Thomas Drayton

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Thomas Fenwick Drayton (August 24, 1809 – February 18, 1891) was a plantation owner, politician, railroad president, and military officer, serving in the United States Army and then as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army.

Drayton was a native of South Carolina, most likely born in Charleston. He was the son of a prominent lawyer and politician William Drayton, who eventually relocated to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drayton was an 1828 graduate of the United States Military Academy, where he was a classmate of Jefferson Davis, who became his lifelong friend. Drayton was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 6th U.S. Infantry. He married Emma Catherine Pope in 1832. Four years later, Drayton resigned and became a civil engineer for railroad construction in Charleston, Louisville, and Cincinnati before returned to plantation life. He was a captain in the state militia for five years. Drayton was elected to the South Carolina state legislature and was an outspoken supporter of states rights and slavery. While a state senator, he also was President of the Charleston & Savannah Railroad from 1853 until 1856.

With the coming of war, he was appointed as a brigadier general in September 1861. Drayton used his wife's family's plantation, "Fish Haul," as headquarters in the defense of Hilton Head Island until 1861. At the Battle of Port Royal later that year, troops under his command at Fort Beauregard and Fort Walker came under attack by ships of the United States Navy, including the USS Pocahontas, commanded by his brother, Percival Drayton. Thomas Drayton's son, Lieutenant William Drayton, also fought in defense of the forts.

Drayton’s Brigade, part of the Right Wing of the Army of Northern Virginia under James Longstreet, fought at the Second Battle of Manassas. Defending Fox's Gap at the Battle of South Mountain, Drayton suffered high casualties. His much depleted brigade also saw considerable action at Sharpsburg. His tactical abilities were at times questioned by his superiors, and he was finally removed from command. He was transferred to the west to command a brigade in Sterling Price's army in August 1863. During the final two years of the war, he mainly performed administrative duties in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, although he did briefly command a division in early 1864.

He moved to Dooly County, Georgia, following the surrender of Confederate forces and resumed farming. In 1871, he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, and sold insurance for a living. Drayton was president of the South Carolina Immigrant Society until shortly before his death in Florence, South Carolina, at the age of 81. He was buried in Charlotte.

The Drayton family property, Magnolia Plantation, is a modern tourist attraction near Charleston, South Carolina, and is still owned by the family after 15 generations.

[edit] References

• Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5.
• Evans, Clement A., Confederate Military History Vol. 5, pg. 387
• Site about the brothers and the Civil War
• South Carolina Heritage site