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Brigadier-General Alfred Iverson
Brigadier-General Alfred Iverson was born at Clinton, GA, February 14, 1829, the son of Senator Alfred Iverson, who married Caroline Goode Holt.
Young Iverson spent his childhood in Washington City and in Columbus, Ga. He was at the military institute in Tuskegee, Ala., when the Mexican war began. Though only seventeen years of age he was so eager to go to the war that his father allowed him to leave school and enter a Georgia regiment that he had been largely instrumental in equipping.
After his service in Mexico he commenced to study law in his father's office at Columbus, GA, but soon grew tired of that and began contracting on railroads in Georgia.
In 1855 he received the appointment of first lieutenant in the First United States cavalry, a regiment just then authorized by Congress. He recruited a company, mostly from Georgia and Kentucky, and reported for duty to Col. E. V. Sumner at Jefferson barracks, Missouri.
He was sent to Kansas during the troubles in that territory in 1856. While stationed at Carlisle, Pa., he married Miss Harriet Harris Hutchins, daughter of Judge N. L. Hutchins, of Gwinnett county, Ga.
He was in the expedition against the Mormons and on frontier duty at Fort Washita, Indian Territory, and engaged in expeditions against the Comanches and Kiowas.
When Georgia seceded from the Union, Lieutenant Iverson resigned his commission in the United States army, and going to Montgomery, then the capital of the Confederacy, offered his sword to the new republic. He was appointed captain in the provisional army of the Confederate States, and ordered to report to General Holmes at Wilmington, N. C.
Here he was put in command of companies at the mouth of the Cape Fear river. Upon their organization in a regiment known as the Twentieth North Carolina, he was elected colonel and commissioned August 20, 1861.
His command remained in the Cape Fear region until a few days before the Seven Days' battles at Richmond. Gen. D. H. Hill, in a description of the battle of Gaines' Mill, said:
"We discovered that our line overlapped that of the Federal forces and saw two brigades (afterward ascertained to be under Lawton and Winder) advancing to make a front attack upon the regulars. Brig.-Gens. Samuel Garland and G. B. Anderson, commanding North Carolina brigades in my division, asked permission to move forward and attack the right flank and rear of the division of regulars.
The only difficulty in the way was a Federal battery with its infantry supports, which could enfilade them in their advance. Two regiments of Elzey's brigade, which had got separated in going across that swamp, were sent by me, by way of my left flank, to the rear of the battery to attack the infantry support, while Col. Alfred Iverson, of the Twentieth North Carolina, charged it in front. The battery was captured and held long enough for the two brigades to advance across the open plain." This referred to the battle around the McGehee house.
Colonel Iverson was wounded during the Seven Days' battles, but when Hill's division reinforced Lee after the Second Manassas, he was in the field again, and participated in the battles of South Mountain and Sharpsburg. General Garland having been killed in Maryland, Colonel Iverson was made brigadier-general, November 1, 1862.
At Chancellorsville and Gettysburg he led this brigade. He was after these battles ordered to relieve Gen. H. R. Jackson at Rome, GA, where all the State forces were collected. When these were sent to other points and Bragg had fallen back upon Dalton, Iverson was put in command of a Georgia brigade of cavalry in Martin's division of Wheeler's corps.
He shared the arduous duties and brilliant victories of the cavalry during the campaign of 1864. Near Macon, with 1,300 men, he defeated Stoneman's force of about 2,300 men, and at Sunshine church cut off and captured Stoneman himself with 500 of his men.
After the war he settled in Macon, where he engaged in business until 1877. He then moved to Orange county, Fla., in which State he has since resided, engaging in orange culture.
In 1878 he married the second time Miss Adela Branham, daughter of Dr. Joel Branham. He at present (1898) resides at his orange grove near Kissimee, Osceola county, Fla.
Source: Confederate Military History, vol. VII, p. 424
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| Photo by dt07 via FindAGrave |
Brigadier General,
Confederate States Army.
Born
Clinton, Jones County, Georgia,
February 14, 1829.
Died
Atlanta, Georgia,
March 31, 1911.
He Was The Son Of
Alfred Iverson, Sr.
United States Senator For Georgia,
And
Caroline Goode Holt.
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