Isaac M. St. John

Isaac Munroe St. John (November 19, 1827 – April 7, 1880) was a Confederate States Army brigadier general during the American Civil War. He was a lawyer, newspaper editor and civil engineer before the Civil War and a civil engineer after the Civil War. As a civil engineer, he worked for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company (mainly in Maryland) and the Blue Ridge Railroad Company in South Carolina before the Civil War. After the war, he worked for the Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexington Railroad in Kentucky; the city of Louisville, Kentucky; and the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway Company (mainly in Virginia and West Virginia).

Early life Isaac M. St. John was born on November 19, 1827, in Augusta, Georgia. He moved to New York, New York, with his parents, Isaac Richards St. John and Abigail Richardson Munroe St. John, and attended Poughkeepsie Collegiate School. In 1847, St. John became the editor of the Baltimore Patriot.

American Civil War service Isaac M. St. John began the Civil War as a private in the Fort Hill Guards of South Carolina in April 1861. By October 3, 1861, he was an engineer in the Army of the Peninsula. and Mining, an assignment which he held until February 16, 1865. He was appointed major, CSA artillery, September 26, 1862 and lieutenant colonel, CSA, Nitre and Mining Corps, May 28, 1863.

Aftermath After the war, St. John was chief engineer for the Louisville, Cincinnati and Lexington Railroad from 1866 to 1869. Then, he was city engineer for two years with city of Louisville, Kentucky. He became a civil engineer for the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway and ultimately the head of its Mining and Engineering Department.

Isaac Munroe St. John died April 7, 1880, at The Greenbrier at White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia. He is buried at Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia.