Erasmus Burt Erasmus R . Burt ( c . 1820 – October 26 , 1861 ) was an American physician , politician , and soldier . He served as the State Auditor of Mississippi , and was then a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives . During the American Civil War , he was a colonel in the Confederate States Army and was killed in action at the Battle of Ball ' s Bluff in Northern Virginia . He was known as “ the Father of the Deaf and Dumb Institute of Mississippi ” . Early life and career . Erasmus Burt was born around 1820 in Edgefield County , South Carolina . He was one of ten children of Francis Burt , a member of South Carolina House of Representatives from 1798 to 1800 , and Catherine Miles . His brothers included Armistead Burt ( November 16 , 1802 – October 30 , 1883 ) , who was elected to Congress in 1843 for South Carolina and served until 1853 and who was married to the niece of John C . Calhoun , and Francis Burt ( January 13 , 1807 - October 18 , 1854 ) , who served in Washington , D . C . as the Third Auditor of the Treasury , and in 1854 was appointed the first Territorial Governor of Nebraska . Erasmus and two other brothers , Matthew and Oswell , studied medicine in Alabama . Dr . Matthew Burt practiced medicine in Jacksonville , Alabama , where he died in 1839 . Oswell E . Burt moved to Alabama where he founded the town of Alexandria , and then moved to Texas . Erasmus Burt first practiced medicine in Calhoun county , Alabama and then moved to Mississippi . On September 16 , 1840 , in Jacksonville , Alabama , Erasmus married Lucy Ann Morgan ( October 22 , 1821 – c . 1887 ) , the daughter of George Washington Morgan and Mary Frances Irby . By 1845 he was practicing medicine in Oktibbeha County , Mississippi , and became a member of the House of Representatives representing Oktibbeha County , and State Auditor . While chairman of the Committee on Claims and a member of the Committee of Education he was instrumental in founding the Mississippi Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb in 1854 . Civil War service . When the War between the States broke out , Burt raised a regiment for the Confederate side known as the " Burt Rifles , " which became Company K of the 18th Mississippi Infantry on April 22 , 1861 , starting with the rank of captain . He was made a colonel on June 7 , 1861 . They first saw action at the First Battle of Manassas on July 21 , 1861 . At the Battle of Ball ' s Bluff near Leesburg , Virginia , he led his men in an attack on a Union artillery battery , but his regiment was caught in a crossfire by nearby enemy infantry . Burt was shot through his hip by a bullet which entered his stomach . His men were so enraged by his loss that that they helped drive the Federals into the Potomac River where a number of them drowned . He was taken into Harrison Hall in Leesburg , Virginia . Burt was promoted to general for his bravery , but died before the promotion was received . His body was taken back to Jackson , Mississippi , where he was buried . He had eight children , and after his death his wife and younger children were moved back to Alabama by his widow ’ s family . Honors . There is an Erasmus Burt Award presented by the Mississippi Association of the Deaf .