Campaigns · Seven Pines, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg
Edward Asbury O'Neal was born on September 20, 1818, in Madison County, Alabama. He trained as a lawyer and was active in Alabama politics and secessionist circles before the Civil War. When the war came he entered Confederate service and rose to command the 26th Alabama Infantry.
O'Neal led his regiment and later a brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia, seeing hard fighting at Seven Pines, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg, where his brigade suffered heavy losses on the first day. His promotion to brigadier general was contested and never confirmed by the Confederate Senate. After the war he returned to law and politics in Alabama and served as the state’s governor from 1882 to 1886. He died in Florence, Alabama, in 1890.