Brigadier General Edward Porter Alexander, CSA

Brief Life History of Edward Porter

When Brigadier General Edward Porter Alexander, CSA was born on 26 May 1835, in Washington, Wilkes, Georgia, United States, his father, Adam Leopold Alexander, was 31 and his mother, Sarah Hillhouse Gilbert, was 29. He married Betty Jaquelin Mason on 3 May 1860, in King George, Virginia, United States. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 3 daughters. He lived in Columbia, Richland, South Carolina, United States in 1870 and Savannah, Chatham, Georgia, United States in 1910. He registered for military service in 1861. He died on 28 April 1910, in Augusta, Richmond, Georgia, United States, at the age of 74, and was buried in Magnolia Cemetery, Augusta, Richmond, Georgia, United States.

Photos and Memories (10)

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Family Time Line

Brigadier General Edward Porter Alexander, CSA
1835–1910
Betty Jaquelin Mason
1836–1899
Marriage: 3 May 1860
Bessie Mason Alexander
1861–1945
Lucy Roy Alexander
1863–1900
Edward Porter Alexander Jr.
1863–1939
Miss Alexander
1865–1865
Adam Leopold Alexander
1867–1911
William Mason Alexander
1868–1936

Sources (15)

  • Edward P Alexander in household of A L Alexander, "United States Census, 1850"
  • Edward P. Alexander, "Virginia, Library of Virginia State Archive, Births, Marriages, and Deaths 1853-1900"
  • Edward P. Alem..., "Virginia Marriages, 1785-1940"

World Events (8)

1836 · Remember the Alamo

Being a monumental event in the Texas Revolution, The Battle of the Alamo was a thirteen-day battle at the Alamo Mission near San Antonio. In the early morning of the final battle, the Mexican Army advanced on the Alamo. Quickly being overrun, the Texian Soldiers quickly withdrew inside the building. The battle has often been overshadowed by events from the Mexican–American War, But the Alamo gradually became known as a national battle site and later named an official Texas State Shrine.

1838 · Orders No. 25 Removes Cherokees

A small group of Cherokees from Georgia voluntarily migrated to the Indian Territory. The remaining Cherokees in Georgia resisted the mounting pressure to leave. In 1838, U.S. President Martin Van Buren ordered U.S. troops to remove the Cherokee Nation. The troops gathered the Cherokees and marched them and other Native Americans from North Carolina, Tennessee, and Alabama along what is now known as “The Trail of Tears.” Approximately 5,000 Cherokees died on their way to Indian Territory.

1861

Civil War History - Some 11,000 Georgians gave their lives in defense of their state a state that suffered immense destruction. But wars end brought about an even more dramatic figure to tell: 460,000 African-Americans were set free from the shackles of slavery to begin new lives as free people.

Name Meaning

Scottish, English, German, and Dutch: from the personal name Alexander, classical Greek Alexandros, which probably originally meant ‘repulser of men (i.e. of the enemy)’, from alexein ‘to repel’ + andros, genitive of anēr ‘man’. Its popularity in the Middle Ages was due mainly to the Macedonian conqueror, Alexander the Great (356–323 BC ) - or rather to the hero of the mythical versions of his exploits that gained currency in the so-called Alexander Romances. The name was also borne by various early Christian saints, including a patriarch of Alexandria (c. 250–326 AD ), whose main achievement was condemning the Arian heresy. The Gaelic form of the personal name is Alasdair, which has given rise to a number of Scottish and Irish patronymics, for example McAllister . Alexander is a common personal name in Scotland, often representing an Anglicized form of the Gaelic name. In North America, the English form of the surname has absorbed cognates from other languages, e.g. Spanish Alejandro , Italian Alessandro , Arabic or Assyrian/Chaldean Iskandar and Iskander , and their derivatives, e.g. Greek patronymic Alexandropoulos.

Jewish: from the adopted personal name Alexander (see 1 above) or shortened from the eastern Ashkenazic (originally Slavic) patronymics Aleksandrovich or Alexandrowicz.

History: A number of Scotch-Irish families of this name landed at New York in the early 18th century. By 1746, six of them were established in NC. Others came in through Philadelphia, for example Archibald Alexander, who came from Londonderry in northern Ireland in 1736 and established himself in VA. — The Revolutionary general William Alexander (1726–83) was always known as ‘Lord Sterling’ to his compatriots, although his claim to the title was denied by the College of Arms in London. His father, James Alexander, was a Jacobite who had fled to New York after the failure of the Jacobite rising in 1715. The claim to the title arose in connection with their ancestor Sir William Alexander, a courtier and poet at the court of King James VI of Scotland (James I of England), who created him Earl of Stirling in 1633.

Dictionary of American Family Names © Patrick Hanks 2003, 2006.

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