General Frederick William Lander

Frederick William Lander

BIRTH 17 Dec 1821
Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA

DEATH 2 Mar 1862 (aged 40)
Paw Paw, Morgan County, West Virginia, USA

BURIAL
Broad Street Cemetery
Salem, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA

Tall and handsome, vigorous and hot-tempered, fearless to a fault, Frederick W. Lander (1821–1862) became one of the most name-recognized Americans in the years 1854 to 1862.

Frederick W. Lander had a firm grasp of the roads, terrain and abilities of the forces, Union and Confederate, arrayed in the lower Shenandoah Valley.

General Lander seems to have been the only person who could go head to head with Confederate General Stonewall Jackson and come out intact. He was personally a very brave man and an aggressive commander.

In the early campaign of Western Virginia, Lander was somewhat of a local legend. In one of the first organized land battles of the Civil War, at the Battle of Phillipi in 1861 he made a daring ride towards the Confederate position.

Colonel Lander remained near the battery on the hill so long as his impetuous nature would permit, but as his first regiment reached the bridge, he could stay no longer, and without attempting to go by the road, dashed down through the heavy underbrush of the steep hillside in a feat of horsemanship so spectacular that Leslie’s Weekly gave an illustrated account of it shortly afterward.

During a reconnaissance mission to determine enemy strength at Camp Garnett, near Rich Mountain, WV, a fellow officer was in awe as he (Lander) casually strolled up the road, bullets whizzing by, and topped his hat and bowed to the Confederates in their position.

During the actual Battle of Rich Mountain (1861), his horse was shot from underneath of him. He jumped up, hopped on top of a boulder and yelled “Fire away You scoundrels!”.

Sadly his career and life was cut short in March, 1862 due to injuries sustained at the battle of Ball’s Bluff. Lander died from complications of pneumonia at Camp Chase, Paw Paw, Virginia (later West Virginia) on March 2, 1862 after receiving no response to his requests for relief from command due to poor health for over two weeks.

President Lincoln attended his funeral at the Church of the Epiphany in Washington.