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E. A. O'Neal

E. A. O'Neal

Confederate (CSA)

Colonel

Edward Asbury O'Neal

(1818 - 1890)

Home State: Alabama

Education: LaGrange College, Class of 1836

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 26th Alabama Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

Admitted to the bar and began practice of law in 1840 at Florence, AL. In 1848 he was unsuccessful in running for Congress.

He joined the Confederate army on June 4, 1861 as a Captain. In Richmond he was promoted to Major in the Ninth Alabama Infantry Regiment. On October 21, he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. This was followed by a promotion to Colonel in March 1862 and reassignment to the Twenty-sixth Alabama Infantry Regiment at Richmond. While commanding his regiment, he was wounded at the battle of Seven Pines.

On the Campaign

[Was he was wounded on Sept 14th in the defense on South Mountain?]

The rest of the War

In 1863, he commanded Rhode's division, and led it in the battles of Gettysburg and Mine Run. In 1864 O'Neal returned to Alabama where his regiment was strengthened and sent to fight Sherman near Dalton, GA, where Col. O'Neal took command of Cantey's brigade. Although he never received the notification, and it may not have been confirmed, O'Neal was commissioned Brigadier General near the close of the war.

After the War

O'Neal returned to Florence and resumed his law practice. In 1875 he was elected to serve as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention. He was elected Governor of Alabama in 1882 and reelected in 1884.

References & notes

His son Emmet O'Neal was also Governor of Alabama (1911-1915). Biographical and service details from Warner.1

Birth

9/20/1818; Madison County, AL

Death

11/20/1890; Florence, AL; burial in City Cemetery, Florence, AL

Notes

1   Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray, Lives of the Confederate Commanders, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1959  [AotW citation 303]