Jerome B . Robertson Jerome Bonaparte Robertson ( March 14 , 1815 – January 7 , 1890 ) was a doctor , Indian fighter , Texas politician , and a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . He was noted for his service in the famed Texas Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia . Early life and career . Robertson was born in Woodford County , Kentucky , the son of Scottish immigrant Cornelius Robertson and his wife Clarissa Hill ( Keech ) Robertson . When Robertson was only four years old , his father died , leaving his mother almost penniless . Unable to properly support her family , she apprenticed young Robertson four years later to a hatter , who moved with the boy in 1824 to St . Louis . After studying medicine at Transylvania University in Kentucky , Robertson graduated in 1835 . With the Texas Revolution emerging as a national topic , Robertson joined a company of Kentucky volunteers as a lieutenant and made plans to travel to Texas . However , they were delayed in New Orleans and did not arrive in Texas until September 1836 . There , he joined the Army of Texas and was commissioned as a captain . In 1837 , with hostilities essentially ended in Texas , Robertson resigned his commission and returned to Kentucky , where he married Mary Elizabeth Cummins . He returned with his wife and several relatives to Texas in December 1837 , buying land and settling in Washington - on - the Brazos . He established a medical practice , and became known on the frontier as an Indian fighter through six years of sporadic campaigning . He also served in the military forces that helped repel two invasions by the Mexican army in 1842 . After stints as the town ' s coroner , mayor , and postmaster , Robertson was elected in 1847 to the Texas House of Representatives and in 1849 to the State Senate . He and his wife Mary had three children , one of whom died in infancy . His son Felix Huston Robertson eventually became a brigadier general in the Confederate army . Civil War . Robertson was a delegate to the state Secession Convention in January 1861 , and subsequently raised a company of volunteers for the Confederate army and was elected as its captain when it became a formal part of the newly raised 5th Texas Infantry in the brigade of John Bell Hood . In November 1861 , Robertson was elevated to lieutenant colonel , and then on June 1 , 1862 , to colonel and command of the regiment . He was in the Peninsula Campaign , serving with distinction during the Seven Days Battles and leading his regiment in a successful charge during the Battle of Gaines ' Mill that split the Union lines . Robertson became popular with his soldiers due to his unusual concern for their welfare , giving rise to his nickname , " Aunt Polly . " He served in the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Maryland Campaign , where his health was failing due to months of steady campaigning . During the Battle of South Mountain , he was overcome by exhaustion and had to be carried from the field . He did not rejoin his regiment until after the subsequent Battle of Antietam . However , by then his reputation as a fighter had been noted , and with the promotion of Hood to division command , Robertson was named as his successor and was promoted to brigadier general on November 1 , 1862 . He saw his first action as a brigade commander during the Battle of Fredericksburg . Gettysburg and after . In the summer of 1863 , Robertson led his brigade into Pennsylvania during the Gettysburg Campaign . Hood ' s Division arrived too late for the first day ' s fighting during the Battle of Gettysburg , but they played a prominent role on the second day , where Robertson led his brigade in a series of hard - hitting , but ultimately unsuccessful , attacks on Little Round Top . Those attacks culminated with the fight for Devil ' s Den , during which his 1st , 4th , and 5th Texas regiments , as well as his 3rd Arkansas Infantry , took heavy casualties that ultimately resulted in their taking their objective , despite being greatly outnumbered by Union forces . Robertson was wounded along with several of his officers during that action , which he later described as " one of the hottest contests I have ever witnessed . " In September , along with the rest of Lt . Gen . James Longstreet ' s corps , Robertson and the Texas Brigade were moved to Tennessee to reinforce the Army of Tennessee , fighting with distinction at Chickamauga . However , Robertson ' s performance in the subsequent East Tennessee campaign invoked the wrath of both Longstreet and division commander Micah Jenkins . Longstreet filed formal court - martial charges against General Robertson , alleging delinquency of duty and accusing him of pessimistic remarks . Shortly before , Robertson had joined the other brigadiers in the division in support of Evander M . Law over Longstreet ' s protégé Jenkins as division commander , which undoubtedly influenced Longstreet , who was in a bitter argument with Law . Robertson was reprimanded , replaced as commander of the Texas Brigade , and transferred to Texas , where he commanded the state reserve forces until the end of the war . Postbellum career . Following the collapse of the Confederacy and the surrender of the remaining Texas forces , Robertson returned to his home in Independence and resumed his medical practice , a period marked by mourning when his wife died in 1868 . He reentered politics in 1874 , being named as superintendent of the Texas Bureau of Immigration for two years . Two years later , he served as passenger and emigration agent for the Houston and Texas Central Railroad . Robertson married a widow , Mrs . Hattie Hendley Hook , in 1878 and relocated to Waco a year later . There , he continued to promote railroad construction in West Texas . He held several high Masonic offices , including deputy grand master of the Third Masonic District and of the Twenty - ninth Masonic District . He was an organizer of the Hood ' s Texas Brigade Association , which he served as president several times . He was initially buried at Independence next to his first wife and his mother . In 1894 his son had all three bodies moved to Oakwood Cemetery in Waco .