Background
Evander McIver Law was born in Darlington, South Carolina, the son of E. Augustus and Elizabeth (McIvor) Law.
Evander McIver Law was born in Darlington, South Carolina, the son of E. Augustus and Elizabeth (McIvor) Law.
He attended the South Carolina Military Academy (now The Citadel) in 1856.
The following five years Law spent in teaching, first at the King's Mountain Military Academy at Yorkville, South Carolina, and later, at the Military High School, Tuskegee, Alabama, of which he was joint-founder with Robert Parks. In 1861 he recruited a company largely from his school and as captain took it into action at Pensacola.
He served in all of the most important campaigns of the war in the East including Gettysburg, where he claimed that the result might have been otherwise had Lee followed the advice of himself and of two other colleagues regarding the seizure of Round Top. After having been wounded at Cold Harbor, he transferred from the Army of Virginia to a cavalry brigade in Johnston's command. Just prior to the surrender he became major-general.
Immediately after the war he administered the estate of William A. Latta, wealthy planter and railroad man. He then lived as a planter for a while in Tuskegee and Yorkville, resumed connections with the King's Mountain Military Academy until it closed in 1884, and dabbled in engineering and newspaper work. Finally he moved to Bartow, Florida, to fulfil a long-cherished plan of opening a school modeled after the Citadel and the Virginia Military Institute. After a year's existence as a private institution, this school was established as the South Florida Military and Educational Institute and received state aid through a system of county scholarships. It was a pioneer venture; the attendance was always small and the resources meager. The students aided in the upkeep and, during the first year, no fixed salaries were guaranteed to the teachers. Nevertheless, high standards were maintained and Law exercised a lasting influence on the students.
In 1903 he resigned from the Institute to devote the rest of his life to newspaper work, as editor of the Bartow Courier-Informant (1905 - 1915), and to his duties as trustee of Sumerlin Institute (1905 - 1912) and as a member of the Polk County Board of Education (1912 - 1920). He was especially interested in all state activities commemorating the Civil War. He served as commander of the Florida division of the Confederate Veterans (1899 - 1903) and aided in organizing the Bartow chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. Several articles on the campaigns in which he fought stand to his credit. When he died he was the last of the major-generals of the Confederacy.
Law married Jane Elizabeth Latta on March 9, 1863.