Raleigh Edward Colston Jr (1825 - 1896)

Born 31 Oct 1825 in Paris, City of Paris, Île-de-France, France

Husband of Louisa Meriwether (Bowyer) Colston — married 20 Aug 1846 in Rockbridge, Virginia, United States

Descendants

Died 30 Jul 1896 at age 70 in Richmond, Virginia, United States

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Biography

Raleigh Colston Jr is Notable.

Brig Gen Raleigh Colston Jr served in the United States Civil War.
Side: CSA

Raleigh Edward Colston was a French-born American professor, soldier, cartographer, and writer. Graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. Colonel of the 16th Virginia Infantry and Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Colston was among a handful of former Confederates who served in Egypt following the war.^[1]

Adopted son of Dr Raleigh Edward Colston and Maria Theresa, 2nd Duchess of Valmy.^[1] Husband of Louisa Meriwether Bowyer (m 1846), Laura Eunice Collier (m 1883). Father of Louise and Mary. Raleigh passed away in 1896. Final resting place in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.^[2]

Birth and death dates recorded from headstone placed by Lee Chapter UDC No 123, 1971.^[2]

Spouses: Louisa Meriwether Bowyer Colston 1808–1882 (m. 1846) Laura Eunice Collier Colston 1841–1918 (m. 1883)

Children: Jane Fauntleroy Colston unknown–1852 Louise Elizabeth Colston Ragland 1847–1927 Mary Frances Colston Lippitt 1849–1936 Leila Collfield Colston 1854–1862

Military

Civil War Confederate Brigadier General Military Figure, Educator. He was a professor of French and Military Science at Virginia Military Institute, a Brigadier General in the Confederate States Army, and a Colonel in the Egyptian Army. He was born in Paris, France, coming to the United States in 1842. The adopted son of a Virginia physician, he entered the Virginia Military Institute, graduating 4 years later. He then joined the faculty of his alma mater as a professor of French and Military Science, remaining there until 1861. When the American Civil War began, he was appointed colonel of the 16th Virginia. On December 24, 1861, he received a promotion to Brigadier General and command of a brigade of 3 regiments. During the Peninsula Campaign, he served in Major General James Longstreet's command. For his service at Williamsburg, he received a mild commendation in the reports, but for his disputed role at Seven Pines, he was mildly rebuked. After Seven Pines, he was stricken with a fever and became jaundice, leaving the army until December. In Spring of 1863 Major General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson chose his old VMI colleague to command Brigadier General William B. Taliaferro's brigade. He was the senior Brigadier of the Stonewall Division and, when its commander, Major General Isaac Trimble, could not return to command because of a crippling wound, he assumed command divisional leadership. With limited combat experience, and having been with the division less than a month, he led the division at Chancellorsville. He was responsible for moving his men into battle too slowly and for this, was relieved of his command on May 20, 1863. Instead of his superior officers realizing there was a lack of well-trained officers with battle field experience, he received the blunt of the blame. Assigned to General P.G.T. Beauregard at Petersburg, Virginia, he served under him during the operations there in 1864. At the end of the war, he was commanding Confederate forces at Lynchburg. He was paroled on May 22, 1865, signed the amnesty oath on July 7th, and received a presidential pardon on August 19th. He returned home, but financial difficulties forced him to sell his house and property. To earn money he lectured on Stonewall Jackson, and from 1866 to 1873 he was a principal at two North Carolina military schools. In 1873, he joined the Egyptian army as a colonel and became an instructor. He helped to lead a two-year scientific survey expedition from Cairo to central Africa, where he contacted a fever. He received the Osmanie Order of the Ottoman Empire for his service. Badly crippled in a fall from a camel, he returned to the United States in 1879. At that point, he lectured at various schools and wrote several magazine articles on his experiences in North Africa and in the Civil War. He was a clerk and translator in the U.S. War Department and Surgeon General's office from 1882 to 1894. He worked from home from 1891. He became too incapacitated to work in 1894, dying two years later impoverished in the Confederate Soldiers' Home in Richmond, Virginia. He was buried with military honors. His personal papers including a ten-volume diary are archived at the University of North Carolina.

Bio by: Linda Davis

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Raleigh Edward Colston, Wikipedia.org, accessed October 31, 2019.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Raleigh Edward Colston, Find A Grave: Memorial #9860, accessed October 31, 2019.

• Marriage: "Virginia, U.S., Compiled Marriages, 1740-1850"
  Dodd, Jordan R., Et Al.; Early American Marriages: Virginia to 1850; Publication Place: Bountiful, UT, USA; Publisher: Precision Indexing Publishers
  Ancestry Record 3723 #1118319 (accessed 7 April 2022)
  Louisa M [Mrs] Gardner marriage to Raleigh C. Colston on 20 Aug 1846 in Rockbridge, Virginia, USA.
• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9860/raleigh-edward-colston: accessed 11 November 2023), memorial page for Raleigh Edward Colston (31 Oct 1825–29 Jul 1896), Find a Grave Memorial ID 9860, citing Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Richmond City, Virginia, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave.