Gen Edmund Robinson Bagwell

1840 - 1876  (36 years)

• Name	Edmund Robinson Bagwell
  Prefix	Gen
  Birth	2 Jun 1840	Accomack County, Virginia, USA
  Gender	Male
  Death	13 Jun 1876	Accomack County, Virginia, USA
  Person ID	I98074	First tree
  Last Modified	17 Nov 2020

  
  

  Father	Dr Thomas Poulson Bagwell,   b. 1 Oct 1805, Northampton County, Virginia, USA d. 1866, Accomack County, Virginia, USA (Age 60 years)
  Family ID	F79183	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Notes

  Lieutenant Edmund Robinson Bagwell married Margaret Douglas after 1845. Circa 1859, he graduated from William and Mary and he returned to Onancock, Virginia and opened a school.1 On 10 March 1862, he enlisted on as a private as one of the "Eastern Shore Refugees", organized as a company in Norfolk, Virginia, on February 5, 1862, by Captain John H. White. The company consisted of nearly 80 men, many of whom had served in the the 39th Virginia Volunteer Infantry. The "Refugees" took their name from the fact that the Eastern Shore (Accomack & Northampton Counties in Virginia) had been taken over by Union troops so that the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia should not secede. Anyone who wanted to fight for Virginia had to enlist on the western shore. The "Refugees" served under various unit designations. Edmund was "elected" a 2nd Lieutenant on July 24, 1862. Of 139 men who had served in this unit, only nine were present at Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865 and 2nd Lt. Edmund R. Bagwell was one of them. There is a question as to when he attained the rank of General that is listed on the monument since he was only a Lt at the end of the war. There was speculation that he might have been made a general in the Virginia Militia. But there was no Virginia Militia after the Civil War. There were the Virginia Volunteers from 1871-1920 which became the Virginia National Guard was also known unofficially as the Virginia Militia but Lt. Bagwell was not a General of the Virginia Volunteers. The roster of commissioned officers during the Civil War listed him as a "General and Staff Lieutenant". Edmund R. Bagwell's obituary reads in part, " At the breaking out of the late war he promptly responded to the call of his native State, and entered the army as a lieutenant. He was soon promoted and made Adjutant General of Wise's Legion, which position he held at the close of the war, ...." But this is incorrect as he enlisted as a private. He was made Adjutant General in August 1864 during the Siege of Petersburg. Perhaps the meaning of "general" as applied to his administrative position was misunderstood. On 1868 was was awarded an honorary A.M. degree by William and Mary in 1868. He was already a Mason when he became a charter member of Ocean Lodge No.116, Drummondtown, on 15 December 1869, and he served as Master of the Ocean Lodge in 1875. On 1869, He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates and was re-elected in 1871 and 1873, and 1875. He was also one of the commissioners from Virginia at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Lieutenant Edmund Robinson Bagwell died on 13 June 1876 at age 37 There is a monument to him in the center of the old town square of his home town of Onancock, Virginia. His body is buried in a family plot a short distance from his memorial and near his father's home.