Bryan Grimes

Bryan Grimes
Bryan Grimes, Jr. photo taken in 1864 or 1865
Born	(1828-11-02)November 2, 1828 Pitt County, North Carolina
Died	August 14, 1880(1880-08-14) (aged 51) Pitt County, North Carolina
Place of burial	"Grimesland" plantation, North Carolina
Allegiance	United States of America Confederate States of America
Service/branch	Confederate States Army
Years of service	1861–65
Rank	Major General
Commands held	4th North Carolina
Battles/wars	American Civil War First Battle of Manassas Battle of Seven Pines Peninsula Campaign Battle of Fredericksburg Battle of Chancellorsville Gettysburg Campaign Overland Campaign Valley Campaigns of 1864 Siege of Petersburg Appomattox Campaign
Other work	planter, university trustee, writer

American Civil War

Bryan Grimes (November 2, 1828 – August 14, 1880) was a North Carolina planter and a general officer in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. He fought in nearly all of the major battles of the Eastern Theater of that war.

Grimes was the last man in the Army of Northern Virginia to be appointed as a major general. He also led the final attack of that army shortly before its surrender to Union forces at Appomattox Court House on the morning of April 9, 1865.

Bryan Grimes, Jr. was born on the ancestral family plantation, called "Grimesland Plantation," in Pitt County, North Carolina. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. His father, Bryan Grimes, Sr., was a prosperous planter. His mother, Nancy Grist, was the daughter of a prominent general from Georgia, who died when Grimes was only four months old, and his older sister for a time raised him. He attended school in Nash County and an academy in Washington, North Carolina before attending a noted private school in Hillsborough. Grimes, at the age of fifteen, enrolled in the University of North Carolina, where he was a member of the Philanthropic Society. He graduated four years later in 1848. In 1849, his father gave him the Grimesland estate, along with control over its 100 slaves. On April 9, 1851, he married Elizabeth Hilliard Davis, but she would die only six years later. The couple had four children, one of whom, Bryan Grimes III, died in childhood. A grief-stricken Grimes later traveled to Europe.