Background
John Echols was born on March 20, 1823, in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. He was the son of Joseph Echols and Elizabeth F. Lambeth.
204 W Washington St, Lexington, VA 24450, United States
Echols graduated with honor from Washington College (now Washington and Lee University).
319 Letcher Ave, Lexington, VA 24450, United States
Echols did postgraduate work at the Virginia Military Institute.
Cambridge, MA, United States
Echols studied law at Harvard.
John Echols was born on March 20, 1823, in Lynchburg, Virginia, United States. He was the son of Joseph Echols and Elizabeth F. Lambeth.
Echols graduated with honor from Washington College (now Washington and Lee University), did postgraduate work at the Virginia Military Institute, and studied law at Harvard.
Returning to Virginia in 1842, John Echols taught in Harrisonburg and was admitted to the bar of Rockbridge County in November 1843. After practicing at Staunton for a short time, he made his home in Monroe County (now West Virginia) till 1861. He served in the House of Delegates during the session of 1852-1853.
He was elected commonwealth's attorney and later a member of the General Assembly, and was one of the two delegates from Monroe County to the convention of 1861. While the convention was in session, but after the adoption of the ordinance of secession, he resigned as a member and on the following day was nominated a colonel of volunteers.
Before this nomination was confirmed on December 6, 1861, he had returned to his county and organized a company which was assigned to the 27th Regiment. He commanded this regiment at the first battle of Manassas and afterward until he was severely wounded at Kernstown, March 23, 1862.
Returning to the army after his recovery, Echols was commissioned a brigadier-general and served in the Kanawha Valley for a time under General Loring, whom he afterward succeeded as commander of the Department of Southwestern Virginia.
In the summer of 1863, he served, with Howell Cobb and Robert Ransome, on the court of inquiry held at Richmond to determine the cause of the fall of Vicksburg.
In 1864 Echols took his brigade to the Valley under General John C. Breckinridge and played a conspicuous part in the battle of New Market. After fighting with the Army of Northern Virginia from Hanover Junction to Cold Harbor, he went with General Early on his campaign into Maryland, and in the fall of 1864 resumed command of the Department of Southwestern Virginia.
After the surrender at Appomattox Echols led the remnant of his command into North Carolina, escorted President Davis from Greensboro to Charlotte, returned to Greensboro, and was paroled with Johnston’s army. He had been commissioned a major-general in the last days of the war but the commission failed to reach him.
Identified in sympathies with the older part of the state, he removed soon after the war from Monroe County to Staunton, became the senior member of the law firm of Echols, Bell, and Catlett, and represented Augusta County in the General Assembly. His business abilities were so well recognized that when the National Valley Bank of Staunton was organized he was elected president, continuing in that office after the bank was consolidated with the First National Bank of Staunton.
At about the same time, with John B. Baldwin and others, Echols undertook the reorganization of the Virginia Central Railroad, later known as the Chesapeake & Ohio & Southwestern. He served as a receiver and general manager, and, after its reorganization as the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway, he secured its extension through Kentucky, and for twenty years Echols was a director and played a large part in determining its policy.
His duties as an officer of the Chesapeake & Ohio and its associated roads compelled his residence in Louisville, Kentucky, for the last ten years of his life, but he remained a citizen of Virginia, returning to cast his vote in elections and keeping in close touch with the state's problems.
Echols, as a delegate from Monroe County in the State Convention, voted against secession on April 4. On April 17, however, he voted for secession.
John Echols was an active member of the board of visitors of the Virginia Military Institute and of Washington and Lee University.
Physical Characteristics: John Echols was a man of commanding presence, six feet four inches high, weighing two hundred and sixty pounds, with a massive rugged face, a sonorous voice, and the confident manner of an executive.
John married Mary Jane Caperton. After her death, in 1876 he married Mrs. Mary Cochran Reid of New York City.