George Randolph | |
---|---|
3rd Confederate States Secretary of War | |
In office March 24, 1862 – November 15, 1862 |
|
President | Jefferson Davis |
Preceded by | Judah Benjamin |
Succeeded by | James Seddon |
Personal details | |
Born |
Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. |
March 10, 1818
Died | April 3, 1867 Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S. |
(aged 49)
Political party | Democratic |
Alma mater | University of Virginia |
Religion | Episcopal |
George Wythe Randolph (March 10, 1818 – April 3, 1867) was a lawyer, planter, and Confederate general. He served for eight months in 1862 as the Confederate States Secretary of War during the American Civil War, when he reformed procurement, wrote the conscription law, and strengthened western defenses. He was President Thomas Jefferson's youngest grandson by his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph.
Randolph was born in 1818 at Monticello near Charlottesville, Virginia, to Martha Jefferson Randolph, the daughter of U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., a descendant of Pocahontas and John Rolfe' son, Thomas Rolfe. Their youngest son, he was named in honor of George Wythe, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and law professor of his grandfather Thomas Jefferson. He was also related to the seventh governor of Virginia, Edmund Randolph, who served in George Washington's cabinet as the first Attorney General of the United States, as well as colonist William Randolph through both his mother and father's sides of the family.