William Mahone

Common card · No. 469016

William Mahone (December 1, 1826 – October 8, 1895) was an American civil engineer, railroad executive, and Confederate States Army general. After the Civil War he became a defender of the rights of freedmen and a leader of the Readjuster Party. He represented Virginia in the United States Senate between 1881 and 1887. As a young man, Mahone was prominent in building Virginia's roads and railroads. As chief engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, he built log-foundations under the routes in the Great Dismal Swamp in southeast tidewater Virginia that are still intact today. According to local tradition, several new railroad towns were named after the novels of Sir Walter Scott, a favorite British/Scottish author of Mahone's wife, Otelia. In the American Civil War, Mahone was pro-secession and served as a general in the Confederate States Army. He was best known for regaining the initiative at the late war siege of Petersburg, Virginia, while Confederate troops were in shock after...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Mathew Brady, Public domain