University of Virginia Library

JAMES LAWSON KEMPER.

The Kemper family of Virginia is of German extraction. Its
founder, John Kemper, was a member of one of the twelve families
from Oldensburg which, accompanied by a Government agent of Great
Britain, arrived in Virginia in April, 1714, and constituted the Palatinate
Colony, seated by Governor Alexander Spotswood upon his lands at
Germanna, which, according to Colonel William Byrd in the "Westover
MSS.," was "located in a horse-shoe peninsula formed by the Rapidan
River, containing about 400 acres." There is a locality corresponding
to this in Madison County, upon which the ruins of a settlement are

said to have been identified. The settlers soon becoming restless and
dissatisfied under the management of Governor Spotswood, determined
to secure lands of their own, and succeeded in obtaining a grant on the
Licking River, some twenty miles distant, to which they removed in
1719. They called the new settlement Germantown, which is eight
miles from the Warrenton of the present day. They erected a church and
applied themselves earnestly to industrial pursuits. Their religious
worship and all business was transacted in their native tongue, which
was long the only language spoken. Their religion, for the free exercise
of which they left home and crossed the ocean for the American wilderness,
was the "Reformed Calvinistic Church." This colony, augmented
in number by another band of emigrants, were the progenitors of
many of the most worthy of the present families of Madison and other
counties contiguous thereto. John Kemper married, in 1717, Alice
Utterback, and their son, John Peter Kemper, married, in 1738, Elizabeth,
daughter of John and Agnes (daughter of Dr. Haeger, the
pastor of the settlement) Fishback. From this worthy pair was descended
in the fourth generation James Lawson Kemper, the subject
of this sketch, born in Madison County in 1824. After a preliminary
tuition in the schools of his native county, he entered Washington College
(now Washington and Lee University), and was graduated thence
with the degree of Master of Arts. He then studied law in the office
of Hon. George W. Summers, in Charleston, Kanawha County.

In 1847 he was commissioned a Captain in the volunteer service of
the United States by President James K. Polk, and joined General
Zachary Taylor's army of occupation in Mexico, just after the battle of
Buena Vista, and thus failed of the desired honor of active service in
the Mexican war. Returning home and entering political life, Captain
Kemper was soon honored with the suffrage of his native county, and
for ten years represented it in the House of Delegates, of which body
he served two years as Speaker, and was for a number of years Chairman
of the Committee on Military Affairs. He served also as President
of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute. On the 2d
of May, 1861, he was commissioned by the Virginia Convention, on
the nomination of Governor Letcher, Colonel of Virginia volunteers,
and assigned to the command of the 7th Regiment of infantry, which
command he assumed at Manassas. Colonel Kemper was first engaged
with his regiment in the battle of Bull Run, July 18, 1861,
and thereafter at the first battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861, where
his regiment was temporarily incorporated in a brigade commanded
by Colonel Jubal A. Early, and aided in striking the final blow
on the extreme left of the Federal line, which immediately preceded the
retreat and final rout of that army. Three days after the battle of
Manassas his regiment was assigned to a brigade commanded by General

Longstreet. This brigade was subsequently commanded by General
A. P. Hill, and under him Colonel Kemper with his 7th Regiment was
in the hottest of the fight at the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862,
and engaged with the enemy for nine successive hours, capturing several
pieces of artillery and four hundred prisoners. Immediately after
the battle Colonel Kemper was promoted to the command of the old
brigade, which had been successively commanded by Generals Longstreet,
Ewell, and A. P. Hill, and at its head participated in the first
day's fight at Seven Pines, May 31, 1862, and in the seven days' sanguinary
encounters around Richmond, commencing June 26th following.

