Finding Aid to the John Daniel Imboden Papers 1847-1892

JONES MEMORIAL LIBRARY
2311 MEMORIAL AVENUE
LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA 24501
(434) 846-0501
JOHN DANIEL IMBODEN PAPERS, 1847-1892
This microfilmed collection contains letters and papers of John Daniel Imboden,
who served as a Brigadier General in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. Also
included are miscellaneous receipts, surveys, several Confederate loan agreements,
certificates, and accounts. The original papers were microfilmed by the Margaret I. King
Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky.
JOHN DANIEL IMBODEN (1823-1895)
John Daniel Imboden was born near Staunton, Virginia, February 16, 1823. He
attended a country school until his sixteenth year, after which he had two terms at
Washington College. Thereafter he taught school for a time, studied law, and opened an
office in Staunton. He was twice the representative of his district in the legislature and an
unsuccessful candidate for the Virginia secession convention. He entered Confederate
service at the very beginning of war as captain of the Staunton Artillery, a light battery
which he commanded at the initial capture of Harper’s Ferry. After service at First
Manassas he organized the First Virginia Partisan Rangers (later called the 62nd Virginia
Mounted Infantry) and took part in the battles of Cross Keys and Port Republic under
Stonewall Jackson.
Promoted brigadier general to rank from January 28, 1863, Imboden conducted a
famous raid into Northwestern Virginia, where he severed the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad
and captured several thousand cattle and horses. On the retreat from Gettysburg, he was
instrumental at Williamsport in saving the trains of the army. He later captured the
garrison at Charlestown, West Virginia, and fought gallantly during Early’s Valley
campaign of 1864.
Incapacitated by typhoid in the autumn of 1864, General Imboden served during
the balance of the war on prison duty at Aiken, South Carolina, following which he
settled in Richmond and resumed his law practice. During the later years of his life he
resided in Washington County, Virginia, where he pioneered in developing the mining
resources of the area. His death occurred at Damascus, a small town which he had
founded, on August 15, 1895; he is buried in Richmond.
[Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray (New Orleans: Louisiana State Univ. Press, 1959), p. 147.]

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