Background
Griffith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Griffith was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Ohio University.
He was mortally wounded at the Battle of Savage"s Station during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. He was one of a number of Confederate generals who were born in the North in Pennsylvania. After graduating from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, he moved to Vicksburg, Mississippi.
After the war, he returned to civilian life and made his living as a banker and a United States. Marshal.
He was active in state and local politics, and was elected as the State Treasurer of Mississippi in 1847. When the Civil War began, Griffith was appointed as the colonel of the 12th Mississippi Infantry in May 1861.
He was promoted to brigadier general on November 2 and put in command of a brigade of four Mississippi regiments that became part of Major General John B. Magruder"s division in April 1862.
He soon saw action in the Seven Days Battles near Richmond, Virginia.
lieutenant was during this fighting that General Griffith was mortally wounded. On June 29, 1862, Griffith and his men were pursuing Union soldiers retreating from positions on the Nine Mile Road when they encountered elements of Major General Edwin V. Sumner"s II Corps near Savage"s Station, who were guarding the Union forces" retreat.
In heavy artillery fire, Griffith was wounded in his thigh by a shell fragment.
When he was informed that he was fatally wounded, it is reported that General Griffith said, "If only I could have led my brigade through this battle, I would have died satisfied." Griffith was taken to Richmond, but succumbed to his wounds the same day. He is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi.
Of the fighting at Savage"s Station he wrote, "Our loss was small in numbers, but great in value. He had served with distinction in foreign war, and, when the South was invaded, was among the first to take up arms in defense of our rights."
Later in the war, a group of soldier-musicians called "The McLaws Minstrels," serving under Lafayette McLaws and formerly under General Griffith, would play at a theater in Fredericksburg.
They charged a modest admission fee, the proceeds from which were used to erect a monument in the Mississippi State Capitol in honor of their fallen commander.
He was a member of the antebellum state militia, holding the rank of brigadier general.