Henry A . Wise Henry Alexander Wise ( December 3 , 1806 – September 12 , 1876 ) was a United States Congressman and governor of Virginia , as well as a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . He served as US minister to Brazil from 1843 – 1847 , during the administration of President John Tyler . Early life . Wise was born in Drummondtown , Accomack County , Virginia , to Major John Wise and his second wife Sarah Corbin Cropper , whose families had long been settled there . Wise was of English and Scottish descent . He was privately tutored until his twelfth year , when he entered Margaret Academy , near Pungoteague in Accomack County . He graduated from Washington College ( now Washington & Jefferson College ) in 1825 . He was a member of the Union Literary Society at Washington College . After attending Henry St . George Tucker ' s Winchester Law School , Wise was admitted to the bar in 1828 . He settled in Nashville , Tennessee , in the same year to start a practice but returned to Accomack County in 1830 . Marriage and family . Wise was married three times , first in 1828 to Anne Jennings , the daughter of Rev . Obadiah Jennings and Ann Wilson of Washington , Pennsylvania . Anne died in 1837 , leaving Henry with four children : two sons and two daughters . A fifth child died with her in a fire . Wise married a second time in November 1840 , to Sarah Sergeant , the daughter of Whig U . S . Congressman John Sergeant and Margaretta Watmough of Philadelphia . In nineteen years of marriage with two wives , Wise fathered fourteen children ; seven survived to adulthood . Sarah gave birth to at least five children . She died of complications , along with her last child , soon after its birth on October 14 , 1850 . Henry married a third time to Mary Elizabeth Lyons in 1853 . After serving as governor , Wise settled with Mary and his younger children in 1860 at Rolleston , an plantation which he bought from his brother John Cropper Wise , who also continued to live there . It was located on the eastern branch of the Elizabeth River near Norfolk , Virginia . It had first been developed by William and Susannah Moseley , English immigrants who settled there in 1649 . After Wise entered Confederate service , he and his family abandoned Rolleston in 1862 as Union troops were taking over Norfolk . Wise arranged for residence for his family in Rocky Mount , Franklin County , Virginia . After the Civil War , Henry and Mary Wise lived in Richmond , where he resumed his law career . Political career . Henry A . Wise served in the United States Congress from 1833 to 1844 . He was elected to Congress in 1832 as a Jacksonian Democrat . On the question of the rechartering of the United States Bank he broke with the Jackson administration , and became a Whig , but was sustained by his constituents . After his first election in 1832 , he fought a duel with his competitor for the seat in Congress . Wise was reelected to Congress as a Whig in 1837 , serving till 1841 , and was reelected as a Tyler Democrat in 1843 . In 1840 Wise was active in securing the election of John Tyler as . After succeeding to the presidency , Tyler appointed Wise as United States minister to Brazil from 1844 to 1847 . Two of his children were born in Rio de Janeiro . In Brazil , Wise worked on issues related to trade and tariffs , trying to ameliorate Brazilian concerns about the US annexation of Texas , and working toward establishing diplomatic relations with Paraguay . After his return to the United States , Wise identified with the Democratic Party . In 1855 , he was elected governor of Virginia over the Know Nothing candidate . Wise supported the annexation of Texas by the United States and Wise County , Texas , was named in his honor . In the statewide election of 1855 , Wise defeated Thomas S . Flournoy and subsequently served as the 33rd Governor of Virginia from 1856 to 1860 . Wise County , Virginia , was named after him when it was established in 1856 . One of his last official acts as Governor was to sign the death warrant of John Brown . As a member of the Virginia secession convention of 1861 , Wise supported immediate secession . On April 17 , with delegates debating secession , Wise declared that he had ordered Virginia militiamen to seize Harpers Ferry Arsenal and Norfolk ’ s Gosport Naval Yards . Wise had forced the issue and Virginia seceded from the Union . He joined the Confederate army and was commissioned as a brigadier general . Electoral History . 1843 Wise was elected to the U . S . House of Representatives with 57 . 24 % of the vote , defeating Whig Hitt Carter . 1855 Wise was elected governor of Virginia with 53 . 