Raleigh E . Colston Raleigh Edward Colston ( October 1 , 1825 – July 29 , 1896 ) was a French - born American professor , soldier , cartographer , and writer . He was a controversial brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . Colston was among a handful of former Confederates who served in Egypt following the war . Early life and career . Born in Paris , France , Colston was the adopted son of Maria Theresa , 2nd Duchess of Valmy ( c . 1775 - 1845 ) and Dr . Raleigh Edward Colston ( 1796 – 1881 ) . His mother had divorced her husband François Étienne de Kellermann , a famous cavalry general under Napoleon Bonaparte . Dr . Colston ' s marriage to a Catholic and a divorcee scandalized the Colston family of Virginia . In 1842 , young Colston was sent to study in the United States , living with an uncle in Berkeley County , Virginia , now West Virginia . His " rigidly pious " uncle repeatedly tried to get Colston to enter the Presbyterian ministry , but the young man preferred a military career . Colston entered the Virginia Military Institute in 1843 and graduated July 4 , 1846 , fourth in a class of fourteen . Following his graduation , he taught French and military science at VMI . He married Louise Meriwether Bowyer ; the couple would have two daughters , Mary Frances and Louise Elizabeth . Professor Colston and a group of VMI cadets served as guards during the November 1859 execution of abolitionist firebrand John Brown following his unsuccessful raid on Harper ' s Ferry . Civil War . With Virginia ' s secession in early 1861 , Colston was commissioned as the colonel of the 16th Virginia Infantry . Colston commanded the Confederate district across from Newport News during the historic 1862 battle between the USS " Monitor " and CSS " Virginia " . On December 24 , 1861 , Colston was appointed as a brigadier general . He served under James Longstreet in the Peninsula Campaign in mid - 1862 , leading three regiment s . His performance at the Battle of Seven Pines elicited criticism . Becoming ill from exposure , Colston left the Army of Northern Virginia until December 1862 . In April 1863 , he led a brigade under Stonewall Jackson . Because he knew Colston from the time when both were professors at VMI , Jackson recommended Colston to lead a division . At the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2 , Colston led one of the divisions involved in Jackson ' s flank attack on the Union army ' s right flank . His division was placed in the second line on May 3 . In the two days fighting , his division lost 31 % casualties . However , on May 3 , " Raleigh Colston , the least experienced of Lee ' s generals of division , proved painfully slow in directing his men into action . " Lee relieved Colston of command of the division on May 20 . Colston served under P . G . T . Beauregard in 1864 in the Siege of Petersburg . In early 1865 , he was in command of the defense of Lynchburg , Virginia , guarding one of the Confederacy ' s last open railroads . Postbellum career . Colston established a pair of military schools , including one in Wilmington , North Carolina . The first school failed and the second proved only a modest success . At this time , his wife suffered a mental breakdown and was confined to an asylum . In May 1873 , Colston arrived in Egypt having been hired by the Khedive of Egypt , Isma ' il Pasha , as a professor of geology and a colonel in the military . Colston , " a gentleman and slow to believe evil about his fellow man " got along well with most of the other American expatriates serving the khedive , such as his superiors Charles Pomeroy Stone and William W . Loring . Unlike some of his fellow Americans who got into debt , he lived frugally and sent home funds to take care of his wife . The Khedive sent Colston to lead a small expedition to discover a route for a railroad linking the Red Sea with the Nile River . On September 27 , he set off camel - back southeast from Qena on the Nile toward the ancient port of Berenice on the Red Sea . After joining another American - led party at Berenice and surveying the harbor , they set off for Berber , Sudan in January 1874 , reaching there in March . From there , they descended the Nile to Cairo , reporting to the Khedive in May . In December 1874 , Colston set out at the head of a second expedition , this time to Kurdufan . He fell ill in March , but unlike his American second - in - command who returned to Cairo , Colston determined to press on due to his " soldier ' s pride . " Soon he was unable to ride a camel and had to be carried across the desert for several weeks on a litter , during which time he expected to die and , as a result , wrote his will . Yet , he only turned over command when another American arrived . He was partially paralyzed for nearly a year and suffered lifelong lingering aftereffects . Colston finally recovered after spending six months at a Catholic mission in El Obeid . The ex - Confederate attributed his survival to a " black angel , " the wife of one of his Sudanese soldiers whom he once granted a favor . During his period of sickness , the woman nursed Colston back to health . He only returned to Cairo in the spring of 1876 . In 1879 , he returned to the United States , where he lectured and wrote several magazine articles on his experiences in North Africa and in the Civil War . Despite being crippled , he worked as a clerk and translator in the U . S . War Department and Surgeon General ' s office from 1882 to 1894 . He lived the rest of his life as an invalid in the Confederate Soldiers ' Home in Richmond , Virginia , where he died penniless . He was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond , not far from fellow Virginia general George Pickett . In popular media . Actor J . Scott Watkins portrayed General Colston in the 2003 Civil War film " Gods and Generals " .