Following the commence-
ment of the Mexican-
American War in 1846, he
joined an army forming
under Gen. Winfield Scott,
who appointed him to
command the artillery
train. His placement of
guns during the siege of
Vera Cruz in 1847 was
masterful and resulted in
brevet promotion to
major. Huger then accom-
panied the advance upon
Mexico City and was
closely engaged in fight-
ing at Molino del Rey and
Chapultepec, winning two
more brevets to lieu-
tenant colonel and co-
lonel. Huger thus became
only one of a handful of
Mexican-American War
soldiers to receive three
promotions for gallantry.
After the war, Huger
resumed his usual range of ordnance duties.
These included membership on a board
tasked with preparing a new artillery system,
as well as successive command of federal ar-
mories at Harpers Ferry, Virginia, Charleston,
South Carolina, and Pikesville, Maryland. He
services were so esteemed that in 1854 the
South Carolina legislature voted him an elabo-
rate sword. Huger’s final army rank was major
of ordnance. The old soldier did not immedi-
ately resign his commission when South Car-
olina seceded from the Union in December
1860, but waited until after the bombardment
of Fort Sumter in April 1861. Just prior to that
incendiary event, Huger was dispatched to
Charleston to confer with garrison com-
mander and fellow Southerner Maj. Robert
Anderson. Little came of these discussions, as
Anderson had already resolved to stay loyal to
the Union. Only then, when military con-
frontation proved inevitable, did Huger finally
tender his services to the Confederacy.
In June 1861, Huger
gained an appointment as
a brigadier general, and
the following October he
advanced to major gen-
eral. He was then en-
trusted with the com-
mand of the Department
of Southern Virginia and
North Carolina, head-
quartered at the port of
Norfolk. Huger func-
tioned reasonably well
until the following spring,
when Union forces made
a surprise amphibious de-
scent upon Roanoke Is-
land, North Carolina, on
February 8, 1862. As Hu-
ger made no attempt to
reinforce the small garri-
son, it surrendered. It
was an embarrassing loss
to the South and promp-
ted the Confederate Con-
gress to began an official
investigation. In April the huge Union army of
Gen. George B. McClellan began landing upon
the Virginia Peninsula, and Huger, greatly out-
numbered, hastily abandoned Norfolk and
Portsmouth. In the course of this flight, he or-
dered the destruction of the Navy Yard and,
with it, the famous ironclad ram CSS Virginia
(nee USS Merrimac). Despite this rather
tepid display of leadership, Huger received
command of an infantry division at Richmond
and, in concert with Gens. James Long-
streetand Daniel Harvey Hill, constituted
the new Army of Northern Virginia under
Gen. Joseph E. Johnston.
For several weeks into the Peninsula cam-
paign, McClellan sat idly before a line of en-
trenchments near Yorktown commanded by
Gen. John Bankhead Magruder. Johnston
then conferred with Confederate President
Jefferson Davisabout what to do next, and
it was resolved that Johnston would join Ma-
gruder’s forces and stop McClellan’s advance.HUGER, BENJAMIN
Benjamin Huger
Library of Congress