Samuel Wragg Ferguson

Samuel Wragg Ferguson was born on November 3, 1834, in Charleston, South Carolina, to James and Abby Ann Ferguson. His father was a planter who owned $53,000 of real estate and $114,436 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Charleston, and he enrolled at the United States Military Academy in 1852. He graduated in 1857 and received a commission as a brevet 2nd lieutenant in the 1st United States Dragoons. He spent the late 1850s in the Washington Territory.

He resigned from the army in March 1861 and joined the Confederacy. He spent the first year of the war as aide-de-camp to General P. G. T. Beauregard. He took part in the assault on Fort Sumter, the Battle of Shiloh, and the defense of Vicksburg. On August 28, 1862, he married Catherine Sarah Lee, who later became a prominent author and composer. He was promoted to brigadier general in July 1863. He opposed Union general William T. Sherman during the March to the Sea, and he accompanied President Jefferson Davis during his flight from Richmond in the spring of 1865.

After the war, he settled in Greenville, Mississippi, and earned a living as a lawyer. He and Catherine had at least four children: James, born around 1866; Natalie, born around 1869; Harry, born around 1873; and Percy, born around 1879. He served as secretary and treasurer of the Mississippi Levee Board. In the late 1800s, he moved back to Charleston and then moved to Ecuador. He worked as an engineer with the Guayaquil and Quito Railway Company. He moved to Biloxi, Mississippi, in the early 1900s, and he died in Jackson, Mississippi, on February 3, 1917.

Image: Samuel W. Ferguson (courtesy Wikicommons)