ommandant of the Confederate States Marine Corps. A graduate of the United States Military Academy in 1830, he also attended the French Army's Cavalry School in 1840. Promoted to Major in the United States Army in 1844, he served in the Black Hawk and Seminole Wars and in the Mexican War. Siding with the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War, he was appointed Colonel and Commandant of the Confederate Marine Corps in 1861, the only person to hold that position. Following the war he became a Richmond merchant.