turned his right flank. McLaws led a division under Lt. Gen. William J. Hardee at the Battle of Averasborough, commanding the Confederate third line of defense, and at the Battle of Bentonville. His division was little engaged at Bentonville because of vague orders. In the aftermath of these battles, McLaws had problems with the discipline of his division, holding multiple roll calls per day to prevent desertion and looting. When Gen. Joseph E. Johnston reorganized the army, McLaws lost his command assignment. He was assigned command of the District of Georgia after Bentonville. He may have surrendered with Johnston's army in North Carolina on April 26, 1865; however, there is no record of his parole. On October 18, 1865, McLaws was pardoned by the U.S. government. Postbellum career After the war, McLaws worked in the insurance business, was a tax collector for the IRS, served as Savannah's postmaster in 1875-76, and was active in Confederate veterans' organizations. Despite his wartime differences with Longstreet, McLaws initially defended Longstreet in the post-war attempts by Jubal Early and others to smear his reputation. McLaws was a part owner of the Atlantic and Mexican Gulf Canal Company, a canal project approved in 1876. Its purpose was to construct a canal westward from the St. Marys River in Georgia to connect with the Gulf of Mexico on the coast of Florida. Lafayette McLaws died in Savannah and is buried there in Laurel Grove Cemetery. A collection of his letters, A Soldier's General: The Civil War Letters of Major General Lafayette McLaws (2002), was published posthumously. Memorials McLaws Circle, part of the Kingsmill development of Anheuser-Busch in James City County, Virginia, near Williamsburg, was named in his honor in the 1970s. In 1861, then Lt. Col. McLaws played a key role in the construction nearby of the Williamsburg Line, 4 miles of defensive works across the Virginia Peninsula, which played a crucial role in the Battle of Williamsburg of the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. A bust of McLaws stands in Savannah's Forsyth Park, near the city's Civil War Memorial. See also List of American Civil War generals (Confederate) Notes References Bradley, Mark L. This Astounding Close: The Road to Bennett Place. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. . Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. . Quigley, Robert D. Civil War Spoken Here: A Dictionary of