William Mahone, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

William Mahone

American civil war general and politician

Date of Birth: 01-Dec-1826

Place of Birth: Southampton County, Virginia, United States

Date of Death: 08-Oct-1895

Profession: politician, civil engineer

Nationality: United States

Zodiac Sign: Sagittarius


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About William Mahone

  • William Mahone (December 1, 1826 – October 8, 1895) was an American civil engineer, railroad executive, Confederate States Army general, and Virginia politician. As a young man, Mahone was prominent in the building of Virginia's roads and railroads.
  • As chief engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, he built log-foundations under the routes in the Great Dismal Swamp in southeast tidewater Virginia that are still intact today.
  • According to local tradition, several new railroad towns were named after the novels of Sir Walter Scott, a favorite British/Scottish author of Mahone's wife Otelia. In the American Civil War, Mahone was pro-secession and served as a general in the southern Confederate States Army.
  • He was best known for regaining the initiative at the late war siege of Petersburg, Virginia while Southern troops were in shock after a huge mine/load of black powder kegs was exploded beneath them by tunnel digging former coal miner Union Army troops resulting in the Battle of the Crater in July 1864; his counter-attack turned the engagement into a disastrous Union defeat. After the war, he returned to railroad building, merging three lines to form the important Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O), headquartered in Lynchburg.
  • He also led the Readjuster Party, a temporary state political party with a coalition of freemen blacks, Republicans and populist Democrats, and was elected by the commonwealth General Assembly to the U.S.
  • Senate in 1881.

Read more at Wikipedia