Samuel Wragg FergusonBrigadier General, Provisional Army of the Confederate States
 (MOLLUS)
 (Compiled Service Record) |
Born: November 3rd, 1834, in Charleston, Charleston District, South Carolina, the son of Lieutenant James Ferguson, U.S. Army (1784-1874)
Married: Catherine Sarah Lee (1841-1928), no date.
Pre-War: Appointed to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, with an appointment from the State of South Carolina; entered the Military Academy as a Cadet on July 1st, 1852; graduated 19th in his class, of 38, from the Military Academy on July 1st, 1857, and was appointed as a Brevet Second Lieutenant of Dragoons, unassigned. Among his classmates were future General's Edward Porter Alexander (3), George C. Strong (5), Charles H. Morgan (12), John S. Marmaduke (30) and Robert Houston Anderson (35). Served on frontier duty in the Utah Expedition from 1857 to 1858; promoted to Second Lieutenant of Dragoons in the 1st United States Dragoon Regiment on June 14th, 1858; at Ft. Walla Walla, Washington, from 1859 to 1861; resigned his commission in the United States Army on March 1st, 1861.
Service: Appointed as an Aide-de-Camp, with the rank of Captain, in the Provisional Army of South Carolina on March 1st, 1861; served as an Aide-de-Camp on the staff of Colonel Roswell S. Ripley in March 1861; served in the operations in, and around, Charleston, South Carolina, from March to April 1861, being present during the bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor on April 13th to 14th, 1861; served as an Aide-de-camp on the staff of General P.G.T. Beauregard, P.A.C.S., from March 6th, 1861, to April 11th, 1862, as an Aide-de-Camp, |
with the rank of Captain, on March 6th, 1861; as an Aide-de-Camp, with the rank of First Lieutenant, in October 1861, and as an Aide-de-Camp, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, on April 3rd, 1862. Appointed as a First Lieutenant of Cavalry in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, from the State of South Carolina, on May 18th, 1861, to rank from March 16th, 1861; appointment confirmed on October 13th, 1861; accepted the appointment on July 31st, 1861; served in the Manassas Campaign from June to July 1861. Appointed as Lieutenant Colonel of the 28th Mississippi Volunteer Cavalry Regiment on April 2nd, 1862, with rank from February 24th, 1862; appointment confirmed on April 2nd, 1862; appointment accepted on April 29th, 1862; relieved from staff duty with the Headquarters of the Army of Mississippi on April 11th, 1862, and was ordered to report to the 28th Mississippi Cavalry Regiment; served in the Tennessee Campaign in April 1862; served in the Corinth Campaign from April to May 1862; absent, with a detachment of the regiment along the Mississippi River in July 1862; absent, sick, from August to October 1862; absent, sick at Jackson, Mississippi, in November 1862, Assistant Surgeon William D. Gomars writing on November 28th, 1862, that "...having applied for a certificate on which to ground an application for leave of absence, I do hereby certify that I have carefully examined this officer, and find that he is suffering from a severe contusion of the right arm, occasioned by a fall, and implicating the elbow joint, and that in consequence thereof, he is in my opinion unfit for duty. I further declare my belief that he will not be able to resume his duties in a less period than thirty (30) days, and recommend that he receive a furlough for that length of time;" served in the Vicksburg Campaign from February to July 1863; promoted to the temporary rank of Colonel on May 7th, 1863, to rank from that date; appointed as Colonel of the 5th South Carolina Volunteer Cavalry Regiment in 1863, however never assumed command of the Regiment and declined the appointment. Appointed as a Brigadier General in the Provisional Army of the Confederate States, from the State of Mississippi, on July 28th, 1863, to rank from July 23rd, 1863; appointment confirmed by the Confederate Congress on February 17th, 1864; accepted the appointment on August 15th, 1863; commanding Ferguson's Brigade, Jackson's Division, Cavalry Corps, Army of Tennessee, from September 1863 to May 1865; served in the Chickamauga-Chattanooga Campaign from September to December 1863; served in the Atlanta Campaign from May to September 1864; in the March to the Sea from November to December 1864; escorted, with his brigade, President Jefferson F. Davis from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Washington, Georgia, from April to May 1865; disbanded his Brigade in May 1865 at Washington, Georgia, after providing an escort for President Jefferson F. Davis to that place.
| Post War: Moved to Greenville, Mississippi, in 1865, and was admitted to the Mississippi State Bar; opened, and operated, at law practice at Greenville, Mississippi, from 1866; served as the President of the Board of the Mississippi Levee Commission for Bolivar, Washington, Issaquena and Sharkey Counties, Mississippi, from 1876 to 1883; as the Secretary of the Board of Mississippi Levee Commissioners in 1883; as a member of the United States River Commission for the improvement of the Mississippi River from May 21st, 1883; moved to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1894; tendered his services to the United States War Department for duty in the War with Spain in May 1898; employed in the engineering department of The Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company in the Republic of Ecuador, South America, from 1899 to 1901; served as the City Engineer of Biloxi, Mississippi, from 1906.
Died: February 3rd, 1917, at Jackson, Hinds County, Mississippi, at the age of 82
Buried: Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Hines County, Mississippi |
 (Annual Report USMA) |
Resources
Page 688, Volume III, "Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., from its establishment, in 1802, to 1890. With the early history of the United States Military Academy." George W. Cullum; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Boston & New York; 1891.
Page 108, Supplement, Volume IV, 1890-1900, "Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, since its establishment in 1802." George W. Cullum; edited by Edward S. Holden, M.A., Sc. D., LL. D.; The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts; 1901.
Page 90, Supplement, Volume V, 1900-1910, "Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, since its establishment in 1802." Brevet Major General George W. Cullum; edited by Charles Braden; Seemann & Peters Printers, Saginaw, Michigan, 1910.
Page 81, Supplement, Volume VI-A, 1910-1920, "Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, since its establishment in 1802." George W. Cullum; Edited by Wirt Robinson; Seemann & Peters Printers, Saginaw, Michigan, 1920.
Pages 394 to 395, Volume V (South Carolina), "Confederate Military History." Clement A. Evans, Confederate Publishing Company, Atlanta, Georgia, 1899.
Page 108, "General Officers of the Confederate Army." Marcus J. Wright, The Neale Publishing Company, New York, New York, 1911.
Page 87, "Generals in Gray. Lives of the Confederate Commanders." Ezra J. Warner, Louisiana State University Press, Baton Rouge, Louisiana; 1997.
Page 417, Volume I, "Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, from its organization, September 29, 1789, to March 2, 1903." Francis B. Heitman, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1903.
"Samuel Wragg Ferguson, Brig. General, CSA, and wife Catherine Lee." James Marvin Lowrey; 1994.
Heyward and Ferguson Family Papers, 1806 to 1923. The Southern Historical Collection at the Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
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