Samuel Garland , Jr . Samuel Garland , Jr . , ( December 16 , 1830 – September 14 , 1862 ) was an American attorney from Virginia and Confederate general during the American Civil War . He was killed in action during the Maryland Campaign while defending Fox ' s Gap at the Battle of South Mountain . Early life and career . The grandnephew of James Madison , Garland was born in Lynchburg , Virginia . His father , Samuel Garland , Sr . , was a well known attorney , but died when his son was only five years old . Garland graduated third in his class from the Virginia Military Institute and completed law school at the University of Virginia when he was twenty . He married and fathered one child , a son also named Samuel . Garland practiced law in Lynchburg and helped organize a militia company , the " Lynchburg Home Guard , " and was elected as their captain . He also lectured on natural law at Lynchburg College . He continued as an attorney until his home state seceded from the Union in the spring of 1861 . The company soon joined others to form the 11th Virginia Infantry , and Garland was commissioned as the regiment ' s colonel . However , personal tragedy soon struck , as on June 12 , 1861 , his wife died , and only three months afterwards , so did his infant son . Civil War . A grieving Garland saw action in July at First Bull Run , Dranesville , and Williamsburg , having been wounded at the latter . After promotion to brigadier general , Garland distinguished himself in the Seven Days Battles and the Second Battle of Bull Run . He gained a reputation for fearlessness under fire , which some believed stemmed from a . When Gen . Robert E . Lee divided the Army of Northern Virginia in the Maryland Campaign , Garland ' s brigade was tasked with defending Fox ' s Gap , one of the passes in the South Mountain chain . On September 14 , 1862 , Union troops from the Army of the Potomac attacked in an attempt to seize the vital passes . During the spirited morning engagement at Fox ' s Gap , Garland was mortally wounded while defending a stone wall bordering one of farmer Daniel Wise ' s fields . He died within minutes . In his official report , D . H . Hill memorialized him , " This brilliant service , however , cost us the life of that pure , gallant , and accomplished Christian soldier , General Garland , who had no superiors and few equals in the service . " Garland ' s body was retrieved by Union troops and sent down the mountainside , where Maj . Gen . George B . McClellan ordered an honor guard to accompany the body until it could be transferred to Garland ' s friends and transported home . On September 19 , 1862 , Garland was buried in the Presbyterian Cemetery in his hometown of Lynchburg next to his wife and son . The Samuel Garland Camp of the United Confederate Veterans was named in his memory , as was the later Garland - Rodes Camp of the successor organization Sons of Confederate Veterans . In 1993 , the Central Maryland Heritage League , owners of parts of the Fox ' s Gap battlefield ( part of the South Mountain State Battlefield Park , erected and dedicated a commemorative marker near the spot of Garland ' s death near the earlier 1889 marker erected by Union soldiers of the IX Corps to Gen Jesse L . Reno on Reno Monument Road . Also nearby from 2005 is a bronze sculpture with a granite base monument to the North Carolina troops that held the line there .