In the second battle of Manassas, Brigadier-General Kemper commanded
temporarily a division composed of several of the brigades
afterwards composing Pickett's division. Here, with these same
"Pickett's Men," subsequently so celebrated for valor, he was posted
to oppose the extreme left of the enemy, but acting upon the momentary
dictation of his own judgment, he changed front so as to strike
the right flank of the enemy, and soon after this accomplishment received
orders from General Lee to make the same movement which
he had already so successfully effected with the infliction of a terrible
loss on the enemy. General Kemper commanded his own brigade in
the battles of South Mountain and Sharpsburg. Soon after the return
of the invading army from the Maryland campaign, Kemper's brigade
was incorporated in Pickett's division. At the battle of Fredericksburg,
in December, 1862, General Kemper with his brigade was temporarily
detached from the division, and joined the troops on Maryes
Heights on the afternoon of that day under a hot fire. He was again
detached from the division early in 1863, and sent with his brigade
to North Carolina, where he commanded the forces at Kingston
opposed to the Federal force under General Foster, who then held
Newbern. He rejoined Pickett's division in front of Suffolk, Virginia,
participated in the operations at that place, and marched with the
division into Pennsylvania, his troops participating in the ever memorable
charge at Gettysburg, and meeting their full share of its terrible
massacre. General Kemper was desperately (it was supposed mortally)
wounded whilst gallantly leading his brigade, and was being
carried in a bloody blanket to the rear when he was met by General
Lee, and the following colloquy ensued: Said General Kemper—
"General Lee, they say I am dying, and you see the last of me.
Before I go, I have one thing to demand: I have seen in the fight
what you have not seen—I have seen the splendid heroism of my
boys; when you make up your reports do them justice and cover them
with glory; they have won it." General Lee replied with deep emotion:
"I will. I will do all you ask, but I trust God will spare your
life and yet restore you. I hope you will live, General Kemper, for
Virginia to honor and reward you, as she will." Upon the examination

IVY-GROWN GRANITE LODGE.

Entrance to Hollywood Cemetery, the beautiful "City of the Dead," at Richmond.

of his wound, it was thought that it would be impossible for him
to live. This fact was reported to the officers and men of his brigade,
and they waited in a drenching rain near the hospital for several
hours, expecting to hear momentarily of his death. In fact, a coffin
was obtained and placed in an ambulance, so that as soon as breath
had fled, they might take his body and retreat with it. He was held
a prisoner in the hospital for three months, but upon the written certificates
of several United States surgeons that he must soon die, he
was finally exchanged. After his exchange and return to Virginia,
General Kemper was for a long time too much disabled to perform any
duty in the field. He attempted to return to the command of his brigade,
but was totally unable to do so. To this day he carries a ball near
the base of his spine, the effects of which have finally caused partial
paralysis. Although unable to perform field duty, he was assigned
to the important command of the local forces in and around Richmond,
the frequently beleaguered capital of the Southern Confederacy.
March 1, 1864, he was commissioned a Major-General. General Kemper
continued in command of the forces protecting Richmond until its
evacuation. At all times his position was delicate and peculiarly
embarrassing, yet his duties were performed with such manifest fidelity
and regard for the feelings of all with whom he held relation, that he
won alike the affections of the people and the commendation of his
superior officers. After the close of the war, General Kemper retired
to his home in Madison county, and resumed the practice of law. His
voice was highly effective in the Walker gubernatorial campaign, which
triumphantly redeemed Virginia from military bondage; and in the
Presidential canvass of 1872, as one of the Greeley and Brown electors
for the State at large, he stumped every section of the State, and, by
his earnest and potent appeals, was most influential in reconciling the
people of Virginia to that ticket. In 1873 he was elected Governor
of Virginia, and took his seat January 1, 1874, as the successor of
Governor Walker. His administration was highly satisfactory.[44]
Upon the expiration of his term January 1, 1878, he was succeeded by
Governor F. W. M. Holliday, and retiring to his home in Madison
county, has not since re-entered public life. Governor Kemper married
Miss Cave, of Orange county, descended in the fourth generation
from Benjamin Cave, the joint patentee with Abraham Bledsoe, on the
28th of September, 1728, of 1,000 acres of land on the Rapidan river,
and a member of the House of Burgesses. She died some years ago,
leaving issue several children, of whom the eldest, Meade C. Kemper,
M. D., is a practicing physician in West Virginia. An excellent portrait
of Governor Kemper is in the State Library at Richmond.