Raleigh Edward Colston
(October 1, 1825 – July 29, 1896) was a French-born
American
professor,
soldier, cartographer, and writer. He was a controversial
brigadier general
in the
Confederate States
Army during the
American Civil
War.
Colston was among a handful of former
Confederates who served in Egypt
following
the war.
Early life and career
Born in
Paris, France
, he was the son of Maria Theresa, Duchess of
Valmy
, the divorced wife of one of Napoleon's marshals. She married Dr. Raleigh
Edward Colston, who adopted the boy and renamed him.
In 1842, young Colston
was sent to study in the United States, living with an uncle in
Berkeley
County, Virginia
, now West Virginia
He entered
the Virginia
Military Institute
in 1843 and graduated July 4, 1846, fourth in a
class of fourteen. Following his graduation, Colston taught
French and military science at VMI. He married Louise Meriwether
Bowyer; the couple would have two daughters, Mary Frances and
Louise Elizabeth.
Professor
Colston and a group of VMI cadets served as guards during the
November 1859 execution of abolitionist firebrand John Brown following his
unsuccessful raid on Harper's Ferry
.
Civil War
With Virginia's
secession in early 1861,
Colston was commissioned as the
colonel of the 16th Virginia
Infantry.
Colston commanded the Confederate district
across from Newport News
during the historic 1862 battle between the
USS Monitor and CSS Virginia.
On December 24, 1861, Colston was appointed as a brigadier general.
He served under
James Longstreet in
the
Peninsula Campaign in
mid-1862, leading three
regiments.
His
performance at the Battle of Seven Pines
elicited criticism. Becoming ill from
exposure, Colston left the
Army of Northern Virginia until
December.
In April 1863, he led a
brigade under
Stonewall Jackson.
At the Battle of
Chancellorsville
a month later, he was in charge of a full division of infantry, but was reassigned
shortly after the battle for losing control of his
troops.
Colston served under
Pierre
G. T. Beauregard in 1864 in the Siege of
Petersburg
. In early 1865, he was in command of the
defense of Lynchburg, Virginia
, guarding one of the Confederacy's last open
railroads.
Postbellum
Colston
established a pair of military schools, including one in Wilmington,
North Carolina
. In 1873, he was hired by the
Khedive of Egypt,
Isma'il Pasha, as a professor of geology and a
colonel in the military.
He surveyed and mapped several previously
uncharted deserts along the Nile River in
the Sudan
.
Colston was badly injured by a fall from a
camel and had to be carried across the desert for
several weeks on a litter, during which time he expected to die
and, as a result, wrote his will. He was partially paralyzed for
nearly a year and suffered life-long lingering aftereffects.
In 1879, he returned to the United States, where he lectured and
wrote several magazine articles on his experiences in
North Africa and in the Civil War. Despite
being crippled, he worked as a clerk and translator in the
U.S. War Department and
Surgeon General's office from 1882–94.
He lived
the rest of his life as an invalid in the Confederate Soldiers'
Home in Richmond,
Virginia
, where he died penniless. He was buried in
Hollywood Cemetery
in Richmond, not far from fellow Virginia general
George Pickett.
In popular media
Actor J. Scott Watkins portrayed General Colston in the 2003 Civil
War film
Gods and
Generals.
Publications
- "Watching the Merrimac", Century
Magazine, Vol. 29, issue 5, March 1885.
- "The Land of the False Prophet",
Century Magazine, Vol. 29, issue 5, March 1885.
- "The Rescue of Chinese Gordon",
Century Magazine, Vol. 28, issue 5, September 1884.
References
Notes
- VMI alumni archives.
- Evans,
Clement, Confederate Military History. Atlanta:
Confederate Publishing Company, 1899.
External links
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