John Echols John Echols ( March 20 , 1823 – May 24 , 1896 ) was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War . Biography . Echols was born in Lynchburg , Virginia , and was educated at the Virginia Military Institute , Washington College and Harvard College . A tall imposing man , standing 6 feet 4 inches tall , Echols quickly became a leader among his peers . On becoming a lawyer in 1843 he settled in Union , Monroe County ( now West Virginia ) . Echols represented Monroe County in the Virginia House of Delegates 1852 – 1853 and in the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 . He offered his service to the state ' s army and was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel . On May 8 , 1861 , he was ordered by General Robert E . Lee to call out and muster in volunteer forces , not to exceed two regiments , to rendezvous at Staunton for Joseph E . Johnston ' s fledgling army . Echols was then assigned command of the 27th Virginia Infantry , leading the regiment in the fighting at the First Battle of Manassas under Stonewall Jackson . He was soon promoted to colonel , serving in the Valley Campaign . He was severely wounded on March 23 , disabling him for several weeks . Echols was promoted to brigadier general on April 16 , 1862 during his convalescence . Later in the year , he was assigned to command a brigade of the army of Western Virginia . He participated as a brigade commander in William W . Loring ' s occupation of the Kanawha Valley in September . After Loring withdrew to the mountains , Echols replaced him in command of the Department of Western Virginia . He promptly reoccupied Charleston , but was forced to retreat by a superior enemy force . He resigned his departmental command in the spring of 1863 , and , during the following summer , served upon the three - man court of inquiry held in Richmond to investigate the cause of the fall of Vicksburg . Later in the year , he commanded the Confederate forces in the Battle of Droop Mountain , stubbornly resisting a series of Federal attacks . In May 1864 , he commanded John C . Breckinridge ' s right wing at the Battle of New Market in the Shenandoah Valley . Echols ' Brigade was recalled by Robert E . Lee to rejoin the Army of Northern Virginia near Cold Harbor during the Siege of Petersburg . On August 22 , 1864 , he was given charge of the District of Southwestern Virginia , and on March 29 , 1865 , Echols was assigned command of the western department of Virginia , relieving General Breckinridge , who had joined the staff of President Jefferson Davis . On April 2 , Echols , with nearly 7 , 000 men , began a hasty march to unite with Lee . He reached Christiansburg , Virginia , on April 10 , where he received a telegram announcing Lee ' s surrender at Appomattox Courthouse . At a solemn council of war , Echols decided to march to unite with Johnston ' s army , and Echols led two brigades southward towards North Carolina . Subsequently , he accompanied President Davis to Augusta , Georgia . After the war , Echols resumed the practice of law in Staunton . He helped select the members of the Committee of Nine , a group of state leaders who worked to ensure that the state be readmitted into the Union . Echols returned to the Virginia House of Delegates 1878 – 1881 , representing Staunton and Augusta County ; while there , he sided with the Funders against the Readjusters . He became President of the Staunton National Valley Bank , and Receiver and General Manager of the Chesapeake , Ohio & Southwestern Railroad , living in Kentucky the last ten years of his life as he managed the railroad ' s affairs . Echols was twice married , first to a sister of Senator Allen T . Caperton of West Virginia , and , after her death , to Mrs . Mary Cochrane Reid of New York . He died at the residence of his son , Edward Echols ( later lieutenant governor of Virginia ) , at Staunton , where he is buried in Thornrose Cemetery .