George Washington’s Family Members Serving The CSA

George Washington was a Southerner born in Virginia (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799)

He was a Hero and a Great American Colonist from the South. He was a military general, statesman, and founding father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797.

Previously, he led Patriot forces to victory in the Colonies War for Independence. He presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the U.S. Constitution and a federal government of Sovereign and Independent States in a union known as These United States plurally.

Even at the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. Ending America’s War of Independence, when King George III Signed the Treaty he listed each Colony as a separate and equal Sovereign and Independent state, as the Declaration of Independence had done in 1776. Washington has been called the “Father of America” for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the United States of America.

If it were not for his efforts keeping the Continental Army together or going, and the Men of the South of Scottish and Irish Ancestry. The War of Independence might have been lost.

The Revolutionary War and some of the most important Battles were Fought and Won in the South.

George Washington didn’t have any Blood Direct Descendants to carry on his Legacy or the Heritage that he had, but his Brothers and Sisters and Cousins did. Also when he married the Widow Martha Dandrige Parke Custis he adopted her children as his own.

Thus Legally having Heirs to carry on his Heritage and Legacy. So in Fact G. Washington did have Family Members and Descendants who served in the Confederacy and continually are still alive today.

These are some of them and this is their Story and Contribution to The History of America and their Southern Heritage.

LTC. John Augustine Washington III. Confederate States Army Officer. Great grandnephew of

George Washington and last Washington to own “Mount Vernon”. In 1840 he graduated from the University of Virginia. Three years later he married Eleanor Love Seldon. He purchased a farm in Fauquier County, Virginia called “Waveland” where he made his home. His wife died in 1860 from childbirth. When Virginia seceded from the Union John volunteered to defend Virginia in the oncoming conflict. He served as aide-de-camp on the staff of General Robert E. Lee in the campaign of western Virginia. He has commissioned Lieutenant Colonel on this campaign. While reconnoitering in the Cheat Mountains of now West Virginia he was shot by a bushwhacker and killed. In a letter written on September 6th, 1861 to his brother-in-law, Dr. W. Fountain Alexander from the “Camp of Valley Mountain” John expresses his concerns of his own survival. “…I don’t know when I shall leave this region, or indeed whether I ever shall do so, as of course, my chances are the same as those of other men, and I know some of us will never get away…” signed, “Most Affectionately yours, John A. Washington”. He died one week later.

Lt. Col. CSA

John Augustine Washington III.

The great-grandson of George’s brother John. When war came, he walked away from the Union.

John Augustine was not a military man, but he entered the Confederate Army as a lieutenant colonel and aide-de-camp to (and tent mate of) Robert E. Lee, a distant cousin. The pious, gentlemanly Washington quickly turned partisan, explaining in a letter from July 1861: “In fact, the Yankees are for the most part a set of plundering fellows, who will steal and bully when they can and do as little fighting as possible.” Two months later, he was shot and killed by such fellows at the Battle of Cheat Mountain, Va. In a condolence letter to Washington’s family, Lee told of the circumstances:

He accompanied my son, Fitshugh, on a reconnoitering expedition and I fear was carried too far by his zeal for the cause of the South which he had so much at heart. Before they were aware they were fired upon by a concealed party. … He was the only person struck and fell dead from his horse.

Washington was buried in the graveyard of Zion Episcopal Church in Charles Town, in present-day West Virginia, the final resting place of more than 70 of his family members.

ANOTHER Grand Nephew of George Washington:

Richard Scott Blackburn Washington (Dick)

Bott’s Grays – 2nd Regiment of Virginia Infantry.

He attended V.M.I. in 1843. A farmer.

John Augustine’s brother Dick was also in the Confederate Army, but he was discharged for health reasons soon after his brother’s death. The following spring, though a civilian, he was taken prisoner by Union cavalry. A cousin, George Washington, interceded with a friendly Confederate congressman, and Dick was eventually exchanged. He did not rejoin the fight, because Lee advised him to take care of his family responsibilities.

His brother, Col. John Augustine, owned Mt. Vernon.

Oct. 15 – Richard B. Washington, one of the oldest residents of Jefferson County, died here today at the home of his son, John A. Washington, after a short illness.

He was born at Blakely, near Charlestown, November 12, 1822. For some years he resided at “Harewood”, his country home near Charlestown, but about 15 years ago he moved to Charlestown, where he has been residing.

Mr. Washington was a brother of the late Col. John Augustine Washington, at the one-time owner of Mount Vernon. He is survived by five sons-Messrs John A. and S. Walter Washington, of Charlestown; Dehurthurn Washington, of Woodbury, N.J., and George S. Washington, of Philadelphia; also two daughters, Mrs. George H. Flagg and Miss Christine Washington, of Charlestown. He will be buried in the Episcopal Churchyard here Monday afternoon.

