with them at Lynchburg, VA on 9 August 1861. He was appointed Colonel of the regiment on 11 September 1861.
On the Campaign
He led the regiment on Maryland Heights near Harpers Ferry, VA on 13 and 14 September 1862.
Captain Sims commanded in the battle [at Sharpsburg on 17 September], but Colonel Humphreys arrived near the close of the fight and "his timely presence cheered and animated the whole brigade".
(from Rowland)
The rest of the War
He was promoted to Brigadier General, CSA on 14 August 1863 (to date from 12 August) to take General Barksdale's brigade. He was wounded by a gunshot to his chest at Berryville, VA on 3 September 1864. He was in a hospital in Charlottesville, VA to 26 September, then on wounded furlough to at least 28 February 1865, the last record in his file.
After the War
Governor of Mississippi, 1865-68, he was physically ejected from the governor's office by an armed force under the orders of the U.S. military commander of Mississippi. In 1870 he was an insurance agent in Vicksburg, MS and by 1880 was a farmer at Itta Bena in Leflore County.
References & notes
His service from his Compiled Service Records,1 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists, the US Census of 1860-1880, family Bible records, and Rowland.2 His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a CDV sold by Heritage Auctions in 2007.
He married Mary McLaughlin (1814-1835) in March 1832 and they had two children. He married again, Mildred Hickman Maury (1823-1899) in December 1839 and they had 11 children.
Humphreys County, MS is named for him.
Birth
8/26/1808; Claiborne County, MS
Death
12/20/1882; Itta Bena, MS; burial in Wintergreen Cemetery, Port Gibson, MS
1 Also his CSR file under General and Staff Officers, Corps, Division and Brigade Staffs, Non-com. Staffs ... CSA.
US War Department, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers, Record Group No. 109 (War Department Collection of Confederate Records), Washington DC: US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), 1903-1927 [AotW citation 29556]
2 Rowland, Dunbar, Military History of Mississippi 1803-1898, The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi, 1908, Nashville: Press of the Brandon Printing Company, 1908 [AotW citation 29557]