Brigadier General Evander M. Law Page

Sons of Confederate Veterans Camp 1323 is named in honour of Brigadier General Evander McIvor Law (7 August 1836 - 31 October 1920).

Law was born in Darlington, South Carolina, and attended the South Carolina Military Academy (now known as The Citadel) in 1856. Evander was a professor of history at Kings Mountain Academy circa 1858-1860. He subsequently relocated to Alabama, desiring to establish a Military High School in Tuskegee. Upon Alabama's secession from the Union, Evander joined the Alabama Militia at the rank of captain. In April 1861 Law transferred to the Confederate States Army as a captain in the 4th Alabama Infantry. In May, he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel. At the battle of 1st Manassas, Evander's arm received severe wounds. Law became a colonel on 28 October 1861. In May 1862 he took command of the "Alabama Brigade," one of the Army of Northern Virginia units assigned to Major General James Longstreet.

The Alabama Brigade fought through the Peninsula Campaign and Seven Days Battles. During the fighting at Gaines' Mill, the Alabama Brigade in conjunction with another brigade broke the center of the Union line. Four days later the Alabama Brigade, along with another, suffered a defeat at the Battle of Malvern Hill. At 2nd Manassas, the Alabama Brigade in coordination with another Confederate brigade assaulted Union Major General John Pope's Army of Virginia on its left flank with success. As a result, the Federals had to retreat. At Antietam, the Alabama Brigade fought off Union attacks, suffering 454 casualties. Evander Law attained the rank of brigadier general on 3 October 1862.

On 2 July 1863, during the fighting at Gettysburg, the brigade was unsuccessful in assaulting the left side of the Union line on Little Round Top and the Devil's Den. Law temporarily took over command of the division due to Brigadier General John Bell Hood's wounds. On 3 July the Alabama Brigade was at the right of the Confederate line and fought back a concerted attack by Union cavalry.

The Alabama Brigade, along with Longstreet's Corps, went o the Western Theatre to join General Braxton Bragg and the Army of Tennessee where they again tasted victory at Chickamauga. While General Hood was at Chickamauga, Law was a corps commander under Longstreet. Soon thereafter, being a senior brigade commander, Evander once again commanded Hood's division, which, on 20 September, opened a gap in the Union lines and captured some fifteen artillery pieces. Hood's division, now under the command of Brigadier General Micah Jenkins, went with Bragg's forces to bolster the siege of Federal troops in Chattanooga. In October 1863 the Alabama Brigade and Law detached from Hood's division and the Army of Tennessee to guard Brown's Ferry in Lookout Valley. To counter a breach of Confederate lines during Law's absence, General Bragg ordered Longstreet and his corps to seize control of Lookout Valley. Brigadier General Jenkins, ordered a holding action near Brown's Ferry by the Texas Brigade and the Alabama Brigade while two brigades attacked the railhead at Wauhatchie. Due to Jenkins' insufficient planning, the actions were unsuccessful and he blamed Law. This personal conflict strained the relationships between Law and Jenkins and Longstreet.

Law submitted a request for resignation in Richmond, Virginia. While delivering the request in Richmond, Hood spoke with Law and dissuaded the latter and influenced the War Department to not accept the request. On Law's return to the Alabama Brigade in eastern Tennessee, Longstreet ordered the brigadier's arrest. All but one of Law's colonels requested their regiments' transfers, with the entire brigade, to Alabama. Longstreet spitefully wished to leave Law's command in Tennessee when his corps rejoined the Army of Northern Virginia. Countermanding Longstreet, General Robert E. Lee ordered Law and the Alabama Brigade to rejoin his forces. Law did not regain command until the Battle of Cold Harbor, during which he received a skull wound and injuries to his left eye. While the Alabama Brigade fought in the siege of Petersburg, Law assumed a brigade command in Major General Wade Hampton's Cavalry Corps in South Carolina until the end of armed conflict.

In 1881, Law was working as a teacher and returned to South Carolina. In 1893 Law came to Florida and became a professor at the Southern Florida Military Institute until 1903. Afterward, until 1915, he edited the Courier Informant, the Bartow newspaper, newspaper. The former soldier died in Bartow (Polk County) and rests in Oak Hill Cemetery, Bartow.