Polk County FlArchives Biographies.....Law, Evander McIver 1836 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 31, 2008, 11:58 pm Author: B. F. Johnson Evander McIver Law Major-General Evander McIver Law, of Bartow, has a distinguished record both in war and in peace. General Law is a native of South Carolina, born in Darlington, on August 7, 1836. His father, Judge E. A. Law, was a lawyer by profession and a prominent legislator in his day. He married Sarah Elizabeth McIver. General Law's maternal grandfather, Gen. E. R. McIver, was descended on one side from a Scotch family early settled in the Carolinas, and on the other side from the Kolbs, of German stock, one of whom, Col. Abel Kolb, was one of General Marion's chief lieutenants in the Revolutionary struggle, his field of action being in the upper Peedee region, and was murdered by the Tories before the end of that war. Gen. E. R. McIver was a prominent citizen of South Carolina, and during the nullification troubles in the early thirties was commissioned as a Brigadier-General of South Carolina troops, that State at that time threatening to leave the Union and raising an army. His paternal grandfather at the age of sixteen became a soldier in the Revolutionary armies. One of General Law's grandmothers was a DuBose, of the distinguished Huguenot family of South Carolina and which contributed also largely of valuable men in the early settlement of Georgia; another grandmother on the mother's side, was a direct descendant of the Earl of Cromarty, a kinsman of the Stuarts, the royal house of Scotland. General Law's early education was obtained in the schools of Darlington and completed in the South Carolina Military Academy, at Charleston, a famous school known as "The Citadel." For three years prior to the Civil War he was a professor in the King's Mountain Academy, at Yorkville, S. C. In i860 he established a military high school, at Tuskegee, Ala., and was engaged in that work when the Civil War began. January 12, 1861, as Captain of the Alabama Zouaves, he assisted in the seizure of the Navy Yard and forts near Pensacola, Fla. After the capture of Fort Sumpter, he organized his company for the regular Confederate service and it became Company B of the Fourth Alabama Regiment of Infantry. At the organization of the regiment he was elected Lieutenant-Colonel. Mustered into the Confederate service at Lynchburg, Va., May 7, 1861, he was ordered to Harper's Ferry, where his regiment was attached to General Bee's brigade. It was in the first Confederate line of battle at the first battle of Manassas and sustained the heaviest loss of any regiment on the field. He soon became Colonel, and at the battle of Gaines Mill, in 1862, he commanded Whiting's Brigade and won the praise of Stonewall Jackson in his official report for the splendid charges made by Hood's and Law's Brigade. He retained command of Whiting's Brigade during the remainder of the Seven Days' Battle, and also at the second Manassas, and at Sharpsburg, October 3, 1862, he was commissioned Brigadier-General. When General Hood was wounded on the second day at Gettysburg, General Law took command of the division and led the assault on the Federal position at Round Top. The attack was made with great skill and courage, but his division left two thousand men on that bloody field. At Chickamauga he commanded the same division and won the written thanks of General Longstreet for his conduct in that bloody struggle. At Wilderness and Spottsylvania his Alabamians added to their already great record under his command. At second Cold Harbor, June 3, 1864, his division sustained the attack of the 16th Federal Corps and inflicted upon them a loss of four thousand five hundred men. In this fight General Law was severely wounded and had to retire for a time from active service. When Sherman invaded South Carolina he was assigned a command at Columbia, and later took command of Butler's Brigade of cavalry. On the recommendation of Generals Johnston and Hampton he was promoted to Major-General just before the close of the war. After the war he resided in South Carolina and engaged in railroad surveying and farming, and during that time was president of the King's Mountain Railway. In 1873 he returned to Tuskegee, Ala., where he was living at the outbreak of the war, and for eight years gave his time to the building up of the "Grange" as a help to the agricultural interests of the country. He returned to Yorkville, S. C., in 1881, where for a time he was assistant superintendant of King's Mountain Military Academy. In 1893 he settled in Bartow, and in 1894 established the South Florida Military Institute on the same lines as the Virginia Military Institute and the South Carolina Military Academy. This school won immediate recognition, and in 1895 the Florida Legislature made it a State institution, under an act which authorized one cadet from each county in Florida at the expense of the State. The school is also patronized extensively by students from Florida and other States who pay tuition. In 1863 General Law married Miss Jennie Latta, of South Carolina, daughter of W. A. and Camilla (Torrence) Latta. Of this marriage six children have been born, of whom four are now living, namely, Dr. E. M. Law, of Miami, Fla., W. L. Law, civil engineer, of Rockhill, S. C.: Annie, now Mrs. P. P. Johnston, of Bartow; and Dr. E. A. Law, of Bartow. In politics General Law is a stanch Democrat. In religion his preferences incline to the Presbyterian Church. Possessed of an excellent education he has added much to it by a wide course of reading, his preferred lines being history and biography, and has become a man of fine attainments. He has in preparation a book of reminiscence of the Civil War but has not yet published it. Outside of this he has been a constant contributor to various periodicals of the class represented by the Century Magazine. After eight years with the South Florida Military Academy, he became interested in the local paper at Bartow, The Courier-Informant, published by the Polk County Printing Company, and has since given the greater part of his time to that paper as its editor. General Law considers the most important questions demanding the attention of our people to be the race problem, the liquor question, and that great and vital problem, the necessity for an honest and just government. A man of pronounced opinions and strong convictions he does not hesitate to declare himself in favor of lynching for certain crimes. Though he has passed the three score and ten mark, he is yet active in the discharge of his daily duties, and by a life of fidelity to every trust has won the esteem of a constituency which extends from the Potomac to the Rio Grande. Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. III. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. McCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. COPYRIGHT 1909 B. F. 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