William Mahone (December 1, 1826 – October 8, 1895) was an American civil engineer, railroad manager, and general in the Confederate States Army. After the Civil War, he worked to protect the rights of freed African Americans and became a leader of the Readjuster Party. He represented Virginia in the United States Senate from 1881 to 1887.
As a young man, Mahone helped build roads and railroads in Virginia. He was the chief engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, where he constructed strong bases under the railroad routes in the Great Dismal Swamp in southeast Virginia. These bases remain intact today. Local stories say that several new railroad towns were named after books by Sir Walter Scott, a favorite author of Mahone’s wife, Otelia.
During the American Civil War, Mahone supported the South’s decision to leave the United States and served as a general in the Confederate Army. He is most known for leading a successful attack during the siege of Petersburg, Virginia, in 1864. At that time, Confederate soldiers were shocked after Union troops, many of whom were former coal miners, dug a tunnel and exploded a large amount of black powder beneath them, creating a crater. Mahone’s counterattack turned the battle into a major defeat for the Union forces.
After the war, Mahone returned to railroad work. He combined three railroad lines to create the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O), which was based in Lynchburg, Virginia. He also led the Readjuster Party, a political group made up of freed African Americans, Republicans, and Democrats who supported common people. In 1881, the Virginia General Assembly elected Mahone to serve in the U.S. Senate.
Early life
William Mahone was born in Brown's Ferry near Courtland in Southampton County, Virginia, to Fielding Jordan Mahone and Martha (née Drew) Mahone. His family's name, Mahone, came from ancestors who moved from Ireland to Virginia. He was the third person in his family to be named William Mahone. Historical records, such as his two Bibles, his Virginia Military Institute (VMI) diploma, marriage license, and Confederate Army commissions, show he did not have a middle name. His father, Fielding Mahone, and his wife, Otelia, named their first son William Mahone as well. Later, when naming practices in Virginia changed, the suffix "Jr." was added to his name.
The small town of Monroe was located along the Nottoway River, about eight miles south of the county seat, which was then called Jerusalem. Jerusalem was later renamed Courtland in 1888. Before railroads and highways were built, the river was an important transportation route. Fielding Mahone owned a store in Monroe and had large farmland. He also enslaved several people, who were forced to work on his land. The Mahone family narrowly avoided harm during the violent events of Nat Turner's slave rebellion in 1831.
In the 1830s, transportation in the area shifted from rivers to railroads, a new technology. In 1840, when William was 14 years old, his family moved to Jerusalem. His father, Fielding Mahone, bought and ran a tavern called Mahone's Tavern. According to his biographer, Nelson Blake, the young man, who had freckles and Irish-American heritage, became known in the town for gambling and using tobacco and strong language.
William Mahone received his early education from a local schoolteacher and learned math from his father. As a teenager, he briefly delivered U.S. mail by horseback from his hometown to Hicksford, a small town on the south side of the Meherrin River in Greensville County. Later, Hicksford merged with Belfield on the north side of the river to form the city of Emporia. William earned a place as a state cadet at the newly opened Virginia Military Institute (VMI) in Lexington, Virginia. He studied under VMI's Commandant, William Gilham, and graduated in 1847 with a degree in civil engineering.
Early career
William Mahone began working as a teacher at Rappahannock Academy in Caroline County, Virginia, in 1848. However, he was interested in becoming a civil engineer. He helped plan the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, an 88-mile route connecting Gordonsville, Virginia, to Alexandria. Because of his good work on this project, he was later hired to build a plank road between Fredericksburg and Gordonsburg.
On April 12, 1853, Dr. Francis Mallory of Norfolk hired Mahone as chief engineer to build the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad (N&P). As chief engineer, Mahone asked for contractors to improve 62 miles of the railroad from the Warwick Swamp near the Blackwater River to Norfolk in 1853. Mahone designed a 12-mile section of the railroad through the Great Dismal Swamp between South Norfolk and Suffolk. This section used logs placed across each other underground to form a stable base. This method, called a corduroy roadbed, is still used today and supports heavy modern coal trains. Mahone also built a 52-mile straight railroad track between Suffolk and Petersburg. This track, with no curves, is now a major route for Norfolk Southern trains.
