Alexander "Sandy" Brown (September 5, 1843 – August 19, 1906) was a Confederate soldier and
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
merchant, best known as the author of several books on the early history of
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
.
Early and family life
He was born at Glenmore in
Nelson County, Virginia
Nelson County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 14,775. Its county seat is Lovingston. Nelson County is part of the Charlottesville, VA Metropolitan Statistic ...
to Sarah Cabell Callaway Brown (1820-1849) and her husband Robert Lawrence Brown (1820-1880), the eldest of their three children, but his brother and sister died as infants. His paternal grandfather, also named Alexander Brown (1796-1864), was born near
Perth, Scotland
Perth (Scottish English, locally: ; gd, Peairt ) is a city in central Scotland, on the banks of the River Tay. It is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire. It had a population o ...
, came to Virginia in 1811,
studied at the College of William & Mary, then worked for his merchant uncle at
Lovingston in Nelson County. After taking over that business, with prominent planter Robert Rives as his partner, he married Rives' daughter Lucy Shands Rives, won several elections to represent Nelson County in the
Virginia House of Delegates
The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...
, served many years as the chief judge in Nelson County, and rose to the rank of General in the local militia. This grandfather Alexander Cabell owned 27 enslaved persons in Nelson County in 1850. His mercantile business also had a Richmond office, operating as Brown & McClelland (with James Bruce McClelland (1827-1862, who died of typhoid fever contracted in Confederate service) In 1860, he moved to Richmond and only owned one enslaved mulatto man aged 45 in Nelson County.
On his mother's side, this Brown came from one of the
First Families of Virginia
First Families of Virginia (FFV) were those families in Colonial Virginia who were socially prominent and wealthy, but not necessarily the earliest settlers. They descended from English colonists who primarily settled at Jamestown, Williamsburg ...
, the Cabells, who hailed from
Buckinghamshire
Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...
and held many government offices as well as operated plantations using enslaved labor in the upper
James River
The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...
area of Virginia. His Virginia ancestors included patriot
Col. William Cabell who held most executive and legislative offices in
Albemarle County
Albemarle County is a county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is Charlottesville, which is an independent city and enclave entirely surrounded by the county. Albemarle County is part of the Charl ...
from its inception, then
Amherst County
Amherst County is a county, located in the Piedmont region and near the center of the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. The county is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area, and its county seat is also named Amherst. ...
after its creation, and lived many years at "Union Hill" plantation, which was located in Nelson County by the time of its acquisition by this Alexander Brown. Two of his great-uncles,
Alexander Rives
Alexander Rives (June 17, 1806 – September 17, 1885) was a Virginia attorney, politician and plantation owner. He served in both houses of the Virginia General Assembly, as a justice of the Supreme Court of Virginia and as a United States dis ...
and
William Cabell Rives
William Cabell Rives (May 4, 1793April 25, 1868) was an American lawyer, planter, politician and diplomat from Virginia. Initially a Jackson Democrat as well as member of the First Families of Virginia, Rives served in the Virginia House of Delega ...
, were also prominent Virginian
lawyer
A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...
s and
politician
A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...
s.
Meanwhile, his widowed son (this Brown's father) remarried in 1853, to Margaret Baldwin Cabell (1826-1877). By 1860 Robert L. Brown moved his growing family to Lynchburg where he and his second wife operated "The Lynchburg Female Seminary". They owned slaves, including a 30 year old Black woman, This Brown was raised by his grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Cabell and educated by private tutors at the "Benvenue" plantation from 1851 to 1856,
then from 1856 through 1860 studied at a school run by Horace W. Jones in
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...
. In the months immediately before Virginia's secession and the start of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, Brown was studying at
Lynchburg College
The University of Lynchburg, formerly Lynchburg College, is a private university associated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and located in Lynchburg, Virginia. It has approximately 2,800 undergraduate and graduate students. ...
.
[Cabells and their Kin (1993 ed.) p. 467]
Confederate soldier
Brown and his father both volunteered for the
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army, also called the Confederate Army or the Southern Army, was the military land force of the Confederate States of America (commonly referred to as the Confederacy) during the American Civil War (1861–1865), fighting ...
. His father received a commission as a lieutenant and remained in Lynchburg with its Provost Guard.
Brown enlisted with the Staunton Hill Light Artillery, which organized in Richmond in September 1861.
He fought for four years until he was rendered "stone deaf" in January 1865 by proximity to an exploding powder boat near
Fort Fisher
Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. It protected the vital trading routes of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1861 until its capture by the Union in 1865. The fort was located on one of Cape Fear River' ...
, North Carolina.
