Montgomery Dent Corse Montgomery Dent Corse ( March 14 , 1816 – February 11 , 1895 ) was an American banker , gold prospector , and soldier who served as a general in the Confederate States Army during the Civil War . He commanded the 17th Virginia Infantry and then Corse ' s Brigade of Pickett ' s Division in the Army of Northern Virginia , and served in several of that army ' s most important battles . Early life and career . Montgomery D . Corse was born in Alexandria , Virginia in 1816 , the eldest son of John and Julia Corse . He attended Major Bradley Lowe ' s military school at Colross and Benjamin Hallowell ' s school on Washington Street . As a young boy he witnessed Lafayette ' s 1825 visit to Alexandria and participated in the inauguration of President Andrew Jackson in 1829 . He worked in business with his father and was then a captain in the 1st Virginia Regiment during the Mexican War . He sailed for California in 1849 and participated in the Gold Rush . He returned permanently to Alexandria in 1856 and entered the banking business with his brothers , J . D . and William Corse . Three years later became the first lieutenant of the Alexandria Home Guard . In 1860 , he organized a militia company known as the Old Dominion Rifles and became its captain . Civil War service . In early 1861 he was given an appointment as the major of the 6th Virginia Infantry Battalion and soon after that he received the colonelcy of the 17th Virginia Infantry . He commanded the 17th at Blackburn ' s Ford during the First Battle of Manassas , as well during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign . He saw action at the battles of Yorktown , Williamsburg , Seven Pines , and throughout the Seven Days Battles . During the subsequent Northern Virginia Campaign , Corse commanded Kemper ' s Brigade during the Second Battle of Manassas until he was wounded . He was healthy enough to participate in the Maryland Campaign and was wounded at both South Mountain and Antietam at the head of his regiment . A new brigade was created for him , and he was promoted to brigadier general on November 1 . His brigade was placed in a division commanded by General George E . Pickett and was only lightly engaged at Fredericksburg . Corse married Elizabeth Beverley ( 1825 – 1894 ) on November 22 , 1862 . They had four children . In early 1863 he accompanied Lt . Gen . James Longstreet on an expedition to southeastern Virginia , resulting of the absence of Corse and his brigade from the rest of the army during the Battle of Chancellorsville . During the Gettysburg Campaign , Corse ' s Brigade was detached from Pickett ' s Division to guard Hanover Junction , north of Richmond . Because of this , the brigade did not participate in the battle nor the disastrous assault known as Pickett ' s Charge . Pickett ' s Division was detached from Longstreet ' s Corps when they were transferred to Georgia and Tennessee in late 1863 , operating in western Virginia . In January 1864 , Corse and his brigade participated in Pickett ' s operations against New Bern , North Carolina . After seeing action at Drewry ' s Bluff against Benjamin Butler ' s Bermuda Hundred operation , the brigade finally rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia and fought at Cold Harbor and through the Siege of Petersburg . Following the disaster at the Battle of Five Forks , they began the retreat which would eventually end at Appomattox Court House . Corse himself was captured at the Battle of Sayler ' s Creek on April 6 , 1865 . After his surrender , General Corse was conveyed to Fort Warren near Boston , Massachusetts , on the day that Abraham Lincoln was assassinated , and he and the fourteen generals accompanying him narrowly escaped the violence of a mob at a town in Pennsylvania on the next morning . They were only saved by the determination of their small guard of Union soldiers and officers . Postbellum career . Following the war , he took the Oath of Allegiance to the United States of America on July 24 , 1865 , and was released from Fort Warren . He subsequently returned to his banking profession in Alexandria , Virginia , with his brothers . He was a charter member of the R . E . Lee Camp of the United Confederate Veterans . In 1870 , he was seriously injured when part of the Virginia State Capitol building in Richmond collapsed . He suffered partial blindness for several years thereafter . On May 24 , 1880 , Corse was a distinguished guest along with Governor Fitzhugh Lee and General Joseph E . Johnston at the dedication of the Confederate monument at Washington and Prince Streets in Alexandria . M . D . Corse died at his home in Alexandria on February 11 , 1895 , following a brief illness . He and his wife are buried in the town ' s Episcopal Cemetery . His personal and wartime papers are in the special collections of the Alexandria Library .