Henry Kyd Douglas (1838–1903) was a Confederate staff officer during the American Civil War. He participated in most of the battles of the Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia; serving on the staffs of Stonewall Jackson and his successors. Severely wounded on the third day of the battle of Gettysburg, he became a prisoner of war for almost ten months. At the end of the war, he commanded a brigade at the last battle of the war. After the war he returned to his civilian occupation as a lawyer, got involved in state politics, later as a Gold Democrats, and became an officer in the Maryland National Guard, eventually holding the appointment as Adjutant General. Today Douglas is foremost known for his wartime memoir, I rode with Stonewall, first published in 1940.
Early life
Douglas was the son of the Scottish born minister, Robert Douglas and his wife Mary, born Robertson. The Reverend Douglas was a nephew of the Attorney General of Pennsylvania Samuel Douglas, and studied theology at the Theological Seminary at York, Pennsylvania, before being admitted to the ministry in the German Reformed Church. Henry Kyd Douglas grew up on Ferry Hill Place, on the opposite site of the Potomac River from Shepherdstown, then in Virginia, not far from Sharpsburg, Maryland. His home not being more than two miles from Harpers Ferry, he watched the storming of the engine house by the Marines that ended John Brown's raid, and later witnessed the treason trial that followed. Douglas graduated from Franklin & Marshall College in Pennsylvania 1858, studied law in Lexington, Virginia, and was admitted to the bar at Charleston, then in Virginia, 1860. Having moved to St. Louis, he returned to Virginia at the outbreak of the civil war.
Civil War
In April 1861, Douglas enlisted at Harpers Ferry as a private in Company B, 2nd Virginia Volunteer Infantry Regiment which formed part of what was later to become the Stonewall Brigade. The reality of war struck home when the Virginia forces retreated and he was among the men detailed to burn the bridge over the Potomac at Shepherdstown, in which his father owned stock. Douglas rose through the ranks, fighting at Bull Run as a first sergeant, and commanding his company as a lieutenant at Kernstown. In the spring of 1862 he was, through the intervention of his friend Sandie Pendleton, detailed on special duty at Stonewall Jackson's headquarters. Soon after having joined Jackson's HQ, Douglas made an extraordinary ride of 103 miles, from Mount Jackson to Brandy Station, crossing the Blue Ridge Mountains in a heavy rainstorm, with orders from Stonewall to General Ewell. As a reward for his efficient fulfillment of duty, he was, the day after his return to HQ, made assistant inspector general on Jackson's staff.
Douglas' task as inspector general was to see to the proper execution of orders and commands given. When Stonewall's men were destroying a section of the B&O railroad, it was his job to check its thorough completion; being in the saddle all day and inspecting the whole stretch to be demolished. In battle, he rode with orders and reports. At Antietam, he wore out two horses and fainted of exhaustion already at noon. A delicate task that once fell upon Douglas was when ordered to relieve General A. P. Hill from his command, due to his division's tardiness. Hill's vehement protests eventually led to his arrest by order of Stonewall. Another time, Douglas was approached by Belle Boyd, whom he knew since before the war, in the afternoon just before the battle of Front Royal, who urged him to inform General Jackson that the enemy force was very small and easy to defeat through a rapid advance.