Erasmus Burt

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Erasmus R. Burt (c. 1820 - 26 October 1861) was a physician, then the State Auditor of Mississippi, then a member of Mississippi House of Representatives, then Colonel in the Confederate Army (Burt’s Rifles, later known as Company K. 18th Regiment, Mississippi Infantry). He was fatally wounded at the Battle of Ball’s Bluff on 21 October 1861, later dying of his wounds. He was known as “the Father of the Deaf and Dumb Institute of Mississippi”.

[edit] Biography

Erasmus Burt was born around 1820 in Edgefield County, South Carolina. He was one of ten children of Francis Burt, a member of South Carolina House of Representatives from 1798 to 1800, and Catherine Miles. His brothers included Armstead Burt (16 November 1802 – 30 October 1883), who was elected to Congress in 1843 for South Carolina and served until 1853 and who was married to the niece of John C. Calhoun, and Francis Burt (13 January 1807 - 18 October 1854), who served in Washington as the Third Auditor of the Treasury, and in 1854 was appointed the first Territorial Governor of Nebraska. Erasmus and two other brothers, Matthew and Oswell, studied medicine. Dr. Matthew Burt practiced medicine in Jacksonville, Alabama, where he died in 1829. Oswell E. Burt moved to Alabama where he founded the town of Alexandria, and then moved to Texas. Erasmus Burt first practiced medicine in Alabama and then moved to Mississippi.

On 16 September 1843 in Jacksonville, Alabama, Erasmus married Lucy Ann Morgan (22 October 1821 – c. 1887), the daughter of George Washington Morgan and Mary Frances Irby. By 1850 he was practicing medicine in Oktibbeha Country, Mississippi and became a member of the House of Representatives representing Oktibbeha County, and State Auditor. While chairman of the Committee on Claims and a member of the Committee of Education he was instrumental in founding the Mississippi Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb in 1854.

When the Civil War broke out, he raised a regiment for the Confederate side known as Burt Rifles which became Company K of the 18th Mississippi regiment, Mississippi Infantry on 22 April1861, starting with the rank of captain. He was made a colonel on 7 June 1861. They first saw action at the First Battle of Manassas or First Battle of Bull Run on 21 July 1861.

[edit] Battle of Ball’s Bluff

At the Battle of Ball's Bluff he was shot through his hip by a bullet which entered his stomach while leading his men in an attack on the Federal battery into what turned out to be a deadly crossfire. It is said that his men were so enraged by his loss that that they turned the tables on the Union army and drove them into the Potomac River where a number of them drowned. He was taken into Harrison Hall in Leesburg, Virginia, where he later died He was promoted to general for his bravery, but died before the promotion was received. He was taken back to Jacksonville, Mississippi, where he was buried. He had eight children, and after his death his wife and younger children were moved back to Alabama by his widow’s family.

There is an Erasmus Burt Award presented by the Mississippi Association of the Deaf.