Albert G. Jenkins | |
|---|---|
 Jenkins in uniform,c. 1862 | |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromVirginia's11th district | |
| In office March 4, 1857 – March 3, 1861 | |
| Preceded by | John S. Carlile |
| Succeeded by | John S. Carlile |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Albert Gallatin Jenkins (1830-11-10)November 10, 1830 Cabell County, Virginia (present-dayWest Virginia), U.S. |
| Died | May 21, 1864(1864-05-21) (aged 33) |
| Resting place | Spring Hill Cemetery Huntington, West Virginia, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Education | Jefferson College Harvard Law School |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | Confederate States |
| Branch/service | Confederate States Army |
| Rank | Brigadier-General |
| Battles/wars | American Civil War |
Albert Gallatin Jenkins (November 10, 1830 – May 21, 1864) was an American politician who served as a senior officer of theConfederate States Army. He served two terms in theUnited States Congress from 1857 to 1861 and later theFirst Confederate Congress.
Jenkins was born to the wealthyplantation owner Capt. William Jenkins and his wife Jeanette Grigsby McNutt inCabell County, in what was then Virginia. After a private education, he attendedMarshall Academy when he was fifteen. He graduated fromJefferson College inCanonsburg, Pennsylvania, in 1848 and fromHarvard Law School in 1850.
Admitted to the Virginia bar the same year, Jenkins practiced inCharleston. In 1859, he inherited part of his father's sprawlingslave plantation.[1] He was named a delegate to theDemocratic National Convention inCincinnati in 1856. That same year, he was elected as aDemocrat to theThirty-fifth and then, in 1858, to theThirty-sixth United States Congress, serving from 1857 to 1861.
With the outbreak of the Civil War and Virginia's subsequentsecession, Jenkins resigned from Congress in early 1861. He raised a company of mountedpartisan rangers, which by June was enrolled in the Confederate Army as a part of the8th Virginia Cavalry, with Jenkins as itscolonel. The company was first organized to protect a Virginia flag that had been raised in Guyandotte, which they did until April 20, 1861.[2] He fought at theBattle of Scary Creek on July 17, 1861, taking command of the confederate force when George S. Patton was wounded, and defeating the Union forces. By the year's end, his men had become such a nuisance to the Federals in western Virginia that military governorFrancis H. Pierpont appealed toPresidentAbraham Lincoln to send in a strong leader to stamp out the rebellion in the area. Early in 1862, Jenkins was elected as a delegate to the FirstConfederate Congress. After promotion to brigadier general on August 1, 1862, he returned to active duty. Throughout the fall, his men harassedUnion troops and supply lines, including the vitalBaltimore and Ohio Railroad.
In September, Jenkins's cavalryraided northern Kentucky and now West Virginia. They briefly entered extreme southernOhio across from Ravenswood, West Virginia, becoming one of the first organized Confederate units to enter a Northern state. By November 1862, a grand jury inCabell County returned misdemeanor indictment against Jenkins, however no copy of these indictments remain. These legal issues most likely came about from Jenkins's raiding in the area.[2] In December,Robert E. Lee requested that Jenkins and his men transfer to theShenandoah Valley.
After spending the winter foraging for supplies, he led his men on a raid in March 1863 through western Virginia, seeking to influence the popular vote which ultimately created the state of West Virginia. During theGettysburg campaign, Jenkins's brigade formed the cavalry screen forRichard S. Ewell's Second Corps. Jenkins led his men through theCumberland Valley intoPennsylvania and seizedChambersburg, burning down nearby railroad structures and bridges. During their invasion of Pennsylvania, his brigade, under Jenkins's direction, abducted hundreds ofAfrican Americans (most of themfree people of color with a few beingfugitive slaves), all of whom were forcibly sent southwards and sold intoslavery.[3]
He accompanied Ewell's column toCarlisle, briefly skirmishing with Unionmilitia at theBattle of Sporting Hill nearHarrisburg. During the subsequentBattle of Gettysburg, Jenkins was wounded on July 2 and missed the rest of the fighting.
Jenkins did not recover sufficiently to rejoin his command until fall 1863, and spent the early part of 1864 in and aroundMonroe County, West Virginia, assembling cavalry units forJohn C. Breckinridge's Department of Western Virginia.
By early May, the Confederates in southwestern Virginia had learned that a large Union force under Brig. Gens.George Crook and Brig. Gen.William W. Averell, had departedCharleston, and was rapidly approaching,- undoubtedly with the aim of striking the vitalVirginia and Tennessee Railroad in the region. At the same time came news that 200 miles to the north, a Union force under Maj. Gen.Franz Sigel, was making a simultaneous advance in the lowerShenandoah Valley. Sigel's force posed the greater immediate danger, because of its proximity and potential to threaten the left flank of Gen.Lee's main Confederate army while it was engaged againstGrant in central Virginia.
Despite the imminent arrival ofCrook andAverell's force,Breckinridge received orders on May 4, to hastily move, with all the infantry of his department, to theShenandoah Valley, where he could confront Sigel. Breckinridge complied, leaving his headquarters atDublin, Virginia on the evening of May 5, and sending a dispatch to Jenkins appointing him as new Commander of the Department of Western Virginia.
Hearing that Union Brig. Gen.George Crook had been dispatched from theKanawha Valley with a large force, Jenkins took the field to contest the Federal arrival. On May 9, 1864, he was severely wounded and captured during theBattle of Cloyd's Mountain, a Union victory which destroyed the last railroad line connecting Tennessee and Virginia.
A Union surgeon amputated Jenkins's arm, but he never recovered, dying twelve days later. He was initially buried in New Dublin Presbyterian Cemetery. After the war, his remains were reinterred at his home in Greenbottom, nearHuntington, West Virginia. He was later reinterred in the Confederate plot in Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington.
Jenkins's home,Green Bottom, is now operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. In 1937, Marshall University constructed Jenkins Hall, naming it in honor of the Confederate cavalry officer. In 2018, the university reviewed the name given Jenkins's history as a slaveholder andstaunch defender of slavery. They chose to keep the name while contextualizing the history of racism and slavery.[4] On July 7, 2020, the Marshall University Board of Governors voted unanimously to remove the name from its education building.[5]
In 2005, a monument to General Jenkins was erected inMechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, commemorating his service during the Gettysburg Campaign.[6] In the summer of 2020, the monument was removed.[7]
Albert Jenkins married Virginia Southard Bowlin ofSt. Louis, Missouri, on July 15, 1858. Together they had four children, James Bowlin, Alberta Gallatin, Margaret Virginia, and George.[2]
| U.S. House of Representatives | ||
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| Preceded by | U.S. Representative for Virginia's 11th Congressional District 1857–1861 | Succeeded by |
| Confederate States House of Representatives | ||
| Preceded by none | C.S.A. Representative for Virginia's 14th Congressional District 1861–1862 | Succeeded by |
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| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
