William Y . C . Humes William Young Conn Humes ( May 1 , 1830 – September 11 , 1883 ) was an American educator , lawyer , and soldier . He served as a Confederate cavalry general during the American Civil War , in which he was wounded twice , and fought mainly in the Western Theater of the conflict . Afterward Humes resumed practicing law until his death . Early life and career . William Y . C . Humes was born in 1830 in the town of Abingdon , located in Washington County , Virginia . He was a son of John Newton Humes and his wife Jance Conn White , and he was a cousin of Thomas W . Humes , a lawyer and politician . Because his father had lost his fortune , William Humes needed to borrow money to finish his initial education . Humes entered the Virginia Military Institute ( VMI ) on November 20 , 1848 , and graduated second in a class of 29 cadets on July 4 , 1851 , making him a " distinguished graduate . " While attending VMI , Humes was a classmate of Alfred J . Vaughan , who also would serve as a Confederate general in the Civil War . After graduating , Humes became a teacher to pay off his financial debts . In 1854 he married another resident of Abingdon named Margaret Preston White , with whom he had two sons . He then relocated to Knoxville , Tennessee , where he read law and became a lawyer . In 1858 he moved to Memphis and began a successful law practice . Humes was still a lawyer in Memphis when the American Civil War began . Civil War service . When the Civil War began in 1861 , Humes chose to follow his home states and the Confederate cause . On March 16 he was appointed a first lieutenant in the Confederate Regular Artillery , on May 13 he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the volunteer forces , and that June was promoted to captain of artillery . Humes was posted to the Confederate fortifications protecting the Mississippi River near New Madrid , and was given command of the artillery guns there . He was still part the garrison when it surrendered , and was captured by Union forces on April 7 . Humes was imprisoned at Johnson ' s Island located in Sandusky Bay in Ohio , until he was exchanged in September 1862 . On March 15 , 1863 , Humes was promoted to the rank of major and assigned to command the artillery of Maj . Gen . Joseph Wheeler ' s cavalry corps . He participated in the Battle of Farmington on October 7 , and was wounded in a foot during the fight . Upon recovery , Humes was promoted to brigadier general on November 16 . He was then given brigade command in Wheeler ' s cavalry , leaving the artillery service . He also fought during the Battle of Lookout Mountain and the Battle of Missionary Ridge of the Chattanooga Campaign in the fall of 1863 . Humes participated in the Atlanta Campaign of late 1863 and into the summer of 1864 , and fought at the Battle of Brown ' s Mill on July 30 , 1864 . He then fought during Wheeler ' s 1864 Raid into Tennessee that fall , now leading a cavalry division . He then resisted Sherman ' s March to the Sea in late 1864 , and fought during the Battle of Buck Head Creek on November 28 . After his wife Margaret died , Humes married Sallie Elder in 1864 , and the couple would have four children together . Humes then participated in the Carolinas Campaign of 1865 , and fought during the Confederate victory at the Battle of Monroe ' s Crossroads on March 10 , where he was wounded in a leg , and he also fought in the Battle of Bentonville from March 19 – 21 . Near the end of the American Civil War , Humes surrendered with Gen . Joseph E . Johnston on April 26 , although there is no record of an individual parole or pardon . Postbellum career and death . After the war ended , Humes returned to Memphis , Tennessee , and resumed his career as a lawyer . He later relocated to Alabama and again practiced law . Humes died there in Huntsville in 1833 , and his body was brought back to Memphis where it was buried in Elmwood Cemetery .