John D . Imboden John Daniel Imboden ( ; February 16 , 1823 – August 15 , 1895 ) was a lawyer , teacher , Virginia state legislator . During the American Civil War , he was a Confederate cavalry general and partisan fighter . After the war he returned to practicing law , began writing , and also was active in developing natural resources . Early life and career . Imboden was born near Staunton , Virginia , in the Shenandoah Valley . He attended Washington College ( now Washington and Lee University ) , but did not complete his degree . He taught at a school for the deaf , dumb , and blind , and then attended law school and became a lawyer in Staunton . He was twice elected to the House of Delegates of the Virginia General Assembly . Imboden also was active in the creation of the Staunton Artillery while serving in Virginia ' s militia . Civil War service . Despite having no military training , Imboden received a commission as captain in the Staunton Artillery of the Virginia State Militia on November 28 , 1859 . He commanded the unit during the capture of Harpers Ferry . While commanding an artillery battery at the First Battle of Bull Run , Imboden perforated his left eardrum firing an artillery piece , causing subsequent deafness in that ear . On September 9 , 1862 , Imboden left the artillery to recruit a battalion of partisan rangers and was promoted to colonel of the 62nd Virginia Mounted Infantry ( 1st Partisan Rangers ) . He fought with Maj . Gen . Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson in the Valley Campaign at Cross Keys and Port Republic . He was promoted to brigadier general on January 28 , 1863 . Along with Brig . Gen . William E . " Grumble " Jones , Imboden led the famous Jones - Imboden Raid of 3 , 400 troopers into northwestern Virginia against the B & O Railroad , destroying rail track and bridges . During the raid he also captured thousands of horses and heads of cattle and ruined the petroleum fields in the Kanawha Valley . This raid covered in 37 days . In the Gettysburg Campaign , Imboden ' s brigade served under Maj . Gen . J . E . B . Stuart as the rearguard for Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s movement north through the Shenandoah Valley . ( His brigade did not participate in Stuart ' s foray away from Lee ' s army , but instead raided the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Martinsburg , WV , and Cumberland , MD ) They spent the Battle of Gettysburg guarding ammunition and supply trains in Chambersburg , Pennsylvania . During the Confederate retreat , Imboden was in charge of escorting the wagon trains of thousands of wounded soldiers back to Virginia . On July 6 , 1863 , the Potomac River was flooding at Williamsport , Maryland , and Imboden ' s wagon train was trapped . He put together a defensive force that included an artillery battery and as many of the wounded who could operate muskets . This hastily organized force turned back attacks from Union cavalry generals John Buford and Judson Kilpatrick , saving the wagon train . Robert E . Lee praised Imboden for the way in which he " gallantly repulsed " the Union cavalry . Returning to the Shenandoah Valley , Imboden responded to a request from General Lee to distract the enemy in his front by leading a raid on the vulnerable Union detachment at Charlestown , West Virginia , on October 18 , 1863 at the Battle of Charlestown . Imboden reported , Union Brig . Gen . Jeremiah Cutler Sullivan soon sent a rescue column from nearby Harpers Ferry and drove Imboden back up the valley . Sullivan reported , " The cavalry came up with the enemy this side of Charlestown , and drove them through the town . Artillery coming up , drove them about 4 miles . A portion of infantry force . . . , reaching them , the enemy were driven from every position they took , to near Berryville . " Imboden and John C . Breckinridge ' s forces defeated Union Maj . Gen . Franz Sigel ' s command at the Battle of New Market on May 15 , 1864 . He returned to Virginia and commanded a brigade in Maj . Gen . Robert Ransom ' s cavalry division of the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia under Lt . Gen . Jubal A . Early in the Valley Campaigns of 1864 . He was incapacitated by typhoid fever and left the active cavalry service . Beginning on January 2 , 1865 , Imboden commanded Camp Millen , Georgia , then the prison camp at Aiken , South Carolina as well as other prison camps in Georgia , Alabama , and Mississippi throughout 1865 until the end of the war . He was paroled in Augusta , Georgia on May 3 of that year . Postbellum . After the war , Imboden moved to Richmond , Virginia , where he resumed his work as a lawyer , serving first in Richmond and then in Abingdon , the county seat of Washington County . Around 1886 , he moved to southwestern Virginia and where he hoped to mine coal and iron ore deposits at Damascus , Virginia , a town he founded , which became a lumber center in the late 19th and early 20th century . He died in Damascus in 1895 , and is buried in the Generals section of Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond , Virginia .