Samuel W. Ferguson

Samuel Wragg Ferguson (November 3, 1834 – February 3, 1917) was a career United States Army officer, a cavalryman, and a graduate of West Point. He is best known as being a Confederate brigadier general during the Civil War.

Early life and career
Ferguson went to West Point and graduated in 1857. Before he graduated though, he joined General Albert Johnson's Utah War expedition to fight the Mormons. He then went to St. Louis to join his regiment. After the expedition Ferguson was assigned to Fort Walla Walla in the Washington Territory, where he stayed from 1859 to 1860. This all changed when he received the results of the 1860 presidential election. Hearing of the election of Abraham Lincoln, he immediately resigned and left for Charleston.

Civil War service
In March 1861 Ferguson joined the provisional army of South Carolina, receiving the rank of captain. He was then appointed as an aide-de-camp to General P. G. T. Beauregard. He was one of those who received the formal surrender of Maj. Robert Anderson at Fort Sumter, raised the first Confederate flag, and posted the first guards at Fort Sumter. After the battle at Fort Sumter Ferguson was sent to deliver the first Confederate standard flown that was struck by an enemy shot to the Provisional Confederate Congress in Montgomery.

He was still on Beauregard's staff during the Battle of Shiloh, where he was given his first command of a small brigade. During the Battle of Farmington, he was a lieutenant colonel in the 28th Mississippi Cavalry regiment. He also commanded this unit while defending Vicksburg, Mississippi, and helped stop the attacks made by William T. Sherman and Admiral David Dixon Porter.

In 1863 Ferguson was promoted to brigadier general. Subsequently, he was suggested for promotion to major general, but Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler quickly objected. During Sherman's March to the Sea, Ferguson and his cavalrymen harassed the flank of the Union army. When Sherman got close to Savannah Ferguson's men left their horses and covered the Confederate retreat. He was then ordered to Danville, Virginia, but before arriving was ordered to go to Charlotte, North Carolina. From Charlotte he escorted Jefferson Davis into Georgia where his unit was disbanded.

Postbellum career
After the war Ferguson moved to Mississippi where he opened up practice in law. He was the husband of Catherine Lee, daughter of Henry William and Eleanor Percy Lee who was a cousin of Robert E. Lee.

In 1876 he was appointed as President of the United States Board of Mississippi River Commissioners. He was also Secretary and Treasurer of the Mississippi Levee Board. In the early 1890s Ferguson moved back to his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina and worked as a civil engineer. At the outbreak of the Spanish–American War Ferguson tried to join the war effort; he was turned down. On February 3, 1917 died in Jackson, Mississippi where he is buried also at the Greenwood Cemetery along with other famous Confederate generals.

Mississippi Levee Board Scandal
In 1894 twenty thousand to forty thousand dollars mysteriously disappeared from the Mississippi Levee Board, of which Ferguson was both secretary and treasurer. Later that year he suddenly left and moved to Charleston. After staying in Charleston, Samuel moved to Ecuador. It would be many years before he returned.