Representative Robert Selden Garnett

Robert Selden Garnett was the name of two prominent nineteenth‑century Virginians: Robert Selden Garnett (1789–1840), a Virginia lawyer and United States congressman, and his cousin, Robert Selden Garnett (1819–1861), a career officer in the United States Army who later became a Confederate Army general. Both men were members of a politically influential Virginia family and played notable roles in the public life of their state and nation during the early and mid‑nineteenth century.

Robert Selden Garnett, the congressman, was born in 1789 in Virginia into a family long active in the political and legal affairs of the Commonwealth. Raised in the Tidewater region, he received a classical education typical of the Virginia gentry of his era, studying literature, history, and the law. After reading law, he was admitted to the bar and began practice in Virginia, establishing himself as a capable attorney and entering public life at a relatively young age. His legal training and family connections helped prepare him for a career in elective office at both the state and national levels.

Garnett’s political career developed in the context of the early republic and the rise of sectional and party politics. As a Virginia lawyer and public figure, he aligned with the dominant political currents of his state, which emphasized states’ rights and a strict construction of the Constitution. He was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a representative from Virginia, serving in Congress during the first half of the nineteenth century. In that capacity, he participated in debates over federal power, economic policy, and the evolving balance between free and slave states, reflecting the concerns of his constituents in an agrarian, slaveholding society. His service in Congress, combined with his legal practice, made him a recognized figure in Virginia public life until his death in 1840.

Robert Selden Garnett, the U.S. Army officer and Confederate general, was born on December 16, 1819, at “Champlain” in Essex County, Virginia, into the same extended Garnett family that had already produced several public officials, including his cousin the congressman. He received his early education in Virginia before securing an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Garnett entered West Point in the 1830s and graduated in 1841, ranking twenty‑seventh in a class of fifty‑two cadets. His West Point training placed him among the professional officer corps that would later supply leaders to both sides in the American Civil War.

Upon graduation, Garnett was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Artillery, beginning a two‑decade career in the United States Army. He served in a variety of posts on the American frontier and in coastal defenses, gaining experience in both field and staff duties. During the Mexican–American War, he served under General Zachary Taylor and took part in several campaigns, earning recognition for his conduct and receiving brevet promotions for gallantry. In the 1850s, he continued to rise in rank, serving as a staff officer and later as commandant of cadets at West Point, where he was responsible for the discipline and training of future officers. His service in these roles established him as a competent professional soldier with a reputation for strict discipline and attention to duty.

With the secession of Southern states following the election of 1860, Garnett, a Virginian by birth and allegiance, resigned his commission in the United States Army in 1861. He offered his services to the newly formed Confederate States of America and was commissioned a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. Assigned to command Confederate forces in western Virginia, he was charged with defending a strategically important but geographically difficult region, where rugged terrain and divided local loyalties complicated military operations. In the summer of 1861, he led Confederate troops in the early campaigns of the Civil War in what is now West Virginia, facing Union forces under Major General George B. McClellan and Brigadier General William S. Rosecrans.

Garnett’s principal engagement in this theater came during the Rich Mountain campaign. After a series of maneuvers and skirmishes, his forces were compelled to retreat from their positions. On July 13, 1861, during the Confederate withdrawal following the Battle of Corrick’s Ford on the Cheat River, Garnett personally directed the rear guard in an effort to protect his retreating column. While supervising the movement of his men under fire, he was struck and killed, becoming one of the first general officers to die in combat during the American Civil War. His death in 1861, at the age of forty‑one, cut short a career that had spanned service in both the United States and Confederate armies and symbolized the divided loyalties of many professional officers of his generation.