Confederate General John McCausland was born in St. Louis but raised in Western Virginia. A top graduate of Virginia Military Institute, he served as a professor alongside "Stonewall" Jackson. During the Civil War, he led the 36th Virginia Infantry and was brigadier general of a cavalry brigade. In 1864, he burned the town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, following Confederate orders, and soon after, was defeated at the Battle of Moorefield. After the war, he briefly fled the country to avoid arrest but then returned to live on his Mason County farm. He stayed loyal to the Confederate cause and bitter about the war's outcome until his death. He was the next-to-last Confederate general to die. He's buried in Henderson (Mason County).