Evander M . Law Evander McIver Law ( August 7 , 1836 – October 31 , 1920 ) was an author , teacher , and a Confederate general in the American Civil War . Early life . Law was born in Darlington , South Carolina . His grandfather and his two great - grandfathers had fought in the American Revolutionary War under Francis Marion , the " Swamp Fox " guerrilla leader . He attended the South Carolina Military Academy ( now The Citadel ) in 1856 and was a professor of history at Kings Mountain Military Academy from 1858 to 1860 , when he moved to Alabama to form his own Military High School in Tuskegee , Alabama . Civil War . Immediately following Alabama ' s secession from the Union , Law joined the Alabama Militia as a captain . In April 1861 he transferred to the Confederate States Army as a captain in the 4th Alabama Infantry , a unit he helped recruit from students at his high school . The 4th Alabama was also known as the Alabama Zouaves " . The following month he was promoted to lieutenant colonel . At the First Battle of Bull Run he was in Brig . Gen . Barnard E . Bee ' s brigade . The colonel of his regiment was killed in action and Law was wounded in the arm . Law recovered , although his left arm was stiff and almost useless , and returned to the regiment . He was promoted to colonel on October 28 , 1861 , and assumed command of what would become known as " the Alabama Brigade " under Maj . Gen . James Longstreet in the Army of Northern Virginia in May 1862 . Law led his brigade through the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles . At Gaines ' Mill , he and fellow brigade commander Brig . Gen . John Bell Hood achieved fame by breaking the center of the Union line . They attacked in tandem again at the Battle of Malvern Hill four days later , but were defeated decisively . In the Northern Virginia Campaign , at the Second Battle of Bull Run , Law and Hood were used again as the primary assaulting force in Longstreet ' s surprise attack against the Union left flank , almost destroying Maj . Gen . John Pope ' s Army of Virginia . In the Maryland Campaign , at the Battle of Antietam , Law ' s Brigade defended against the Union attack through the Cornfield at high cost — 454 killed and wounded . Law was promoted to brigadier general on October 3 , 1862 . At the Battle of Fredericksburg in December , he saw little action . Gettysburg . In 1863 , Law accompanied Longstreet ' s Corps to Suffolk , Virginia , which prevented his participation in the Battle of Chancellorsville . However , the corps returned to the Army of Northern Virginia in time for the Gettysburg Campaign . At the Battle of Gettysburg , Law ' s brigade fought in the unsuccessful assault on the Union left on July 2 , 1863 , on Little Round Top and the Devil ' s Den . He assumed temporary division command after John Bell Hood was wounded . Some historians have criticized Law for the lack of coordination that existed in Hood ' s division while he served as a temporary commander . Gettysburg historian Harry W . Pfanz suggested that Law ' s " control of the division as a whole that afternoon was not very active and strong . " He did not appoint his own successor at brigade command until after the fighting was over for the day , leaving his regiments without direction . None of Hood ' s other brigade commanders reported receiving any commands from Law during the battle . On July 3 , Law ' s men were at the extreme right of the Confederate line and defended against a suicidal cavalry attack made by Union troops of Brig . Gen . Judson Kilpatrick ' s division , led by their brigade commander Brig . Gen . Elon J . Farnsworth . Law did not write an official report on the battle . Years later , he published his own account of the fighting on July 2 , " The Struggle For ' Round Top ' " , in " Battles and Leaders of the Civil War " . Tennessee . After Gettysburg , Longstreet ' s Corps was transported to the Western Theater to join General Braxton Bragg and the Army of Tennessee for victory at the Battle of Chickamauga . While Hood was present at Chickamauga , he served as a corps commander under Longstreet , who was acting as commander of a " wing " of the Army of Tennessee . As senior brigade commander , Law again acted as commander of Hood ' s division . On September 20 , Hood ' s division , under Law , struck a gap in the Federal line and captured at least fifteen pieces of enemy artillery . Hood was severely wounded again that day , which should have left Law in command of Hood ' s division . Despite Longstreet ' s praise for Law ' s performances in previous battles , the two became involved in bitter disputes , some of which involved professional jealousy between Law and Brig . Gen . Micah Jenkins , a favorite of Longstreet ' s . At different times and places , Longstreet had promised both Law and Jenkins command of Hood ' s division , should that command billet ever open . Law had served in Hood ' s division since its organization , and had commanded it successfully at Gettysburg and Chickamauga . Jenkins was new to the division and had never commanded it , but his commission as a brigadier general pre - dated Law ' s , and when Jenkins ' s brigade was attached to Hood ' s division in September 1863 , shortly after Chickamauga , with Hood absent due to wounds , Law had to turn command of Hood ' s division over to Jenkins . Hood ' s division accompanied Bragg ' s army to the siege of Chattanooga . By late October 1863 , Law ' s brigade was detached from Hood ' s division and the army , guarding Brown ' s Ferry over the Tennessee River in what is known as Lookout Valley . While Law was on leave , visiting the wounded Hood , division commander Jenkins stripped the defenses at Brown Ferry of over half the units , despite intelligence of enemy activity and pleas for reinforcements from Col . William C . Oates , commanding the 15th Alabama Regiment , one of the two regiments still posted near Brown ' s Ferry . On October 24 , 1863 , Union troops forced a passage of Brown ' s Ferry and overwhelmed its defenders . A few days later , Federal reinforcements — the XI and XII Corps from the Army of the Potomac — arrived at the other end of Lookout Valley , at Wauhatchie Station . The arrival of these fresh Federal troops , combined with the Federal possession of Brown ' s Ferry , enabled U . S . Maj . