Carnot Posey

Brigadier-General Carnot Posey
Portrait of Brigadier-General Posey
Born	August 5, 1818 Wilkinson County, Mississippi
Died	November 13, 1863 (aged 45) Charlottesville, Virginia
Place of burial	University of Virginia Cemetery Charlottesville, Virginia
Allegiance	United States Confederate States
Service/branch	United States Army  Confederate States Army
Years of service	1846–48 (USA) 1861–63 (CSA)
Rank	Captain (Militia) Brigadier-General (CSA)
Battles/wars	Mexican-American War American Civil War

Carnot Posey (August 5, 1818 – November 13, 1863) was a Mississippi planter and lawyer, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Bristoe Station. He was transported for care to the University of Virginia, where the rooms on the Lawn all served as Confederate hospital rooms. He was placed in the same room (Room 33 West Lawn) where he lived many years earlier as a UVa Law student and later died in that room of his wounds.

Early life and family

Posey was born near Woodville, Mississippi, the fourth of eight children of planter John Brooke Posey and Elizabeth Screven Posey. He attended the common schools and then graduated from college in Jackson, Mississippi, before studying law at the University of Virginia. He returned to his family's plantation and later established a law practice in Woodville. He married Mary Collins in May 1840 and they had two sons. However, Mary Posey died four years later.

When the Mexican-American War erupted, Posey was commissioned a first lieutenant in the 1st Mississippi Rifles, a volunteer regiment commanded by future Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Posey fought at the Battle of Buena Vista, where he was wounded.

Returning to Woodville after the war, Posey married Jane White in February 1849. They would eventually have six children. U.S. President James Buchanan appointed Posey as the district attorney for southern Mississippi, a post he held when the state seceded from the Union.

Civil War

Posey recruited a local militia company, the Wilkinson Rifles, and enlisted them into Confederate service, serving as their captain from May 21, 1861. They became part of the 16th Mississippi, with Posey being selected as the regiment's first colonel on June 4.^[1] Not long afterward, Posey saw his first action of the war in a skirmish near Corinth, Mississippi. He and his men were transferred to the Eastern Theater in August 1861.^[2]

Posey suffered a slight wound at the Battle of Cross Keys during Major General Stonewall Jackson's Valley Campaign in June 1862. His regiment fought through the Seven Days Battles with the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee.^[3] He served as the temporary commander of the brigade of four Mississippi infantry regiments, commanded by Brigadier General Winfield S. Featherston, during the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Maryland Campaign. Posey's regiment fought at Fredericksburg in December 1862, successfully repelling a Union attack. In the spring of 1863, Posey was promoted to Brigadier General with date of rank of November 1, 1862.^[4]

The following May, Posey's Brigade saw limited action at the Battle of Chancellorsville, maintaining a reserve position at Salem Church. During the army reorganization following Stonewall Jackson's death, Posey's Brigade was assigned to Major General Richard H. Anderson's division of the Third (A.P. Hill's) Corps. During the Battle of Gettysburg in July, the brigade was part of Anderson's July 2 attack on Cemetery Ridge, conducting a "feeble, disjointed attack that was repulsed."^[3]

During the fall campaign, Posey was wounded in the left thigh by a shell fragment at the Battle of Bristoe Station on October 14, 1863. He was initially taken to Culpeper Court House for medical treatment. In an era with limited understanding of germs, infection soon set in. After a month's struggle to live, Posey died in Room 33 West Lawn at the University of Virginia, under the care of his good friend, Dr. John Davis, in Charlottesville, Virginia, in November. Posey was buried in the Davis family plot in the University of Virginia Cemetery.^[3]

In memoriam

The Carnot Posey Lodge #378 of the Masons was founded in 1875 and named in his memory.

See also

• List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)

Notes

1. Eicher, p. 436.
2. Some sources, such as Clement A. Evans's Confederate Military History, volume 7, and Mark Boatner's The Civil War Dictionary, place Posey at First Bull Run and Ball's Bluff, but Freeman, vol. 2, p. 419, and Wert, p. 51, point out that Posey and his 16th Mississippi were unlikely to have appeared at either battle.
3. Wert, p. 51.
4. Eicher, p. 797. The promotion is referred to as "special" because of political maneuvering required when Featherston was on medical leave and then returned unexpectedly. See Freeman, vol. 2, pp. 263-67.

References

•  Wilson, James Grant; Fiske, John, eds. (1900). "Posey, Carot". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. New York: D. Appleton.
• Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
• Freeman, Douglas S. Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command. 3 vols. New York: Scribner, 1946. ISBN 978-0-684-85979-8.
• Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
• Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.
• Wert, Jeffry D. "Carnot Posey." In The Confederate General, vol. 5, edited by William C. Davis and Julie Hoffman. Harrisburg, PA: National Historical Society, 1991. ISBN 0-918678-67-6.

External links

• Biography of Posey
• Up Came Hill - bio of Posey
• "Carnot Posey". Find a Grave. Retrieved August 14, 2010.