In 1854, Mahone planned the layout of Ocean View City, a new resort town near the Chesapeake Bay in Norfolk County. Later, when electric streetcars were introduced in the late 1800s, an amusement park and a boardwalk were built along the beach. Much of Mahone’s original street plan is still used today in Ocean View, now part of the City of Norfolk.
Mahone also worked as a surveyor for the Norfolk and South Air Line Railroad on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
Marriage and family
On February 8, 1855, Mahone married Otelia Butler (1835–1911), the daughter of Dr. Robert Butler from Smithfield, who had served as State Treasurer of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 1846 until his death in 1853. Otelia’s mother was Dr. Butler’s second wife, Otelia Voinard Butler (1803–1855), who was originally from Petersburg.
Otelia Butler was described as a well-educated and refined woman. She and William moved to Norfolk, where they lived most of the years before the Civil War. They had 13 children, but only three lived to adulthood: two sons, William Jr. and Robert, and a daughter also named Otelia. From 1862 to 1868, the family lived in Clarksville, Virginia, at the Judge Henry Wood Jr. House.
The Mahone family avoided the yellow fever outbreak that began in the summer of 1855 and killed nearly one-third of the people in Norfolk and Portsmouth by leaving the city and staying with Mahone’s mother 50 miles away in Jerusalem (now known as Courtland) in rural Southampton County. However, the epidemic severely harmed the economy of the Norfolk area, causing delays in the construction of a new railroad to Petersburg.
Despite the challenges, Mahone and his mentor, Dr. Mallory, worked to complete the railroad project by 1858. Shortly after, Mahone was named president of the railroad. A popular story says that Otelia and William Mahone traveled along the completed railroad and named stations after places from books by Sir Walter Scott, such as Ivanhoe. They chose names like Windsor, Waverly, and Wakefield from his Scottish novels. They also used the Scottish clan name "McIvor" for the town of Ivor in Southampton County. When they could not agree on a name for a location, they created the name Disputanta.
American Civil War
As political disagreements between Northern and Southern United States groups grew stronger in the second half of the 1800s, Mahone supported Southern states leaving the United States. During the American Civil War, he helped the Confederacy even before becoming an officer. In 1861, his Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad was very useful to the Confederacy, moving military supplies to Norfolk for use during the Confederate occupation. By the end of the war, most of the railroad was controlled by the United States.
After Virginia left the United States in April 1861, Mahone was still a civilian and not yet in the Confederate Army. However, he worked with Walter Gwynn to trick U.S. soldiers into leaving the Gosport Shipyard. He made a loud train ride from Portsmouth to Norfolk, then quietly sent it back, creating the illusion of large Confederate forces arriving. This trick worked, and the U.S. abandoned the shipyard, retreating to Fort Monroe. After this, Mahone became a lieutenant colonel and later a colonel in the 6th Virginia Infantry Regiment. He stayed in Norfolk, now under Benjamin Huger’s command, and was promoted to brigadier general in November 1861, leading the Confederate forces in Norfolk until its evacuation the next year.
In May 1862, after Confederate forces left Norfolk during the Peninsula Campaign, Mahone helped build defenses around Drewry’s Bluff on the James River near Richmond. Later, he led his brigade in the Battle of Seven Pines and the Battle of Malvern Hill. After defending Richmond, his brigade moved to Richard H. Anderson’s division and fought at the Second Battle of Bull Run. There, Mahone was shot in the chest while leading his troops across Chinn Ridge. Standing 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 100 pounds, he was nicknamed “Little Billy.” A soldier once said, “He was every inch a soldier, though there were not many inches of him.” When Virginia’s governor told his wife, Otelia Mahone, that Mahone had been hurt but only suffered a “flesh wound,” she replied, “Now I know it is serious for William has no flesh whatsoever.” The injury was not life-threatening, but Mahone missed the Maryland Campaign. After recovering for two months, he returned to command but saw little action at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Mahone used his political skills to request a promotion to major general during the winter of 1862–63. Though some officers supported him, General Robert E. Lee said no positions were available at the time, so Mahone had to wait.
Mahone’s brigade stayed with the main army for the Battle of Chancellorsville. After General Lee reorganized the army in May 1863, Mahone joined the newly formed Third Corps under A. P. Hill. At the Battle of Gettysburg, Mahone’s brigade saw little action and suffered few casualties. He was supposed to attack Cemetery Ridge on July 2 but did not move his troops as ordered. During Pickett’s Charge the next day, his brigade protected artillery and did not fight in the main battle. His report on the battle was short and gave little detail about his actions on July 2. He later told a fellow officer that his division commander, Richard H. Anderson, had ordered him to stay back. Despite not following orders, Mahone was not punished because of his seniority and because he would eventually lead a brigade for an entire year.
Although his injury at Manassas was not serious, Mahone had lifelong stomach problems. He brought a cow and chickens with him during the war to provide milk. Otelia and their children moved to Petersburg in 1864–65 to be near him as Union General Ulysses S. Grant attacked Petersburg, trying to cut off supplies to Richmond.
During the Battle of the Wilderness, Mahone’s soldiers accidentally wounded General James Longstreet. Richard Anderson was later made a corps commander, and Mahone took over Anderson’s division, leading it for the rest of the war, starting with the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Mahone became known as a hero at the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864. U.S. soldiers dug a tunnel under Confederate lines, exploded it, and broke through a key part of the defense around Petersburg. Mahone quickly gathered nearby Confederate forces, repelling the attack and helping the Confederacy regain control. This battle, which began as a new strategy, became a major loss for the United States. Mahone’s quick action was celebrated by people in Petersburg and Confederate soldiers. On July 30, he was promoted to major general.
In early April 1865, Grant’s plan at Petersburg succeeded in cutting off the last rail line supplying Petersburg and Richmond. At the Battle of Sailor’s Creek on April 6, General Lee asked Mahone, “My God, has the army dissolved?” Mahone replied, “No, General, here are troops ready to do their duty.” Moved by his soldiers’ loyalty, Lee told Mahone, “Yes, there are still some true men left … Will you please keep those people back?” Mahone was also present when Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House three days later.
Return to railroading
After the war, Lee encouraged his generals to help rebuild the southern states' economies. William Mahone followed this advice and became the main leader in connecting the N&P Railroad, South Side Railroad, and the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. He became the president of all three railroads by the end of 1867. During the Reconstruction period, he worked hard to persuade the Virginia General Assembly to pass laws needed to create the Atlantic, Mississippi & Ohio Railroad (AM&O), a new railroad line that combined the three railroads he led. This line stretched 408 miles from Norfolk to Bristol, Virginia, and was completed in 1870. This project conflicted with the expansion of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad from Baltimore and Alexandria, Virginia. The Mahone family was known for their unique personality: the letters A, M & O were said to stand for "All Mine and Otelia's." They lived in Lynchburg, Virginia, during this time but moved back to Petersburg in 1872.
The Panic of 1873 caused the AM&O Railroad to face problems with its bondholders in England and Scotland. After several years of financial management by appointed officials, Mahone's relationship with these creditors worsened, and a new receiver, Henry Fink, was chosen to oversee the railroad's finances. Mahone continued to try to regain control. His work as a railroad builder ended in 1881, when companies based in Philadelphia outbid him and bought the AM&O Railroad at an auction, renaming it the Norfolk and Western (N&W) Railroad.
Before the Civil War, the Virginia Board of Public Works had invested state money in shares of railroads that later became part of the AM&O. Although Mahone lost control of the railroad, as a respected leader in Virginia, he arranged for some of the state's money from the sale of the railroad to be used to help start a school to train teachers for black children and formerly enslaved people near his home in Petersburg, where he had previously served as mayor. This school, the Virginia Normal and Collegiate Institute, later grew into Virginia State University. A Virginia native named John Mercer Langston returned from Ohio to become the school's first president. Mahone also used some of the funds to help create the predecessor of today's Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, near Petersburg. Mahone kept his ownership of land investments tied to the N&W Railroad's development of coal-rich areas in western Virginia and southern West Virginia. These investments made him one of Virginia's wealthiest men at the time of his death, according to his biographer, author Nelson Blake.
Political career
Mahone was involved in Virginia's economy and government for nearly 30 years. He began his work during the Civil War when he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly as a delegate from Norfolk in 1863. Later, he became mayor of Petersburg. After a failed attempt to become governor in 1877, he led the Readjuster Party, a group made up of Democrats, Republicans, and African-Americans. This party aimed to reduce Virginia's debt from before the war and fairly distribute funds to the area that became West Virginia. In 1881, Mahone helped elect William E. Cameron, a Readjuster candidate, as governor. He also became a United States Senator.
The Readjuster Party did more than manage Virginia's debts. It invested in schools, especially for African Americans, and hired African American teachers for these schools. The party increased funding for what is now Virginia Tech and created a separate school for African Americans, Virginia State. The party also ended the poll tax and the public whipping post. Because of these changes, Danville elected a town council with a majority of African American members and hired a police force that included both African American and white officers.
At the time, the U.S. Senate was split evenly between Republicans and Democrats, with 37 votes each. Mahone and another third-party candidate who worked with Democrats had political influence. Under Senate rules, Vice President Chester A. Arthur, a Republican, would vote to break ties. Mahone negotiated for major changes before agreeing to work with Democrats. Even though he was a new senator, he became head of the powerful Agriculture Committee. He gained control over federal jobs in Virginia from President James A. Garfield and had the right to choose the Senate's Secretary and Sergeant at Arms.
Mahone faced opposition from the Conservative Party of Virginia, which supported Democrats. This group grew stronger after the 1884 election, when Democrat Grover Cleveland became president. Mahone stayed with the Republican Party and led Virginia's group at the Republican National Conventions in 1884 and 1888. However, he lost his Senate seat to Conservative Democrat John W. Daniel in 1886.
In 1889, Mahone ran for governor as a Republican but lost to Democrat Philip W. McKinney. It was not until 1969—80 years later—that Virginia elected another non-Democrat as governor, A. Linwood Holton Jr.
Death
After leaving his government position, Mahone remained active in Virginia's politics. However, he had a serious stroke in Washington, D.C., during the fall of 1895. He passed away one week later at the age of 68. His wife, Otelia, lived in Petersburg until she died in 1911.
Legacy
Although Mahone did not live to see the result, Virginia and West Virginia argued for many years about how much debt West Virginia owed from the Virginia government. This disagreement was resolved in 1915 when the U.S. Supreme Court decided that West Virginia owed Virginia $12,393,929.50 (about $277 million in 2024). The last payment of this amount was made in 1939.
Mahone was buried in a family tomb at Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg, Virginia. His wife was buried next to him. A well-known symbol, an "M" inside a star on a shield, marks the tomb.
Their first home in Petersburg was originally lived in by John Dodson, who was mayor of Petersburg from 1851 to 1852. This house is now part of the Petersburg Public Library. In 1874, they bought and expanded a larger home on South Market Street, which became their main home after that. Virginia State University, which Mahone helped create as a normal school, is a major local institution nearby.
A large part of U.S. Highway 460 in eastern Virginia (between Petersburg and Suffolk) runs alongside 52 miles (84 kilometers) of railroad tracks that Mahone designed. The highway passes through towns that are believed to have been named by him. Some road sections are named "General Mahone Boulevard" and "General Mahone Highway" in his honor. In his hometown of Southampton County, Virginia, the Route 35 overpass of Route 58 is called "The General William Mahone Memorial Bridge."
A monument honoring Mahone’s Brigade stands on the Gettysburg Battlefield.
The site of the Battle of the Crater is a major attraction in the National Park Service’s Petersburg National Battlefield Park. In 1927, the United Daughters of the Confederacy built a large monument to remember Mahone. It is located on the preserved Crater Battlefield, near the Crater itself. The monument reads:
"To the memory of William Mahone, Major General, CSA, a distinguished Confederate Commander, whose valor and strategy at the Battle of the Crater, July 30, 1864, won for himself and his gallant brigade undying fame."