Biography of Brigadier General Samuel Wragg Ferguson Excerpted from "Collections of the Kansas State Historical Society, 1911-1912", Edited by Geo. W. Martin, Secretary. Vol XII., State Printing Office, Topeka, Kansas 1912. submitted by Teresa Lindquist (merope@radix.net); (copyright) 2001 by Teresa Lindquist ----------------------------------------------------------------------- KSGENWEB INTERNET GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY COPYRIGHT NOTICE: In keeping with the KSGenWeb policy of providing free information on the Internet, this data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other gain. Copying of the files within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- BRIGADIER GENERAL SAMUEL WRAGG FERGUSON was born and reared at Charleston, and graduated at the United States Military Academy in 1857. As a lieutenant of dragoons, he participated in the Utah expedition under Albert Sidney Johnston, and in 1859-'60 was on duty at Fort Walla Walla, Washington. When informed of the result of the presidential election of 1860 he resigned his commission and returned to Charleston, and on March 1, 1861, entered the service of his native state with the rank of captain. Being appointed aid-dc-camp to General Beauregard, he received the formal surrender of Major Anderson, raised the first Confederate flag and posted the first guards at Fort Sumter. He was then sent to deliver to the Congress at Montgomery the flag used at Fort Moultrie, the first standard of the Confederacy struck by a hostile shot. He remained on Beauregard's staff and took an active part in the battle of Shiloh, on the second day being assigned to command a brigade of the Second corps. At the battle of Farmington he was also on duty with General Beauregard. At the same time he held the rank of lieutenant colonel of the Twenty-eighth Mississippi regiment of cavalry, and subsequently, stationed at Vicksburg, he had command of cavalry and outlying pickets until detailed for special duty along the Yazoo delta, opposing with cavalry and artillery the advance of the Federal transports. During Grant's preliminary movements against Vicksburg he thwarted the attempts of Sherman and Porter to reach the city in the rear by way of Deer creek. In 1863 he was promoted to brigadier general. He was active in command of cavalry in harassing Sherman's movement to Chattanooga, and during the Georgia campaign of 1864 his brigade of Alabamians and Mississippians, with Armstrong's and Ross's brigades, formed the cavalry of the army of the Mississippi, under command of Gen. W. H. Jackson, operating on the left wing of Johnston's army. He defeated Wilder's 'Lightning Brigade' and displayed gallantry on every field. When Sherman began his march to Savannah he harassed the Federal flank until within a few miles of Savannah, when he left his horses on the South Carolina side of the river, after swimming it, and, entering Savannah with his men as infantry, covered the rear of Hardee's army at the evacuation. He subsequently operated in southern Georgia until ordered to Danville, Va., but on reaching Greensboro was ordered back, escorting President Davis from Charlotte to Abbeville and as far as Washington, Ga., where his command was disbanded. He then made his home in Mississippi and practiced law at Greenville. In 1876 he was made president of the Board of Mississippi Levee Commission for several counties, and in 1883 became a member of the United States River Commission. In 1894 he returned to his native city of Charleston and devoted himself to the profession of civil engineering. In 1898 he offered his services for the war with Spain."-Confederate Military History, vol. 5, p. 394. General Ferguson now lives at Biloxi, Miss. He was born November 3, 1834. After the war he settled in Washington county, Mississippi, where his wife had landed interests. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in November, 1865, and first practiced law and afterwards planted cotton. He has held no political office, but has been an ardent Democrat. Was appointed by President Arthur a member of the Board of Mississippi River Commissioners, vice John B. Eads, resigned, and served until peremptorily dismissed without either cause or reason by President Harrison, to enable him to put in the place the man he had recommended when Captain Eads resigned. (Included with the article: "With Albert Sidney Johnston's Expedition to Utah, 1857," page 303)