John McCausland was the son of John McCausland, an emigrant from Tyrone County, Ireland, who became a successful merchant in Lynchburg, Va. , married Harriet Kyle, the daughter of an old friend, and moved to St. Louis, Mo. , where his son was born on September 13, 1836.
Education
After receiving his preparatory education at Point Pleasant, Mason County, Virginia, the boy entered the Virginia Military Institute and graduated there in 1857, first in a class of twenty-three. He studied at the University of Virginia the next year and then returned to his alma mater as assistant professor of mathematics. He was present with the detachment of cadets at the execution of John Brown at Charles Town.
Career
Upon the secession of Virginia he was sent by Robert E. Lee to the Kanawha Valley to organize a regiment of volunteers for the Confederacy. Commissioned colonel of the 36th Virginia Regiment, he was assigned to the division of John B. Floyd and was stationed in western Virginia until his command joined, in the latter part of 1861, the army of Albert Sidney Johnston in Kentucky. Commanding a brigade of Virginians at the siege of Fort Donelson, he displayed daring courage, and, before the surrender, escaped with his brigade. From April 1862 to June 1864 his brigade was a part of the department of West Virginia and engaged in several battles in southwestern and western Virginia. The chief duties of this Confederate force were to protect the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad and the saltpeter works at Saltville from Federal raids and, by constantly harassing the enemy, to detain a large body of Federals in western Virginia. Promoted to brigadier-general on May 24, 1864, and given command of a brigade of cavalry, he opposed Hunter's army in the Valley of Virginia during the summer of 1864. Confronted by superior forces, he delayed Hunter's advance upon Lynchburg until the arrival of Early's army, despatched by Lee to hold this strategic place. On July 30, 1864, in retaliation for the destruction of property by Hunter's army in the Valley, he burned Chambersburg, Pa. , under specific orders from Early, and after the refusal of its citizens to pay a levy of $100, 000 in gold. Participating in the subsequent engagements in the Valley between the forces of Early and Sheridan, he finally joined Lee's army and took part in the retreat to Appomattox, where he and his brigade, refusing to surrender, cut their way through the Federal lines to safety. After the war, on account of bitter feeling against him in West Virginia, he spent two years in Europe and Mexico, but returned to Mason County, W. Va. , to spend the remainder of his life.
Achievements
Personality
McCausland acquired a tract of about 6, 000 acres, which he drained and developed. He was survived by one daughter and three sons.
Connections
McCausland was married to Charlotte Emmett Hannah McCausland.