Full Name:
- William Thomas Magruder
Birth Date:
- 1829
Birth Location:
- Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Parents:
- Fielder Magruder and Matilda (Magruder) Magruder
Education:
- United States Military Academy (1850)
Occupation:
- Miltary officer
Career Summary:
- Captain (USA)
- Captain (CSA)
Spouse:
- None
Place of Death:
- Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Date of Death:
- July 3, 1863
Place of Burial:
- Unknown
Significance:
- William T. Magruder attended the United States Military Academy from July 1, 1846 to July 1, 1850.
- William T. Magruder graduated eleventh in his class of forty-four cadets at the United States Military Academy.
- Upon his graduation from the United States Military Academy, William T. Magruder was brevetted to second lieutenant and sent to cavalry school at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.
- On October 9, 1851, William T. Magruder was promoted to the full rank of second lieutenant.
- During most of the 1850s, William T. Magruder campaigned against American Indians in the American West, serving at Fort Snelling, Minnesota (1851-1853), Fort Leavenworth, Kansas (1854), Fort Union, New Mexico (1854-1855), and Fort Tejon, California (1856‑58). Magruder was promoted to first lieutenant on March 3, 1855.
- William T. Magruder was promoted to captain with the 1st Dragoons on January 8, 1861.
- William T. Magruder commanded a company of Union soldiers at the First Battle of Bull Run (July 21, 1861).
- In 1861, the 1st Dragoons were re-designated as the 1st U.S. Cavalry, and William T. Magruder was appointed as a captain in that regiment on August 3.
- William T. Magruder served with the 1st Cavalry during Major General George B. McClellan’s Peninsula from July 1 to August 3, 1862.
- William T. Magruder resigned his commission in the United States Army on October 1, 1862, to join the Confederate Army.
- William T. Magruder was one of four Union officers educated at West Point to switch sides after the Civil War began.
- Upon joining the Confederate Army, William T. Magruder was commissioned as a captain and he served as a staff officer with Brigadier General Joseph R. Davis’ Brigade, in Major General Henry Heth’s Division of the 3rd Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia.
- On July 3, 1863, William T. Magruder was killed in action while trying to rally the men of his brigade during Pickett’s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg.
- The disposition of William T. Magruder’s remains is unknown.