Biography of General Alfred Monroe Scales

North Carolina general Alfred Scales rose to command Pender's brigade after that officer was promoted to command of the "Light Division."

Born in Reidsville, North Carolina on November 26, 1827, Scales was educated at the Caldwell Institute in Greensboro and at the state university. He studied law in Madison, and became the solicitor of Rockingham County. Four times he was elected to the legislature. He was also elected to Congress from 1857 to 1859. In 1860, he served as a Presidential Elector on the Breckinridge ticket.

In 1861, Scales volunteered for Confederate army service as a private. He was quickly elected captain of company H, 13th North Carolina Infantry.

In October, he took command of the regiment after its colonel, W. Dorsey Pender, was promoted to command of the brigade. Scales commanded the regiment in the "Light Division" through all the battles of the Seven Days, collapsing from exhaustion after the battle of Malvern Hill. Near death, he did not return to the army until November.

He was wounded at Chancellorsville on May 3, 1863. He was shot through the thigh and the wound caused him to lose much blood and forced him from the field. Returning to the army in June, he returned to a promotion to general on June 13, 1863 and took command of Pender's brigade. Scales was severely wounded on July 1, 1863 at Gettysburg -- like Pender, Scales was wounded in the leg by a shell fragment. He was carried south in the same ambulance as Pender.

While Scales, who was left in Winchester, recovered, Pender did not. He rejoined the army for the 1864 "Overland Campaign" but was on sick leave during the last months of the War and missed Appomattox.

Scales returned to law after the War and to politics; he also did some work in banking. He served in the legislature from 1866 to 1869, and in Congress from 1875 to 1884. He was then elected governor and served from 1884 to 1888. After leaving the governorship, he was never in good health, and visited specialists in the North about his condition. He was eventually diagnosed with Bright's Disease (a sort of catch-all for kidney disease). Unfortunately, his brain was affected and he spent the last several months of his life only conscious at intervals. Scales died in Greensboro on February 8, 1892 and was buried there in Green Hill Cemetery.