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William Raine Peck (January 31, 1831 – January 22, 1871) was a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The final commander of the famed Louisiana Tigers, Peck was among the largest Confederate generals at 6' 6" tall and 330 pounds.

William R. Peck was born in rural Jefferson County, Tennessee. His family relocated to Louisiana in the 1840's. As a young adult, he bought a plantation across the Mississippi River from Vicksburg, Mississippi. He prospered and purchased additional land and farms, and eventually became one of the region's wealthiest citizens. He constructed a sprawling mansion, "The Mountain," in Madison Parish not far from the village of Milliken's Bend.

Peck represented Madison Parish for several years in the Louisiana state legislature. A firebrand secessionist and advocate of states' rights, Peck was a signatory to the Louisiana Ordinance of Secession n January of 1861.

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Peck, despite his wealth and political connections, enlisted as a private in the 9th Louisiana Infantry. After training at a camp in Louisiana, Peck and his fellow soldiers in the regiment were sent to Virginia, arriving too late for any significant participation in the First Battle of Manassas. Peck was commissioned as an officer and rose through the ranks. He was the lieutenant colonel of the 9th Louisiana during the Gettysburg Campaign and saw action at the Second Battle of Winchester and the Battle of Gettysburg, where he was involved in the twilight attack on Cemetery Hill.

On October 8, 1863, "Big Peck" was promoted to colonel of the 9th Louisiana to succeed Leroy A. Stafford. Colonel Peck led the regiment in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Battle of Cold Harbor in May and June 1864 during the Overland Campaign.

Peck often led the brigade as the senior colonel, and his role in the July 1864 Battle of Monocacy drew praise from his division commander, John B. Gordon. [Note 1] He was wounded in the right thigh by a shell fragment at the Third Battle of Winchester in September. He did not return to the field until December. [Note 2] Peck was promoted to brigadier general on February 18, 1865. He was paroled in Vicksburg in June of that year.

Following the Civil War, Peck returned to his Louisiana plantation and resumed active management of the business. Plagued by poor health from his wartime service, he died six years after the war of congestive heart failure. He is buried in the family plot in the Old Methodist section of Westview Cemetery in Jefferson City, Tennessee.

Notes:

1. Warner, 231.
2. Welsh, 165. Although Warner states that Peck emerged from the war totally unscathed despite his massive frame, Confederate medical records suggest otherwise.

References:

Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders, Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5.
Welsh, Jack D., Medical Histories of Confederate Generals, Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1995, ISBN 0-8733-8649-3.

Obituary of William Raine Peck

The Daily Telegraph, Friday, January 27, 1871, Page 2, Column 2

Death of General Wm. R. Peck.

Our entire community will learn with unaffected regret, of the sudden and unexpected death of that gallant soldier and true hearted gentleman, General William R. Peck. This sad event occurred at 8 o'clock yesterday morning, at the late residence of the General in Madison parish, La., and was, we learn, produced by a congestive chill. General Peck was about forty-seven years of age, and was possessed of as many noble and generous qualities as usually fall to the lot of man. He was widely known, and where he was known the best, he was most highly esteemed and warmly beloved. He has hosts of friends to whom his high qualities had endeared him, and his death will produce a pang in many hearts now widely scattered.

General Peck was born in East Tennessee, but his boyhood was spent in this city, with his elder brother, Dr. Peck. When he arrived at manhood, he removed to the parish of Madison, La., where, with the energy peculiar to him, he engaged in planting. His success as a planter was signal and brilliant, and a few years saw him the master of a fortune, which his own judgment and industry had accumulated. A Democrat in politics, he took an active part in the political struggles of the day, and on several occasions was chosen by the people to represent Madison parish in the Legislature of Louisiana, where his excellent sense, sound judgement, genial manners and generous impulses, gave him a commanding influence. He had been warmly recommended for the office of Chief Magistrate of Louisiana, and but for the occurrence of the war, we doubt not that he would long since have been chosen the Governor of that great State.

When hostilities between the North and the South commenced, he saw plainly what duty required, and like the brave gentleman he was, he prepared to tread in its thorny path. He raised a company of volunteers, of which he was unanimously chosen Captain, and his company was assigned to Colonel (subsequently Lieutenant-General) Richard Taylor, as a portion of the 9th Regiment. How he discharged the duties of a soldier, we all know. He rose to the Colonelcy of his regiment, became a Brig.-General, and if the war had lasted three months longer, would have worn the rank and title of a Major General.

Distinguished for personal gallantry in the army, that of Northern Virginia, where personal gallantry was the rule, his tall form and Herculean proportions made him concpicuous (sic) on every battle-field, and his plume, like that of Henry of Navarre, was always in the lead, and in the thickest of the fight. To his old comrades in arms, the intelligence of his death will come with the force of a personal bereavement, and there is not one who shared with him the dangers and the glories of the campaigns of Gen. Lee, who will not drop a tear to the memory of General William R. Peck, as brave a soldier, and as generous a gentleman, as ever wore a sword, or bestrode a horse. Peace to the memory of the gallant dead.

Source: http://www.bayou.com/~suelynn/OldObits/tele1.html