William T . Wofford William Tatum Wofford ( June 28 , 1824 – May 22 , 1884 ) was an officer during the Mexican - American War and a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . Early life and career . Wofford was born in Habersham County , Georgia , to William H . Wofford and Nancy M . Tatum . In 1844 he graduated from Franklin College , now part of the University of Georgia . Wofford first experienced military life in 1847 during the Mexican - American War , where he was a captain in the Georgia Mounted Volunteers . Wofford was mustered out of the volunteer service on July 12 , 1848 , and afterward worked as a planter , served as a state legislator , and then became a lawyer . In 1852 he was editor of the Cassville " Standard " newspaper . Civil War service . Wofford had previously voted against secession , but offered his services to his state and the Confederate Army . He was appointed a colonel in the Georgia State Militia , then a captain in the 18th Georgia Infantry in April 1861 . On April 25 Wofford was promoted to colonel , and served in North Carolina and Virginia before being assigned to Brig . Gen . John Bell Hood ' s Texas Brigade . He saw action at Yorktown , Eltham ' s Landing , and Seven Pines during the Peninsula Campaign . Wofford and the 18th also fought at Second Bull Run and Antietam , where he commanded the Texas Brigade . In November 1862 , Wofford and the 18th Georgia were transferred to the Georgia Brigade of Brig . Gen . Thomas R . R . Cobb . They fought under Cobb at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December , defending the famous stone wall at the base of Marye ' s Heights . Cobb was mortally wounded in the battle , and Wofford assumed command of his brigade and was promoted to brigadier general on January 17 , 1863 . He led the brigade , now referred to as Wofford ' s Brigade , at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg , where he followed William Barksdale ' s Mississippi brigade in the assault through the Peach Orchard late in the afternoon of July 2 . There Wofford ' s men drove Union troops out of the Wheatfield but had to stop short of the new Union line near Little Round Top . Traveling to Georgia with Longstreet ' s First Corps to reinforce the Army of Tennessee , Wofford arrived on the field too late to participate in the Battle of Chickamauga . His whereabouts are unknown during Longstreet ' s siege of Knoxville , Tennessee . Wofford fought in the Overland Campaign at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House , and was wounded in both battles . He left the Army of Northern Virginia before the Richmond - Petersburg Campaign and assumed command of the Subdistrict of Northern Georgia , of the District of Georgia , Department of South Carolina , Georgia , and Florida on January 20 , 1865 , a post he held until he surrendered in Kingston , Georgia , and was paroled at Resaca , Georgia on May 2 , 1865 . Shortly afterward Wofford was pardoned by the U . S . government on July 24 . He commanded the last significant group of Confederate soldiers east of the Mississippi to surrender to Union troops . Postbellum career . After the war Wofford was a planter and active in the law , Democratic politics , and education . As a delegate to the Georgia Constitutional Convention of 1877 , he argued for the repeal of convict leasing , for Confederate veterans ' benefits , and for African - American education . Many of his ideas appeared in the platform of the Populist Party a decade later . He died in Cass Station , Ga . and is buried in nearby Cassville Cemetery .