Leroy Augustus Stafford, Rapides Parish Louisiana
Submitter:Richard Moriarty 

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Leroy Augustus Stafford was born 13 April 1822 at Greenwood
Plantation, near Cheneyville in Rapides Parish, Louisiana. He
completed college preparatory schooling at Bardstown, Kentucky,
and college at Nashville, Tennessee.
He was a planter at Greenwood Plantation until 1853, and thereafter
at Edgefield Plantation, both in Rapides Parish. In 1843, he
married Sara Catherine, daughter of Dr. Jesse Durastus Wright,
also of Rapides Parish. During the period 1846-47, L. A. Stafford
was Sheriff of Rapides Parish but, by permission of the legislature,
enlisted in the US Army for service in the War with Mexico,
initially as a private soldier with the "Rapides Volunteers"
(Company E, 3d Louisiana Infantry Regiment) and later with
Captain Ben McCullough's Texas Rangers.
In 1861, he formed the "Stafford Guards".  In a matter of weeks,
the company offered its services to Governor Moore.  They were
accepted, and with a band playing martial music, flags waving,
and ladies weeping, "Stafford's Guards" left by steamer on Red
River, June 4, 1861, bound for the battle fields of Virginia.
The company went down the Red River, into the Mississippi, and
on to New Orleans.  From there they were sent a short distance
away to Camp Moore across Lake Pontchartrain in Tangipahoa Parish.
 After a month's training, they were   mustered into service in the 
Confederate Army as Company B, 9th Louisiana Infantry. They were
camped for the winter at Centerville, Virginia.  Stafford wrote
back that measles, pneumonia, dysentery, and typhoid fever swept
the winter quarters with results as disastrous as enemy bullets.
Initially captain of this company, he was appointed colonel
commanding the 9th Louisiana Infantry in 1862. He served in this
capacity in the Army of Northern Virginia, later commanding the 1st
Louisiana Brigade. His brigade was placed in General Richard Ewell's
division assigned to the Shenandoah Valley to fight with Stonewall
Jackson.  Colonel Stafford led his regiment in the battles of
Winchester, Port Republic, Cold Harbor, Malvern Hill, White Oak
Swamp, Cedar Mountain, Fredericksburg, Second Manassas, and Chancellorsville.  
Once the 41 year old Rapides Parish soldier was
captured after a hard march at double quick time when he had
stopped for breath.   He was exchanged in time to lead his men
through the battle of Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg, where they
continued their march even in the face of cannon and rifle fire
sweeping their lines from the hill top.  They reached the heights,
and those who survived crossed Union lines on July 4, 1863.  In
October 1863 he was appointed brigadier general and commander of
the 2d Louisiana Brigade. General Stafford was mortally wounded
in combat during the Battle of the Wilderness. During the fury of
the battle, a courier rushed up to inform the general that the enemy
was on his flank.  Stafford checked the situation himself, then
ordered a change of position.   He was waiting for the last man
in the brigade to ride off in the changed direction when a bullet
severed his spinal cord. 
Messages were sent to the Secretary of War daily on the condition
of General Stafford by General Robert E. Lee.  Stafford, 42 died in 
Spottswood Hotel in Richmond on 8 May 1864. He left a wife and nine 
children.  His body lay in state in Richmond at the home of Senator
Thomas J. Semmes of the Confederate Cabinet.  He was buried with
military honors in Richmond in the Hollywood Cemetery.  President
Jefferson Davis attended the funeral.  His remains were moved in
1886 to Greenwood Plantation, his ancestral home.

The plaque (see to the left is found at the Wilderness Battlefield, 
Fredericksburg, Virginia and states as follows:
"Confederate General Leroy A. Stafford of Louisiana fell mortally
wounded in this vicinity during the afternoon fighting. General Ewell,
however, continued to reinforce this line, extending it farther
to the north, your left. When the Federals attempted to outflank
Ewell's men at 7:00 p.m., they discovered a Virginia brigade 
overlapping their battle front. Bitter combat at a range of 150
yards or less raged until darkness enveloped the Wilderness and ended
the bloodshed. The Confederate line north of the Orange Turnpike had
held fast all day, May 5th."