{{short description|American politician and slave owner}} {{Infobox military person |name= Thomas Fenwick Drayton |birth_date= {{birth date|1809|8|24}} |death_date = {{death date and age|1891|2|18|1809|8|24}} |image= TFDrayton.jpg |caption= |nickname= |birth_place= Charleston, South Carolina |death_place= Florence, South Carolina |burial_place= Elmwood Cemetery, Charlotte, North Carolina |burial_label= Place of burial |allegiance= {{flag|United States of America|1822}}<br/>{{flag|Confederate States of America}} |branch= {{army|USA}}<br>{{army|CSA}} |service_years= 1828&ndash;1836 (USA), 1861&ndash;1865 (CSA) |rank=35px Second Lieutenant (USA)<br> 35px Brigadier General (CSA) |unit= |commands= |battles= American Civil War<br/>- Battle of Port Royal<br/>- Battle of Thoroughfare Gap<br/>- Second Battle of Bull Run<br/>- Battle of South Mountain<br/>- Battle of Antietam |awards= |relations= |other_work= }} '''Thomas Fenwick Drayton''' (August 24, 1809 &ndash; February 18, 1891) was an American planter, politician, railroad president, slave owner and military officer from Charleston, South Carolina. He served in the United States Army and then as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. His brother, Percival Drayton, was a Naval Officer and fought on the Union side during the war.

==Early life and career== Drayton was a native of South Carolina, most likely born in Charleston. He was the son of William Drayton, a prominent lawyer, soldier, and US Representative. Thomas' grandfather, William Drayton Sr., was a judge for the province of East Florida (1763–1780) and appointed as the first Federal judge of the new United States District Court for the District of South Carolina. In 1833, following the Nullification Crisis, William Drayton (who was a unionist) took all the family to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, except Thomas, who chose to stay in the South.<ref name="Evans, p. 387">Evans, p. 387.</ref>

Drayton graduated in 1828 from the United States Military Academy, where he was a classmate of Jefferson Davis, who became his lifelong friend. Drayton was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 6th U.S. Infantry.

Four years later, Drayton resigned from the US Army and became a civil engineer for railroad construction in Charleston, Louisville, and Cincinnati for two years before he returned to plantation life. He was a captain in the state militia for five years.<ref name="Warner, p. 75">Warner, p. 75.</ref>

Drayton was elected to the South Carolina state legislature and was an outspoken supporter of states rights and slavery. He eventually owned 102 slaves at Fish Haul Plantation, which his wife had brought to their marriage. While a member of the South Carolina State Senate, Drayton also was President of the Charleston & Savannah Railroad from 1853 until 1856.<ref name="Warner, p. 75"/>

==Marriage and family== In 1832 Drayton married Catherine Pope of a wealthy planter family in Edisto, South Carolina. Her family owned Coggins Point Plantation and Fish Haul Plantation on Hilton Head Island. The Draytons had several children. Two of Drayton's sons also served in the Civil War.

==Civil War== Drayton was appointed a Brigadier General in September 1861 and placed in command of the military district at Port Royal, South Carolina.<ref>The modern town of Port Royal was not established until after the Civil War, but the term was in usage for the general region around Port Royal Sound.</ref> Drayton subsequently used Coggins Point Plantation and Fish Haul Plantation, which his wife owned, as headquarters in the defense of Hilton Head Island. Drayton assigned many of his own 102 slaves on the island to construct defenses and do other work to support the Confederates.<ref>[http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=6625 Photos by Mike Stroud, P"Fish Haul Plantation"], Historical Markers Database, 2006-2012</ref><ref>[http://www.state.sc.us/scdah/afamer/aframsites.pdf Reverse of Fish Hall Plantation marker] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090330192104/http://www.state.sc.us/scdah/afamer/aframsites.pdf |date=2009-03-30 }}</ref>

