General Isaac Hardin Duval.... Adventurer...

5fish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
10,619
Reaction score
4,544
Here is his wiki page but we are here about what he did before the Civil War. Young boy of 13 went west to his older brothers home...


snip...

Isaac Harding Duval (September 1, 1824 – July 10, 1902) was an adventurer and businessman prior to becoming a brigadier general in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was a postbellum U.S. Representative from West Virginia in the 41st United States Congress.

Here the first link a short story about his exploring the west, looking for gold, joining the Lopez expedition... He seems to open businesses where he goes and make money... Starts on page three... end page 8 all double spaced...


Here is this...


snip...

DUVAL, Isaac Harding, a Representative from West Virginia; born in Wellsburg, Brooke County, Va. (now West Virginia), September 1, 1824; attended the common schools; as a youth he went to Fort Smith, Ark., and joined an elder brother, who was conducting a trading post; became a scout on the Western Plains; crossed the Plains in 1849 for the gold fields of California; was a member of the Lopez expedition to Cuba in an attempt to aid the Cubans in gaining national independence; returned to Virginia in 1853 and engaged in mercantile pursuits at Wellsburg; during the Civil War was commissioned major of the First Regiment, West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, June 1, 1861; successively promoted to colonel of the Ninth Regiment, brigadier general, and brevet major general; member of the State senate 1867-1869; adjutant general of West Virginia, 1867-1869; elected as a Republican to the Forty-first Congress (March 4, 1869-March 3, 1871); declined to be candidate for renomination in 1870; United States assessor of internal revenue in 1871 and 1872; collector of internal revenue for the first district of West Virginia 1872-1884; member of the State house of delegates 1887-1889; died in Wellsburg, W.Va., July 10, 1902; interment in Brooke Cemetery.

Here is even short bio... goings into some detail only a half a page...


snip...

Thus it was, at the age of 13, Harding Duval left his mother's home at Wellsburg, taking passage on the steamer TEMPEST, bound for Louisville,
Kentucky, and from there shipped aboard the steamer JOHN JAY for Vanburen,
Arkansas, with an eventual destination at the home of his brother.

snip...

This was the start of a new life of adventure and hardship for the young and
plucky Wellsburger. The next eight years saw Harding Duval in the unstable
Southwest of the continent, hunting and fighting Indians. At times he acted as
a scout and filled in with other occupations between assignments. On several
occasions Duval had accompanied JOHN C. FREMONT on his expeditions to the west
and northwest.
 

5fish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
10,619
Reaction score
4,544
Here is a civil war moment at the end of the war... First, he had 11 horses shot out from under him and was wounded at least twice... he in the town Staunton and learns Confederate Rosser's heading west to continue the war... Duval put his men in his way a captures Rosser and his men... He capture a confederate train and finds bunches of canons too... and you read it the local try to kill him... its a good read...


snip...

Nearly a month later, Duval was at Staunton when word came that Gen. Robert E. Lee had surrendered. Duval knew that not everyone was laying down his arms, among them Confederate Gen. Thomas Rosser, who commanded the Fifth Virginia Cavalry. Rosser was trying to escape enough men to continue the war out west

snip,...

Duval was relaxing on a sofa, unaware that his life was in imminent peril. Suddenly there was an explosion. Window glass blew across the floor. A pistol ball passed through the narrow margin between Duval’s body and his arm, and slammed into the back of the sofa.
 
Top