in the North Carolina Militia, commanding the Northern Coast Defenses of North Carolina. All of these general-officer assignments were in the spring and summer of 1861. By August he joined the Confederate States Army as a major of engineers and was promoted to colonel on October 9, 1862. (Fellow railroader Mahone also joined the Confederate Army, eventually achieving the rank of major general after becoming the so-called 'Hero of the Battle of the Crater,' which took place near Petersburg in 1864.) Later life In 1863, he resigned his commission and was named Florida Comptroller. After the war, Gwynn returned to civil engineering in North Carolina. He died in 1882 at the Carrolton Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland, and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia. References Sources External links History of Blue Ridge railroad where Gwynn was chief engineer 1802 births 1882 deaths American civil engineers Confederate States Army generals United States Military Academy alumni 19th-century American railroad executives People of West Virginia in the American Civil War Burials at Hollywood Cemetery (Richmond, Virginia) Florida Comptrollers People from Jefferson County, West Virginia 19th-century American politicians