At the Battle of Port Royal later that year, troops under his command at Fort Walker<ref>{{cite web|title=Fort Welles|url=http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Welles|website=Fort Wiki|accessdate=24 October 2015}}</ref> and Fort Beauregard<ref>{{cite web|title=Fort Beauregard|url=http://www.fortwiki.com/Fort_Beauregard_(3)|website=Fort Wiki|accessdate=24 October 2015}}</ref> came under attack by ships of the Union Navy, including the USS ''Pocahontas'', commanded by his brother, Percival Drayton. Thomas Drayton's son, Lieutenant William Drayton, also fought with the Confederates in defense of the forts. After a lengthy bombardment, both forts fell to the Union attackers, who subsequently occupied much of the region. They gained an important deepwater port in coastal Carolina.<ref>[http://members.aol.com/gordonkwok/percival.html Site about the Drayton brothers and the Civil War]</ref> For the remainder of the war Union naval operations against First Battle of Charleston Harbor and the Union Blockade were both supported by the port.

In 1862, Drayton was assigned command of an infantry brigade composed of the 15th South Carolina Infantry, the 3d Battalion S.C. Inf. and three Georgia infantry regiments: the 50th and 51st and Phillips' Georgia Legion. The brigade joined the Army of Northern Virginia after the Seven Days Battles and became part of the Right Wing of the Army of Northern Virginia under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet. Drayton led his brigade at Second Bull Run and in the Maryland Campaign.<ref name="Evans, p. 387"/>

[[File:Henry P. Moore (American - Slaves of General Thomas F. Drayton - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|Slaves of Gen. Thomas F. Drayton, Hilton Head, S.C. in 1862 after Drayton deserted them, fleeing from the Union army (Photographer Henry P. Moore via Library of Congress)]]

Robert E. Lee became displeased with Drayton's performance. Drayton had failed to get his brigade into action at Second Bull Run, and it was then driven from the field in panic at both South Mountain and Antietam. Lee complained that Drayton was unable to keep his brigade properly organized, failing to file reports and returns, and that in each battle the brigade had been engaged in most of its colonels were AWOL, leaving the regiments commanded by inexperienced majors and captains. The brigade was broken up and its regiments transferred to other brigades. Drayton himself was transferred to the Western Theater to command a brigade in Sterling Price's army. During the final two years of the war, he mainly performed administrative duties in the Trans-Mississippi Theater, although he did briefly command a division in early 1864.<ref name="Evans, p. 387"/>

==Postbellum activities== Following the surrender of Confederate forces in the spring of 1865, Drayton moved to Dooly County, Georgia, where he managed a plantation. Destitute and unable to reclaim his confiscated property in South Carolina, in 1871, he moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he sold insurance for a living. Drayton was president of the South Carolina Immigrant Society until shortly before his death in Florence, South Carolina, at the age of 81.<ref>Warner, p. 76.</ref> He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Charlotte.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Fs0Ajlnjl6AC&dq=Elmwood+Cemetery+thomas+drayton&pg=PA683 ''Civil War High Commands'']</ref>

Drayton is mentioned in an explanatory panel erected in 1985 by the state of South Carolina near Hilton Head in Beaufort County.<ref>[http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=9966 Drayton marker]</ref>

==See also== {{Portal|American Civil War|Biography}} *List of American Civil War generals (Confederate) *Drayton Island

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==References== * Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-8047-3641-1}}. * Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-8160-1055-4}}. * Warner, Ezra J. ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-0823-9}}. *Evans, Clement A., ''Confederate Military History'' Vol. 5, Atlanta: Confederate Publishing Company, 1889. *[http://members.aol.com/gordonkwok/percival.html Site about the Drayton brothers and the Civil War] *[https://web.archive.org/web/20050626084846/http://www.heritagelib.org/History/Fairfield%20Plantation.htm South Carolina Heritage site]

==External links== *{{commons category-inline}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Drayton, Thomas}} Category:United States Military Academy alumni Category:United States Army officers Category:Confederate States Army brigadier generals Category:Businesspeople from Charleston, South Carolina Category:People of South Carolina in the American Civil War Category:19th-century American business executives in rail transportation Thomas Category:South Carolina state senators Category:1809 births Category:1891 deaths Category:Politicians from Charleston, South Carolina Category:People from Beaufort County, South Carolina Category:Politicians from Charlotte, North Carolina Category:19th-century owners of plantations in the United States Category:U.S. state legislators who owned slaves Category:19th-century members of the South Carolina General Assembly Category:Owners of plantations in South Carolina