Well, if I may, I'd like to wish a posthumous "Happy Birthday" to former Virginia Governor James Lawson Kemper. Kemper was born in Madison county on this day,June 11th, in 1823.
Of all the men to occupy the office of Virginia Governor, Kemper is one of the most interesting. He was Speaker of the House of Delegates when the Civil War started. He took leave of that office to fight in the war. He was wounded at Gettysburg, in fact he led a division in Pickett's Charge. Kemper was thought to have been mortally wounded however, he survived and went on the become Governor from 1874-1878. He died in April 1895 with the bullet from Gettysburg still inside him.
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