Evander McIver Law

He was the oldest son of Sarah Elizabeth McIver and prosperous lawyer and planter Ezekiel Augustus Law; his family called him McIver. After graduating from the Citadel, he taught at Kings Mountain Military Academy in Yorkville, SC then helped found and taught at the Military High School in Tuskegee, AL. In 1860 he was a 24 year old law student living with his parents, 7 siblings, and at least 28 slaves at Darlington Court House, SC.

He raised a company of troops and was commissioned Captain of Company B, 4th Alabama Infantry on 21 April. He was elected Lieutenant Colonel on 3 May and was severely wounded in the left arm at First Manassas on 21 July; his arm afterward essentially useless. He was promoted to Colonel on 28 October 1861 and took command of the Alabama Brigade as senior Colonel in May 1862.

He led his brigade in Hood's Division, Longstreet's Command. Along with those of the Texas Brigade, his regiments drove back the initial waves of Federal General Hooker's First Corps early on the morning of 17 September 1862 at Sharpsburg, and suffered greater than 50% casualties.

He was appointed Brigadier General to date from 2 October 1862 and led a brigade at Fredericksburg, that December. He and his brigade began the Confederate attacks at Little Round Top at Gettysburg on 2 July 1863. When General Hood was wounded there, the controversy over who should replace him brought Law into conflict with General Longstreet and Law's rival, Brigadier General Micah Jenkins. In December of 1863, Law offered his resignation, which was not accepted, and Jenkins wanted Law court-martialed, but the War Department did not prefer charges. After fighting in the Battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, where he was wounded in the head on 3 July 1864, he commanded a cavalry unit until the end of the war.

In 1870 he was a prosperous lawyer at Yorkville, SC but in 1880 was farming back in Tuskegee, AL. He moved to Bartow in Polk County, FL in 1881 and was Superintendent of Schools there in 1900. From 1906 to at least 1912 he was editor of the Courier-Informant in Bartow.

His service and life basics from Warner,2 who has his middle name as McIvor. Service details from his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860-1910. His gravesite is on Findagrave. His picture from a photograph at the Library of Congress.

He married Jane Elizabeth Latta (1844-1920) in March 1863 and they had 5 children.

08/07/1836; Darlington District, SC

10/31/1920; Bartow, FL; burial in Oak Hill Cemetery, Bartow, FL