Sun (Baltimore, Md.) Sunday, October 16, 1910, page 7.

Several of the Southern-leaning Washingtons lived in and around Charles Town. Lewis William Washington was one. A great-grandson of George’s older half-brother Augustine, he lived near Harpers Ferry and was renowned enough for John Brown to seize him as a hostage. After being freed, Lewis became the lead prosecution witness in Brown’s trial. His son, James Barroll Washington, naturally joined the Confederate Army. A West Pointer, he served as aide-de-camp to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. He was captured during the Battle of Seven Pines and posed for a picture with Union Capt. George Armstrong Custer before being released to rejoin the Confederate Army. He survived the war.

Lieutenant James Barroll Washington, Confederate Officer. This collateral descendent of President George Washington was a native of Baltimore, Maryland. He attended the United States Military Academy. When the War between the states became imminent, he embraced the Southern Confederacy and received a commission that made him a lieutenant in the Provisional Army of Virginia (PAVA). Subsequently, he was appointed to a lieutenancy in the Confederate States Army and assigned to General Joseph Eggleston Johnston to serve as an Aide-de-Camp. It was in this capacity that the unfortunate officer was captured on May 31, 1862, at the Battle of Seven Pines, Virginia. During this captivity, a chanced meeting with George Armstrong Custer, an acquaintance from his West Point days, took place. The two former plebes and then-current adversaries later sat together for a series of images (see left). Washington remained a prisoner-of-war until his exchange on September 21, 1862, at Aiken’s Landing, Virginia, after which, he was assigned as an Ordnance Officer in Montgomery, Alabama. At the close of the war, he became an executive with the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. He died in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania.

George Lafayette Washington Private George Lafayette Washington, Company C, 43rd Battalion, Virginia Cavalry (Col. John S. Mosby’s Partisan Rangers), Confederate States Army. Captured at Winchester, VA, September 19, 1864. Held as a POW at Point Lookout, MD.

George L. Washington was the great grand-nephew of President George Washington.

Dr. William Fontaine Alexander:

Born at Walnut Farm, the son of Charles and Mary Bowles Armistead Alexander. Wed to Anna Maria Washington. Father of Charles A. Alexander. He was a druggist that enlisted with the Second Regiment of Virginia Infantry in June of 1861 at Bolivar Heights. He served as a steward at hospitals in Charlottesville and Lynchburg before being permanently assigned as a druggist at Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond.

Charles Armistead Alexander, a nephew of Dick Washington, was a doctor for the Confederate Army. He was captured and imprisoned at Point Lookout, Md. Suffering from what was considered the “family curse” of tuberculosis, he died at home after his stepmother successfully petitioned the White House for his release. Son of William and Anna W.Alexander.

The University of Virginia, a medical student in 1861.

C.S.A., Prisoner of war at Fort Delaware, died there.

Never married.

Lt. Bushrod C Washington Co.G,2nd Va.Inf.Regt.;Co.B,12th Va.Cav.Regt.  A descendant of George’s brother John grew up on the enormous Claymont estate outside Charles Town. He joined the Confederate Army, was captured, exchanged, and later became an officer in the 12th Virginia Cavalry. He survived the war and moved to the state of Washington, where he died and was buried. Nonetheless, the family erected a memorial in the graveyard at Zion church. Bushrod’s brother Sgt. George Washington, who wrote the letter about a prisoner exchange for Dick, was killed in action in 1863. He was also buried at Zion.

The Washingtons’ first cousins, a branch of the Alexander family, also lived at Claymont and joined the Confederate Army. Pvt. Thomas Blackburn Alexander died of wounds in a hospital in Staunton, Va. Thomas B. Alexander enlisted on 21 April 1861 at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia as a Private.

On 21 April he mustered into “B” Co., Virginia 2nd Infantry. He died of disease on 18 September 1862 at Staunton, Virginia. (Estimated day of death in hospital of cerebritis). second brother, William Fontaine Alexander, served the Confederate Army as a physician.

Claymont, a mansion as big as a modern hotel, was a breeding ground for rebellion. James Washington of Claymont rode with his older brothers Bushrod and George in the 12th Virginia Cavalry and later joined Confederate Col. John Mosby’s Rangers, who bedeviled Union Gen. Phil Sheridan and his subordinate, George Custer (now a general). James and his cousin Herbert Lee Alexander, who had grown up with him at Claymont, were captured trying to blow up a railroad bridge. Imprisoned at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, James died of typhoid fever in the waning days of the war. Alexander survived the war, only to die of tuberculosis a year later. Both are buried at Zion.

Washington in-laws also served. The tragedy involved descendants of President Washington’s wife, Martha Custis Washington. The Cousins of Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee the wife of Robert E. Lee. These Two cousins, Colonel William Orton Williams and Lieutenant Walter Gipson Peters, both Confederates, rode into a Union Army camp in Tennessee wearing Union uniforms. Some claim it was on a dare. Once their true identities were discovered, they were given a drumhead court-martial and hanged as spies.

The Washingtons’ sacrifices for the Confederacy were not just in the blood. The Harewood estate outside Charles Town was built in the 18th century by another of George Washington’s brothers, Samuel. James and Dolley Madison were married there in a wedding hosted by Samuel’s son, George Steptoe, who was married to Dolley’s sister. A son of that marriage, Dr. Samuel Walter Washington, married Louisa Clemson, and she was still living there during the Civil War when it was visited by Union soldiers. She described conditions in a November 1863 letter: “They have taken all of our turkeys & shot 4 of our sheep before our eyes. … As to horses, they leave us none … We have but 3 horses to work with, the Souths took one wagon & team – & the Federals others.”

Pvt. James Cunnigham Washington Member of Co B, 12th Virginia Cavalry Regiment, Rosser’s Brigade. Army Of Northern Virginia, CSA. Captured along with Herbert Alexander at Claymont Farm near Charles Town. Imprisoned at Fort McHenry near Baltimore, Md. Starved and inhumanely treated by their Yankee captors, died in captivity. After James C. Washington and Herbert Alexander were caught trying to blow up the railroad bridge, a furious Sheridan ordered:

“I want you to send to the home of Mrs. Alexander, where the guerilla James Washington and Herbert Alexander were captured, and drive off all the stock except one milch cow, and burn every rail on the Clay Mound [Claymont] farm as punishment for harboring guerillas.”

Lincoln remained obsessed with Washington through the war, and he followed these developments closely. Mary Todd Lincoln visited Mount Vernon in late March 1861, shortly after Lincoln’s inauguration and shortly before Fort Sumter was fired on. In April 1862, Lincoln himself went there, by boat. But security was a concern. One of those accompanying Lincoln wrote, “I advised the President not to land, and remained in the boat with him.” A month later, Lincoln went to Fredericksburg, Va., to see Ferry Farm, Washington’s boyhood home. This time he took precautions: The town and farm were occupied by Union troops, and a detachment of cavalry rode along.

Lincoln’s final encounter with Washington was personal. John Augustine Washington IV, a son of Dick and nephew of John Augustine III, suffered from Pott’s disease, a deformity of the spine caused by tuberculosis that causes a hunchback. Only 17 years old, John Augustine IV was – according to family lore – unable to serve in the Confederate Army but was nevertheless arrested for interfering with Union troops who were seizing cattle. The Union saw things differently. Prison records say the boy was a private in Mosby’s cavalry and carried dispatches for him. He was taken to Washington and incarcerated in Old Capitol Prison, the usual place for suspected Confederate spies.

The boy’s grandmother, Louisa Washington of Harewood, who had lost her turkeys and horses to Union troops a year before, went to the president for help. Lincoln wrote out the release by hand: “Let the boy, John A. Washington, remain in Washington, and attend school, so long as he does not misbehave. A. Lincoln, Nov. 30, 1864.”

The Washington family paid dearly during the war. At least 12 served the Confederacy; eight died in battle, by hanging or of disease. Their estates became battlegrounds; their property was seized, and they were left impoverished. Some, like Dick Washington, had even invested in Confederate bonds. A bright spot for the family came in the 20th century when medical science exorcised the family curse of tuberculosis.

Now, this is where it gets real interesting: George Washington didn’t have any Blood Direct Descendants, but when he Married the Widow Martha Dandrige Parke Custis he adopted her children. So that means by a Court of Law that because Robert E. Lee Married Mary Anna Randolph Custis the Great Granddaughter of Martha Washington. Robert E. Lee’s 3 sons that fought for the Confederacy were Descendants of George Washington!

So if you think about it legally and holding up in a Court of Law. George Washington Custis Lee. An MG in the Confederate States of America, William Henry Fitzhugh Lee (Rooney) also an MG in the 9th Virginia Cavalry of the CSA, and Robert E. Lee Jr. (ROB) A Captain in the Stonebridge Artillery were all adoptive GGGrandsons of George Washington.

These are just a few examples of his Family Members that served in the CSA during the War Between The States. Proving once again that these Heroes and Great Americans from the South are Descendants and Family Members of Heroes and Great Americans from the South.