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant to open his " cracker line " and feed his starving troops in Chattanooga . Confederate Gen . Bragg recognized that the " cracker line " would spell the end of the siege of Chattanooga , and on October 28 , ordered Longstreet to take his corps and seize control of Lookout Valley . Longstreet decided to send only Hood ' s division to deal with the two enemy corps . Gen . Jenkins quickly planned a night attack on the railhead at Wauhatchie , to be made by two brigades , his own under Col . John Bratton , and Brig . Gen . Henry L . Benning ' s . Simultaneous to the attack at Wauhatchie , and over a mile distant , a holding action near Brown ' s Ferry was to be made by the Texas brigade and Law ' s brigade . Already outnumbered , Jenkins further aggravated his situation by failing to utilize Brig . Gen . George T . Anderson ' s brigade , also of Hood ' s division , and a sizable portion of the Hampton Legion Infantry , of his own brigade . As the battle broke out , division commander Jenkins rode to Wauhatchie , on the extreme left of his widely dispersed division , instead of placing himself in a position where he could attempt to coordinate all of his troops . The ensuing engagement was a Confederate defeat . Jenkins later claimed that Law quit his holding mission prematurely ; Law , and Brig . Gen . Robertson , commanding the Texas brigade , claimed they acted in accordance with orders . This controversy brought tensions between Jenkins and Law to the boiling point , and has never been settled . Jenkins continued in command of Hood ' s division through Longstreet ' s East Tennessee campaign of November – December 1863 . Jenkins again blamed Law for the poor performance of the division , particularly at Campbell ' s Station . The command situation in Hood ' s division , and Longstreet ' s Corps , deteriorated markedly through March 1864 , with Law , Maj . Gen . Lafayette McLaws , and at least one other brigadier general arrested and court - martial ed by Longstreet ; Longstreet ' s charges against his subordinates were not sustained by the Confederate War Department . The continued stress resulted in Law ' s request for resignation , which he offered to deliver to Richmond in person . While there , he visited Hood , who talked Law out of resigning and used his influence to keep the War Department from accepting it . On Law ' s return to his brigade , still in East Tennessee , Longstreet ordered Law ' s arrest for insubordination . The men of Law ' s brigade had by this time had enough , and all but one of the colonels requested their regiments ' transfer , with the whole brigade , to Alabama . Longstreet attempted to retaliate by leaving them in Tennessee when the rest of his corps rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia . General Robert E . Lee , however , ordered Law and the Alabamians back to his army . Hood had been promoted , and a new commander , Charles W . Field , was assigned to command Hood ' s old division , after which the division made a remarkable turn around , regaining in a month the efficiency it had last shown at Chickamauga . 1864 – 65 . In the Overland Campaign , on May 6 , 1864 , at the Wilderness , Law was under arrest in the rear , while his brigade participated in Longstreet ' s morning counterattack along the Orange Plank Road . The brigade continued to Spotsylvania Court House , but Law did not resume command until the Battle of Cold Harbor , where he received a gunshot wound that fractured his skull and injured his left eye . While his brigade fought in the Siege of Petersburg , Law was transferred to a brigade command in Lt . Gen . Wade Hampton ' s Cavalry Corps . It was stationed in South Carolina , where he finished the war . When Maj . Gen . Matthew Butler was wounded at the Battle of Bentonville , Law exercised command of Butler ' s division until its commander returned to active duty . In March 1865 , he may have been promoted to the rank of major general . Postbellum life . After the war , Law administered the extensive agricultural holdings and railroad interests in his father - in - law ' s estate ; he had married Jane Elizabeth Latta on March 9 , 1863 . He returned to Tuskegee in the late 1860s and organized the Alabama Grange in 1872 . Law moved to Florida in 1881 , planning to found a military academy that would be modeled after The Citadel . He opened the Southern Florida Military Institute at Bartow , Florida , in 1881 and administered it until 1903 . There , and as a trustee of the Summerlin Institute from 1905 to 1912 , and as a member of the Polk County Board of Education from 1912 until his death , he played a key role in the foundation of public education in Florida . He was the editor of the Bartow " Courier Informant " newspaper until 1915 . He died in Bartow as the longest surviving Confederate major general , and is buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery .