I mean, same general region, northern Virginia, but not really his place of birth. Something like a hundred miles away.
It sounds like he was one of a number of people who got appointed via political connections.
I’d think that if one wanted to choose a Confederate military leader who did well, there’d be a lot of better choices. Like, the North-South division ran right next to Washington, DC, due to the Maryland/Virginia split, Richmond wasn’t that far away, and so northern Virginia was the location of a lot of important Civil War stuff and my impression is that generally, Confederate forces in the east performed better than those in the west. So one would think that the northern Virginia region would have a lot of prominent options.
If you wanted to pick a Confederate cavalry commander, I’d think that I’d pick someone like J. E. B. Stuart, who really did outperform.
Like his intimate friend, Stonewall Jackson, General J. E. B. Stuart was a legendary figure and is considered one of the greatest cavalry commanders in American history. His friend from his federal army days, Union Major General John Sedgwick, said that Stuart was “the greatest cavalry officer ever foaled in America.”[83]