John Christopher Winsmith, Brigadier General

In 1850, at age fifteen, John Christopher Winsmith attended the Citadel Military Academy in Charleston, SC. He didn't get to graduate due to poor conduct. In November 1851 he was brought before the Board of Visitors for “defraud[ing] a Negro woman by passing to her a copper coin covered with quicksilver for an amount greater than its value.” Though Winsmith was eventually reinstated, he didn't return to school and was dropped from the register of the Citadel in April 1852. Failure to graduate did not prevent Winsmith from preparing for his law degree, however, and he successfully completed that degree in 1859.

With the Civil war beginning in 1861, Winsmith's plans to practice law were interrupted. He eagerly entered the war, and his leadership abilities and character were tested on some of the bloodiest battlefields of the war. He wrote home regularly while serving in the Confederate army from April 14, 1861 - September 28, 1864.. He was deeply commited to the CSA and had a strong unshakeable belief in the righteousness of the cause. He was also very confident that military leaders such as Robert E. Lee could achieve victory. Like many young Southern men, Winsmith was enthusiastic about going to war. He served as a lieutenant of Company G in the 5th SC Inf. and later as a captain of Company H in the 1st South Carolina Infantry. As the son of a slave owner Winsmith benefited from the services of two servants, Spencer and Miles. He saw action at Secessionville, Second Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and the Siege of Knoxville, TN. As the spring campaign of 1864 opened, Winsmith’s unit was situated in eastern Tennessee before it was called to join Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia to meet the new offensive of the Army of the Potomac and its new commander, General Ulysses S. Grant. Winsmith’s Company H, which was commanded by Colonel Johnson Hagood, was assigned to Brigadier General Micah Jenkins’ Brigade, which was part of Major General Charles W. Fields’ Division of Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s First Army Corps. A letter written to his mother during the height of the “Overland Campaign” conveyed the horror of the fighting at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania. Winsmith’s unit arrived in time to take part in the second day’s fighting at the Wilderness.

A letter written home to his mother described the fighting from May 6 - 15, 1865 at Spotsylvania in all of its bloody detail, and his references to Northern newspapers suggested that he understood the price that reports of continued fighting and large numbers of casualties had on troop morale just as Abraham Lincoln was preparing for re-election in November. After that battle, John Winsmith remained with his unit 5 more months, as it continued to engage the Army of the Potomac at the North Anna River, Cold Harbor, and around the city of Petersburg, where it remained for much of the remainder of the war. Winsmith was severely wounded in the right shoulder in an attack at Peeble’s Farm on September 29, 1864 and did not return to service. He was appointed to brigadier general of state militia in South Carolina in 1865 and served for one year.

• To read John Christopher Winsmith's letter to his mother, go to http://cwmemory.com/2006/08/17/john-c-winsmiths-civil-war/. This letter was published in the August, 2006 issue of America’s Civil War Magazine.
• http://cwmemory.com/2013/01/28/john-christopher-winsmith-rejects-se...
• To read more about John Christopher Winsmith's service in the Civil War, as well as his special relationship with his slave Spencer, who followed him into war, go to http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/the-best-servant-by....