Heroes of The Civil War: Turner Ashby

Turner Ashby lived from 1828 to 1862. He was a Confederate general whose death in combat seemed to typify the doomed gallantry of the South’s military efforts.

He was from an old Virginian family. He grandfather had fought in the War of 1812. Turner was apposed to secession in principle, but as a planter and grain dealer he defended the practice of slavery.

He personally organized a troop of mounted volunteers to ride to Harper’s Ferry when he heard of John Brown’s raid, but he arrived too late to take action.

When Virginia seceded, Ashby immediately organized another troop of horseman that, incorporated into the seventh Virginian Cavalry, he led in the early operations in the upper Potomac.

In the spring of 1862, Ashby helped cover Jackson’s retreat to Swift run Gap, but by late May he was pursuing the retreating federal forces under General Banks. On May 27th Ashby was commissioned a brigadier general, by which time he was commanding a cavalry brigade that was fighting rearguard actions to protect the Shenandoah Valley. On June 6th, Ashby was killed by Federal troops.

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