25 % of the vote , defeating American Thomas Stanhope Flournoy . Military career . Despite having no formal military training , Wise was appointed brigadier general in the Confederate States Army ( CSA ) due to his profile as a prominent supporter of secession . In summer 1861 , Wise and Brigadier General John B . Floyd began feuding over who was the superior officer in the western Virginia region . At the height of the feud General Floyd blamed Wise for the Confederate loss at the Battle of Carnifex Ferry , stating that Wise refused to come to his aid . The feud was not resolved until Virginia Delegate Mason Mathews , whose son Alexander F . Mathews was Wise ' s aide - de - camp , spent several days in the camps of both Wise and Floyd . Afterward he wrote to President Jefferson Davis urging that both men be removed . Davis subsequently removed Wise from his command of the western Virginia region . In 1862 Wise commanded the District of Roanoke Island during the Battle of Roanoke Island . His part in the decision to cede the island when faced with much greater Union forces drew the ire of some of the Confederate government leadership . His forces were attached to the division of Maj . Gen . Theophilus H . Holmes during the Seven Days Battles . For the rest of 1862 and 1863 , he held various commands in North Carolina and Virginia . In 1864 Wise commanded a brigade in the Department of North Carolina & Southern Virginia . His brigade defended Petersburg and was credited with saving the city at the First Battle of Petersburg and to an extent at the Second Battle of Petersburg . Wise commanded a brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia during the final stages of the Siege of Petersburg . He was promoted to the rank of major general after the Battle of Sayler ' s Creek . He was with Robert E . Lee at Appomattox Court House , where he fought bravely but urged Lee to surrender . He was the brother - in - law of Union Maj . Gen . George G . Meade . Postbellum activities . After the war Wise resumed his law practice in Richmond , and settled there for the rest of his life . In 1865 he was unable to reclaim Rolleston , his plantation outside Norfolk , before he received pardon from the president . He had abandoned the residence when he moved his family to another residence at Rocky Mount , Virginia . As recounted in an exchange of letters published in the " New York Times " , Maj . Gen . Terry of the U . S . command in the Norfolk area did not permit Wise to reclaim the Rolleston property . Terry stated that under post - war conditions of parole for Confederate officers , Wise had claim only to the Rocky Mount property , where he and his family were living when he went to war . The Freedman ' s Bureau adapted Rolleston Hall and other plantations in the Norfolk area as schools for the newly emancipated slaves and their children . Two hundred freedmen were said to be taking classes at Rolleston . Along with working at his law career , Wise wrote a book based on his public service , entitled " Seven Decades of the Union " ( 1872 ) . His two surviving sons were both active in state and Federal politics . His younger son John Sergeant Wise wrote a memoir entitled " The End of an Era , " ( 1899 ) , reprinted in numerous editions since its first publication . John Wise was fourteen in the summer of 1860 and served in the Confederate Army late in the war . He wrote about his own memories of Rolleston , a childhood slave companion and friend , and the war years , as well as about his father ' s role and their family members . In addition , Henry A . Wise ' s grandson Barton Haxall Wise wrote a biography of the former governor entitled " The Life of Henry A . Wise of Virginia " ( New York , 1899 ) . The older son , Richard A . Wise , was a student at the College of William and Mary when the war began in 1861 . During the war , he served with J . E . B . Stuart and later as aide - de - camp to his father during the Battle of Roanoke Island . After the war , he earned his MD degree at the Medical College of Virginia in 1869 . He served as a professor of chemistry at William and Mary ( 1869 – 1878 ) . In 1871 he helped reorganize a volunteer militia for the city of Williamsburg and James City County , Virginia , which he commanded . Known as the Wise Light Infantry , the unit continued at least through 1885 , when it appeared during the inaugural festivities of President Grover Cleveland in Washington . Richard A . Wise later served in politics like his father : he was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates ( 1885 – 1887 ) ; served as clerk of the court of Williamsburg and James City County , 1888 – 1894 ; and was elected as a member of the U . S . House of Representatives , serving April 26 , 1898 to March 3 , 1899 and again March 12 , 1900 until his death on December 21 , 1900 . Retrieved on 2008 - 02 - 13