32 Facts About William Mahone

William Mahone was a Confederate States Army general, civil engineer, railroad executive, prominent Virginia Readjuster and ardent supporter of former slaves.

William Mahone led the Readjuster Party, a state political party with a coalition of freemen blacks, Republicans, and populist Democrats.

William Mahone was born at Brown's Ferry near Courtland in Southampton County, Virginia, to Fielding Jordan Mahone and Martha Mahone.

William Mahone did not have a middle name as shown by records including his two Bibles, Virginia Military Institute diploma, marriage license, and Confederate Army commissions.

In 1840, when William was 14 years old, the family moved to Jerusalem, where Fielding Mahone purchased and operated a tavern known as Mahone's Tavern.

Young Billy William Mahone gained his primary education from a country schoolmaster but with special instruction in mathematics from his father.

William Mahone was awarded a spot as a state cadet at the recently opened Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia.

William Mahone worked as a teacher at Rappahannock Academy in Caroline County, Virginia, beginning in 1848, but was actively seeking an entry into civil engineering.

William Mahone did some work helping locate the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, an 88-mile line between Gordonsville, Virginia, and the City of Alexandria.

William Mahone was responsible for engineering and building the famous 52-mile-long tangent track between Suffolk and Petersburg.

In 1854, William Mahone surveyed and laid out with streets and lots of Ocean View City, a new resort town fronting on the Chesapeake Bay in Norfolk County.

William Mahone was a surveyor for the Norfolk and South Air Line Railroad on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.

On February 8,1855, William Mahone married Otelia Butler, the daughter of the late Dr Robert Butler from Smithfield, who had been State Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1846 until he died in 1853.

William Mahone's mother was Butler's second wife, Otelia Voinard Butler, originally from Petersburg.

William Mahone tapped the Scottish Clan "McIvor" for the name of Ivor, a small Southampton County town.

William Mahone bluffed US Army troops into abandoning the shipyard in Portsmouth by running a single passenger train into Norfolk with great noise and whistle-blowing, then much more quietly sending it back west and then returning the same train, creating the illusion of large numbers of arriving troops to the US soldiers listening in Portsmouth across the Elizabeth River.

William Mahone was promoted to brigadier general on November 16,1861, and commanded the Confederate's Norfolk district until its evacuation the following year.

In May 1862, after Confederate forces fled Norfolk during the Peninsula Campaign, William Mahone aided in the construction of the defenses of Richmond on the James River around Drewry's Bluff.

William Mahone's brigade was one of the portions of the First Corps that remained with the main army for the Battle of Chancellorsville.

William Mahone took command of Anderson's division, which he led for the remainder of the war, starting at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

William Mahone became widely regarded as the hero of the Battle of the Crater on July 30,1864.

Nevertheless, William Mahone rallied the remaining nearby Confederate forces, repelling the attack, and the US soldiers lost their initial advantage.

William Mahone's quick and effective action was a rare cause for celebration by the occupants of Petersburg, embattled citizens, and weary troops alike.

William Mahone was president of all three by the end of 1867.

William Mahone directed some funds to help found the predecessor of today's Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, near Petersburg.

William Mahone was active in Virginia's economic and political life for almost 30 years, beginning amid the Civil War when he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly as a delegate from Norfolk in 1863.

William Mahone bargained for significant concessions before he decided to caucus.

William Mahone gained control over Virginia's federal patronage from President James A Garfield and by the right to select both the Senate's Secretary and Sergeant at Arms.

However, William Mahone still faced opposition from the Conservative Party of Virginia, which aligned with the Democrats and grew even more powerful after the 1884 election, when Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected president.

William Mahone maintained his Republican Party affiliation, leading Virginia delegations to the Republican National Conventions of 1884 and 1888.

In 1889, Mahone ran for governor on a Republican ticket but lost to Democrat Philip W McKinney.

William Mahone was interred in the family mausoleum in Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia.