AUGUST 2, 1864:
Colonel Theodore Washington Brevard (d. 1882) was a Southern politician before and after the war, and a Confederate soldier during, whose activities spanned a large geographical area from Florida to North Carolina. Brevard was an anti-secessionist, but when the South went out he followed the crowd. He was present at the Siege of Petersburg and witnessed the Battle of The Crater. Afterward, he wrote home to his mother:
The “situation” here is unchanged. The armies occupying the same relative positions held five weeks ago. Grant varied the monotony which had so long “dragged its slow length along” by a few days since exploding a mine beneath one of our batteries. The affair was managed very well and came very near resulting seriously to us but in the end proved a decided disaster to Genl Grant himself. Great secrecy was observed by the enemy relative to the operation, and although they were several weeks in excavating the mine, it was completed through without detection, with several tons of powder. A few days since, it was sprung, a little after good day-light. The battery was destroyed and the men in it blown up. The enemy poured in through the breach in large numbers and succeeded in establishing themselves upon a portion of our line. A portion of our division was ordered promptly to the point assailed, and after some obstinate fighting recaptured our works or rather our line—the works being destroyed with a large number of provisions. The slaughter of the enemy was very great. Our Brigade was not engaged in this affair. I visited the scene of the explosion and fight, however, shortly afterwards, and the sight was ghastly enough to have satisfied Abe Lincoln himself. The dead covered the ground more thickly than I have ever seen them elsewhere; the victims of the explosion particularly were mutilated and disfigured beyond description, and the whole spectacle was at once grotesque and horrible.
Colonel Brevard was the near-namesake of his father, General Theodorius Washington Brevard (b. 1804), who was also serving in the Confederate States Army during the war. The two Brevards were often confused. Orders for Brevard pere often reached Brevard fils and vice-versa. As the two men did not serve together in the field, this often led to misunderstandings and command delays that vexed their superiors. Even today, historical records sometimes conflate or confuse the two men who had similar civilian careers and who died in relative time proximity (the elder in 1877, the younger in 1882).
Colonel Theodore Washington Brevard (d. 1882) was a Southern politician before and after the war, and a Confederate soldier during, whose activities spanned a large geographical area from Florida to North Carolina. Brevard was an anti-secessionist, but when the South went out he followed the crowd. He was present at the Siege of Petersburg and witnessed the Battle of The Crater. Afterward, he wrote home to his mother:
The “situation” here is unchanged. The armies occupying the same relative positions held five weeks ago. Grant varied the monotony which had so long “dragged its slow length along” by a few days since exploding a mine beneath one of our batteries. The affair was managed very well and came very near resulting seriously to us but in the end proved a decided disaster to Genl Grant himself. Great secrecy was observed by the enemy relative to the operation, and although they were several weeks in excavating the mine, it was completed through without detection, with several tons of powder. A few days since, it was sprung, a little after good day-light. The battery was destroyed and the men in it blown up. The enemy poured in through the breach in large numbers and succeeded in establishing themselves upon a portion of our line. A portion of our division was ordered promptly to the point assailed, and after some obstinate fighting recaptured our works or rather our line—the works being destroyed with a large number of provisions. The slaughter of the enemy was very great. Our Brigade was not engaged in this affair. I visited the scene of the explosion and fight, however, shortly afterwards, and the sight was ghastly enough to have satisfied Abe Lincoln himself. The dead covered the ground more thickly than I have ever seen them elsewhere; the victims of the explosion particularly were mutilated and disfigured beyond description, and the whole spectacle was at once grotesque and horrible.
Colonel Brevard was the near-namesake of his father, General Theodorius Washington Brevard (b. 1804), who was also serving in the Confederate States Army during the war. The two Brevards were often confused. Orders for Brevard pere often reached Brevard fils and vice-versa. As the two men did not serve together in the field, this often led to misunderstandings and command delays that vexed their superiors. Even today, historical records sometimes conflate or confuse the two men who had similar civilian careers and who died in relative time proximity (the elder in 1877, the younger in 1882).
In fact, the confusion may have contributed to Brevard the Younger’s death, as he was taken prisoner in 1864, and was unable (and no doubt unwilling anyway) to give information to his Union captors that they expected him to have. Thus, he was kept in solitary confinement under poor conditions that no doubt shortened his life (he died at age 46). Even more confusing, the captive Colonel Brevard was promoted to General by Jefferson Davis in absentia in 1865. He did not find this out until after his release.
To the credit of his captors, when they discovered they were holding the wrong man, Brevard fils was released on March 31, 1865. He returned to his unit to lead it in combat one last time, on April 6, 1865.
After the surrender, he was denied the general amnesty and was re-arrested (historians now believe that the arrest warrant, made out for General T.W. Brevard, was for his father, as the Union would not have likely known of Brevard the Younger’s eleventh hour promotion).
How ever it was, Brevard spent the balance of April, and May, June, and July in prison before being released for the final time in August. Shortly thereafter, he took up politics again, eventually to become Comptroller of Florida.
Brevard County, Florida was named for the two men (some sources say one, some the other, so we will say both).
