Battleline
Posts: 426
Joined: 10/5/2006
Status: offline
|
Maj. Gen. Bryan Grimes (b. 1828, d. 1880) The last major general appointed in the Army of Northern Virginia, Bryan Grimes ended the war leading a division. Grimes’ division made one of the final attacks prior to the surrender at Appomattox. Grimes was born at “Grimesland” in Pitt County, North Carolina, Nov. 2, 1828. Graduating from the University of North Carolina in 1848, Grimes became a planter. After travels in Europe, he was a member of the state secession convention in 1861. Originally a Whig, Grimes entered military service after the fall of Fort Sumter and was made major of the Fourth North Carolina Infantry. The regiment arrived in Virginia just after First Manassas (Bull Run). The Fourth North Carolina was at Yorktown and Williamsburg (April and May, 1862), but did not see action like it did at the Battle of Seven Pines May 31, 1862. There, the Fourth North Carolina was mauled in a battle which left both sides claiming victory. The regiment suffered 426 casualties (77 killed on the field, 99 mortally wounded) among its 520 men. Grimes was the only officer not wounded, although he was briefly pinned under his horse after it was decapitated by a Federal artillery shell. In the aftermath, Grimes was promoted to lieutenant colonel just after the battle and colonel June 19, 1862. Grimes helped to reform the “Bloody Fourth” and it returned to action during the Seven Days battles, seeing some action at Mechanicsville (June 26, 1862). By the end of the Peninsular Campaign, Grimes’ immediate superior was quoted as saying, “Col. Grimes and his regiment are the keystone of my brigade. Grimes missed time due to typhoid fever and being injured after being kicked by his horse. (Grimes did not have good luck with horses. Seven were shot out from under him during the war.) After the Confederate defeat at Sharpsburg, Maryland (Antietam), Grimes returned to duty. At the Confederate victory at Fredericksburg (Dec. 13, 1862), Grimes briefly commanded a brigade. He was back with the Fourth North Carolina for the victory at Chancellorsville (May 2-4,1863). In the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1-3, 1863), Grimes led his men through the streets of the town after Gen. Richard Ewell’s Corps attacked from the north, breaking the Federal defenses July 1. For the rest of the battle, Grimes’ men were on the north side of Cemetery Hill. After the defeat, Grimes’ men guarded the rear of the retreating army. In August of 1863, Grimes presided over a meeting of North Carolina troops concerning a peace movement led by North Carolina Standard editor William W. Holden. At the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, Grimes led Gen. Stephen Ramseur’s brigade in a successful counterattack at the Bloody Angle. Grimes was promoted to brigadier general May 19, 1864. Grimes’ brigade served in Gen. Jubal Early’s Valley Campaign in 1864. During a defeat at Cedar Creek (Oct. 19, 1864), casualties among Confederate generals pushed Grimes into division command. After that campaign, Grimes’ men went into the Petersburg trenches. While stationed there, Feb. 15, 1865, Grimes received an appointment to major general. In April, the division left the trenches. On April 9, Grimes led his men in the final attack prior to the surrender. After the war, Grimes returned to his plantation and retired from public life. He got tied up in a local feud between longtime residents and “undesireables.” A hired assassin, William Parker, shot and killed Grimes near his plantation on the evening of Aug. 14, 1880. Grimes was buried at “Grimesland.”
Parker was arrested but found not guilty by a jury. However, while drinking in Washington, N.C., in November of 1888, Parker bragged of killing Grimes. Arrested for being drunk, Parker was removed early the next morning by about a dozen masked men and strung up on a drawbridge over the Pamlico River. The coroner ruled “death by hanging at the hands of parties unknown.”
|
Printable Version
CSA Bio: Bryan Grimes - 
New Messages
No New Messages
Hot Topic w/ New Messages
Hot Topic w/o New Messages
Locked w/ New Messages
Locked w/o New Messages
Post New Thread