Richard Herndon Rawlings

Richard Herndon Rawlings

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/39273746/richard-herndon-rawlings

The son of Richard Rawlings graduated from Columbian College in 1854. He became a lawyer and publisher in both Texas and Alabama. He also was Professor and later President of Judson Female Institute in Alabama for three years, then President of Albemarle Institute in Virginia for seven years.

C.S.A.

He enlisted in 1862 with Company I, 6th Virginia Cavalry, Lomax's Brigade, Fitz Lee's Division. He was wounded at Brandy Station in 1863 and 1864 and again at Cold Harbor in 1864.

He was born in Orange County and was a son of Richard Rawlings, a wealthy farmer who before the Civil War the owner of several valuable properties in Orange, including the town's hotel. As early as 1850 R.H. Rawlings had taken his first step in a life long commitment to education; that year's census shows him employed as a teacher in Orange. But there was much more to Rawlings' story than just teaching.

Rawlings graduated with a law degree from Columbian College in Washington, D.C. in 1854 and soon thereafter migrated to Texas, where he published the Texas Sun 1855-1856 and also practiced law. He then returned to Virginia and in 1857 married Sallie Dickinson of Louisa County. By 1860 he and Sallie were living in Grove Hill, Alabama, where he had a law practice with Sallie's brother, William Powell Dickinson.

After the outbreak of the Civil War, Rawlings again returned to Virginia and in 1863 enlisted in Company I of the Sixth Virginia Cavalry (the same regiment in which also served George W.E. Row). On May 31, 1864 his horse was shot from under him at Cold Harbor. Rawlings injured his back in the fall and was admitted to Chimborazo Hospital the following day. After recovering he rejoined his regiment only to have a second horse killed in action on September 7 at Opequon Creek. In April 1865 R.H. Rawlings, together with his nephew Ben Rawlings and George W.E. Row, escaped the encirclement at Appomattox. These three, with Estelle's father Zachary, surrendered to the provost marshal in Richmond on May 2, 1865.

After the war Rawlings returned to his previous avocation as educator, serving for three years as the president of the Judson Female Institute in Marion, Alabama, where his brother in law W.P. Dickinson served on the board of trustees. Richard and Sallie Rawlings and her brother continued to share a household when they settled in Charlottesville in the 1870s. For the next twenty years Rawlings and Dickinson would teach at the Albemarle Female Institute, each also taking a turn as president of the school.

In 1889 Rawlings bought "Carlton," the sprawling estate adjacent to Monticello that was once the home of District Judge Alexander Rives. The grand old house burned in 1897, the same year that Rawlings bought a controlling interest in the Albemarle Female Institute for $22,000 and then donated the school to the Baptist General Association of Virginia. For this generous act the school was renamed the Rawlings Institute in his honor.