Henry Marshall Ashby Henry Marshall Ashby ( 1836 – July 10 , 1868 ) was a Confederate States Army colonel during the American Civil War ( Civil War ) . Although he commanded a brigade from June 1864 and a division at the Battle of Bentonville and through the surrender of the Confederate force under the command of General Joseph E . Johnston , he was never appointed a brigadier general by Confederate President Jefferson Davis or confirmed as a general officer by the Confederate Senate . Early life . Henry Marshall Ashby was born in Fauquier County , Virginia in 1836 . His parents were Marshall and Lucinda ( Cocke ) Ashby . He was the cousin of another Confederate cavalry officer , Colonel Turner Ashby . Ashby attended The College of William and Mary in 1853 and 1854 but did not graduate . He was a trader in Chattanooga , Tennessee when the Civil War began although he was visiting an uncle in Knoxville , Tennessee when the war broke out . American Civil War service . Henry Marshall Ashby enlisted in the Confederate States Army on July 6 , 1861 at Knoxville , Tennessee , organized a company of cavalry and was elected captain . This company was assigned to the 4th Tennessee Cavalry Battalion which became part of the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry Regiment . Ashby was elected colonel of the regiment on May 24 , 1862 . The 2nd Texas Cavalry operated in east Tennessee in 1862 and 1863 , usually in the brigade of Brigadier General John Pegram . Ashby was wounded in the right foot during one of three raids into Kentucky made by his regiment during 1862 . Pegram ' s brigade joined the Army of Tennessee and Ashby ' s regiment helped destroy a Union Army wagon train at the Battle of Stones River ( December 31 , 1862 , January 2 , 1863 ) . The brigade then again engaged in independent operations in Kentucky . The brigade again fought with the Army of Tennessee at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19 and 20 , 1863 . Pegram transferred to the Army of Northern Virginia after the battle but Ashby and his regiment remained with the Army of Tennessee . Under the overall command of Major General Joseph Wheeler , Ashby ' s regiment was heavily engaged in the Battle of Brown ' s Mill near Newnan , Georgia on July 30 , 1864 . They helped turn back a raid south of Atlanta by Union Brigadier General Edward M . McCook , who had been sent by Major General William T . Sherman to cut supply and communication lines to Atlanta . In June 1864 , Ashby was assigned to command a brigade of four Tennessee cavalry regiments in Brigadier General William Y . C . Humes ' s division in Major General Wheeler ' s corps during the Atlanta Campaign . Ashby ' s brigade harassed Sherman ' s advanced units during the Carolinas Campaign in early 1865 . Because Humes was wounded on March 10 , 1865 at the Battle of Monroe ' s Crossroads , Ashby , who was the senior colonel in Humes ' s division and who had also been briefly disabled by having his horse shot from under him at the same battle , led the division at the Battle of Bentonville and until the end of the war . Although sometimes referred to as an acting brigadier general , Ashby ended the war as a colonel . Major General Wheeler later wrote that he had been told unofficially by Confederate War Department officials that brigadier general commissions had been issued for Ashby , James Hagan and Moses Wright Hannon near the end of the war , no such commissions ever were delivered . Ashby signed a parole on May 3 , 1865 as " Colonel , commanding Division . " Aftermath . After the war , Ashby visited New York City but soon returned to Knoxville . On May 10 , 1868 , E . C . Camp , a former Union Army major , local lawyer and future coal industry tycoon , having quarreled with Ashby previously and having accused him of mistreating Union prisoners during the way , shot Ashby to death on Main Street in Knoxville . Camp said the shooting was in self - defense and he was never prosecuted . Henry Marshall Ashby was buried in Old Gray Cemetery in Knoxville .