Fort Fisher defended Wilmington, North Carolina, a crucial supply port for Robert E. Lee's forces in the war's closing months. The object of Union assaults and many artillery barrages in the winter of 1864–1865, it finally surrendered after the
Second Battle of Fort Fisher
The Second Battle of Fort Fisher was a successful assault by the Union Army, Navy and Marine Corps against Fort Fisher, south of Wilmington, North Carolina, near the end of the American Civil War in January 1865. Sometimes referred to as the "Gib ...
on January 12, 1865, then Wilmington itself surrendered on February 22, 1865.
Postwar years
Despite being deaf, Brown worked as a clerk in a grocery store in Washington D.C. immediately after the war (1865-1868), then in 1869 returned to Nelson County and became a farmer as well as merchant.
His father returned to Nelson County in 1870 and was connected with Norwood High School, since Virginia's first post-war constitution for the first time established public schools. In 1867–1869, this Brown also traveled in Europe, Egypt and Australia.
![Union hill warminster LOC-05100-05196 150px](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Union_hill_warminster_LOC-05100-05196_150px.jpg)
Alexander Brown devoted many years to studying and explaining Virginia's early history from the standpoint of the
Virginia Company
The Virginia Company was an English trading company chartered by King James I on 10 April 1606 with the object of colonizing the eastern coast of America. The coast was named Virginia, after Elizabeth I, and it stretched from present-day Main ...
and later his kin, and managed to collect and preserve many historic documents. He was a member of the
Virginia Historical Society
The Virginia Museum of History and Culture founded in 1831 as the Virginia Historical and Philosophical Society and headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, is a major repository, research, and teaching center for Virginia history. It is a private, n ...
,
Tennessee Historical Society
The Tennessee Historical Society is a historical society for the U.S. state of Tennessee. It was established in 1849. Its founding president from 1849 to 1856 was Nathaniel Cross, a Princeton-educated professor of Ancient Languages at the Universi ...
,
American Historical Association
The American Historical Association (AHA) is the oldest professional association of historians in the United States and the largest such organization in the world. Founded in 1884, the AHA works to protect academic freedom, develop professional s ...
and the Society of American Authors.
[Men of Mark p. 47] Convinced that the
Commonwealth
A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...
's early history had not been truly written, he wrote magazine articles and read papers before historical groups. His publications include ''New Views on Early Virginia History'' (1886), a pamphlet; ''The Genesis of the United States'' (two volumes, 1890), a valuable collection of previously unprinted historical manuscripts and of rare tracts; ''The Cabells and their Kin'' (1895); ''The First Republic in America'' (1898)(about Virginia's early history); ''The History of our Earliest History'' (1898); and ''English Politics in Early Virginia History'' (1901).
Personal life
In 1873, Brown married his distant cousin, Caroline Augusta Cabell, who died in 1876. In 1886, he remarried, to her sister, Sarah Randolph Cabell, but had no children by either of his wives.
Both his wives were daughters by his second wife of Mayo Cabell (1800-1869), who had inherited the "Union Hill" plantation and mansion, opposed Virginia's involvement in the Civil War but supported his state, then experienced his estate being commandeered by Union troops, as well as post-war the post-war economic troubles.
Death and legacy
Alexander Brown received honorary decrees from the College of William & Mary and the University of the South in his lifetime.
He died at his Union Hill home in
Norwood, Nelson County, Virginia
Norwood is an unincorporated community in Nelson County, Virginia, Nelson County, Virginia, United States. It was among the communities severely affected by flash flooding from Hurricane Camille in 1969.Garnett P. Williams and Harold P. Guy. Erosi ...
, in 1906.
Union Hill would be inherited by another of Mayo Cabell's daughters, Lucy Gilmer Cabell, who bequeathed it to her father's youngest child, Edward Marshall Cabell. In 1969, Randolph McGuire Cabell and his sister Elizabeth Cabell Dugdale sold it to Richmond's Ball Construction Company. Although many of the outbuildings had deteriorated by 1898, two porches had remained and two chimneys repaired, and electricity added. In 1980 it was moved to 1551 Carriage Lane in Goochland County by Mr. and Mrs. Royal E. Cabell. Jr. The Cabell Foundation, Inc. continues to maintain the graveyard. Many of his and his family's papers were donated to the
College of William & Mary
The College of William & Mary (officially The College of William and Mary in Virginia, abbreviated as William & Mary, W&M) is a public research university in Williamsburg, Virginia. Founded in 1693 by letters patent issued by King William III ...
, where they are available in the law school's Swem library.
Other papers are held by Duke University.
The Cabell Foundation updated and republished his ''The Cabells and their Kin'' in 1939, and another edition, updated by Randolph W. Cabell, was published in 1993.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Alexander
1843 births
1906 deaths
People from Nelson County, Virginia
19th-century American historians
19th-century American male writers
Confederate States Army soldiers
American people of Scottish descent
American people of English descent
American male non-fiction writers
Historians from Virginia