Gen McCausland, CSA

Another Confederate General of Ulster-Scots stock...

'Life of Brigadier General John McCausland

By James Earl Brown

Volume 4, Number 4 (July 1943), pp. 239-293

EARLY LIFE

Brigadier General John McCausland, famous as the savior of Lynchburg and as the alleged incendiary of Chambersburg, was born in St. Louis, September 13, 1836. His grandparents, Alexander and Elizabeth Kyle McCausland, had lived at Six Mile Cross, Tyrone County, Ireland. Alexander was the direct descendant of Colonel Robert McCausland of Fruithill, near Newton Limavidy, County Londonderry, who died in 1734.

The name McCausland or McAuslane, as it was called in an early day, is not unknown in ancient Scotch and Irish history. In the days of Wallace and Bruce the McAuslanes lived on the shores of beautiful Loch Lomond in the highlands of Scotland, where they flourished and acted well their part in the bloody local wars of the times. They fought for Malcolm II, who gave them lands and a coat of arms as well.

Most of the McCauslands of Tyrone and Londonderry are descended from Baron McAuslane, who with his two sons, migrated to Ireland from the parish of Luss in the latter part of the reign of King James I. The elder son of Baron McAuslane was the father of Colonel Robert McCausland who had estates in the parish of Cappagh in Tyrone County.

Alexander McCausland, one of the descendants of Colonel Robert, married his cousin Elizabeth Kyle, the daughter of William Kyle who was knighted Sir William the Belt for gallantry and rewarded by land grants in Tyrone, Ireland.

Because of threats of Catholic enemies, Alexander, a Protestant, sold his lands about 1800 for $1,400. He then embarked with his family for America. With his wife and eleven children he landed at Baltimore; then proceeding by wagon to Staunton, Virginia, he joined his relatives, the Kyles. One of Alexander's sons, John, married a cousin, Harriet Kyle Price, a widow who was the daughter of William Kyle and Sarah Stevens Kyle.'