Henry DeLamar Clayton ( general ) Henry DeLamar Clayton , Sr . ( March 7 , 1827 – October 3 , 1889 ) was a prominent Alabama attorney , politician , Redeemer judge , and college president . He also served as a major general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War , commanding a division in the Army of Tennessee in the Western Theater . Early life and career . Henry D . Clayton was born in Pulaski County , Georgia . He graduated from Emory and Henry College in Virginia . He moved to Eufaula , Alabama , after graduation and read law . He passed the bar exam in 1849 and opened an office in Clayton , Alabama , where he married Victoria Hunter and raised a family . Two of his sons , Henry De Lamar Clayton , Jr . and Bertram Tracy Clayton , later became United States Congressmen . His brother - in - law James L . Pugh was also a Congressman . He was twice elected to the Alabama House of Representatives , serving from 1857 until 1861 . Clayton recruited and organized a local militia organization and was elected as its captain . Among his subordinate officers was future fellow Civil War general William W . Adams . In August 1860 , he was elected as colonel of the 3rd Alabama Volunteers , a state - wide militia organization . Civil War . Following the secession of Alabama from the Union , Clayton led his men to Pensacola , Florida , to enroll into the service of the new Confederate States of America in January 1861 . Their services were initially not needed , but Clayton was subsequently ordered to take command of all incoming Alabama volunteer troops as they assembled in Pensacola . The 1st Alabama Infantry was formally mustered into Confederate service in late March , with Clayton as its first colonel . The regiment saw no combat action and stayed in Florida the balance of the year . In January 1862 , Clayton resigned his commission and returned to Alabama . There , the governor authorized him to raise a new regiment for Confederate service , the 39th Alabama . Clayton was appointed as its first colonel , and the regiment joined the brigade of Brig . Gen . Franklin Gardner . Clayton ' s first significant campaign was as a part of the army of Braxton Bragg during his 1862 Kentucky Campaign . Clayton ' s regiment fought at the Battle of Stones River in the early winter as a part of the brigade of Brig . Gen . Zachariah Deas . Clayton suffered a severe wound , but recovered and was promoted to brigadier general in April 1863 . He was assigned command of a brigade previously led by Alexander P . Stewart consisting of the 18th , 32nd , 36th , 38th , and 58th Alabama regiments . Clayton was active in a number of subsequent campaigns and battles , including Chickamauga and Chattanooga . His brigade played a prominent role in several fights during the 1864 Atlanta Campaign . Following the Battle of New Hope Church , Clayton was promoted to major general and assigned command of Stewart ' s Division in the Army of Tennessee , where it participated in the unsuccessful Franklin - Nashville Campaign . In April 1865 , during the Carolinas Campaign , Clayton resigned his commission and returned home , a victim of chronic stress . Postbellum career . With the fall of the Confederacy , Clayton resumed his law practice . In May 1866 , he was elected as a circuit court judge . Like so many other former Confederates , he was removed from his office by the Reconstruction government . However , he was twice reelected as judge in 1874 and 1880 after the carpetbaggers had left power . In 1886 , Clayton accepted a position as the president of the University of Alabama , a role he held until his death in Tuscaloosa , Alabama , in the fall of 1889 . He is buried in Eufaula . A full length biography of Henry Clayton was written by Henry Walker as a Ph . D . dissertation at the University of Alabama , 1995 .