William Mahone (December 1, 1826 – October 8, 1895) was a Confederate States Army general, civil engineer, railroad executive, prominent Virginia Readjuster and ardent supporter of former slaves.

As chief engineer of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, he built log-foundations under the routes in the Great Dismal Swamp in southeast tidewater Virginia that are still intact today.

According to local tradition, several new railroad towns were named after the novels of Sir Walter Scott, a favorite British/Scottish author of Mahone's wife, Otelia.

He was best known for regaining the initiative at the late war siege of Petersburg, Virginia, while Confederate troops were in shock after a huge mine/load of black powder kegs was exploded beneath them by tunnel-digging former coal miner Union Army troops resulting in the Battle of the Crater in July 1864; his counter-attack turned the engagement into a disastrous Union defeat.

He did not have a middle name as shown by records including his two Bibles, Virginia Military Institute (VMI) diploma, marriage license, and Confederate Army commissions.

[4] As recounted by his biographer, Nelson Blake, the freckled-faced youth of Irish-American heritage gained a reputation in the small town for both "gambling and a prolific use of tobacco and profanity".

Young Billy Mahone gained his primary education from a country schoolmaster but with special instruction in mathematics from his father.

Mahone worked as a teacher at Rappahannock Academy in Caroline County, Virginia, beginning in 1848, but was actively seeking an entry into civil engineering.

In 1854, Mahone surveyed and laid out with streets and lots of Ocean View City, a new resort town fronting on the Chesapeake Bay in Norfolk County.

[11] With the advent of electric streetcars in the late 19th century, an amusement park was developed there, and a boardwalk was built along the adjacent beach area.

[13] The Mahone family escaped the yellow fever epidemic that broke out in the summer of 1855 and killed almost a third of the populations of Norfolk and Portsmouth by fleeing the city and staying with his mother 50 miles away in Jerusalem (now known as Courtland) in rural Southampton County.

Popular legend claimed Otelia and William Mahone traveled along the newly completed railroad, naming stations from Ivanhoe and other books she was reading written by Sir Walter Scott.

He bluffed U.S. Army troops into abandoning the shipyard in Portsmouth by running a single passenger train into Norfolk with great noise and whistle-blowing, then much more quietly sending it back west and then returning the same train, creating the illusion of large numbers of arriving troops to the U.S. soldiers listening in Portsmouth across the Elizabeth River (and just barely out of sight).

The ruse worked, and not a single Confederate soldier was lost as the U.S. authorities abandoned the area and retreated to Fort Monroe across Hampton Roads.

Mahone was subsequently promoted to brigadier general on November 16, 1861, and commanded the Confederate's Norfolk district until its evacuation the following year.

In May 1862, after Confederate forces fled Norfolk during the Peninsula Campaign, Mahone aided in the construction of the defenses of Richmond on the James River around Drewry's Bluff.

Although several of his fellow officers in the Army of Northern Virginia agreed, Robert E. Lee argued that there was no available position for a major general just then, and Mahone would have to wait until one opened up.

During Pickett's Charge the following day, Mahone's brigade was assigned to protect artillery batteries and was uninvolved in the main fighting.

Despite his failure to move his command into action, Mahone suffered no punishment due to his seniority and the fact that he would ultimately become one of a handful of officers in the Army of Northern Virginia to lead a brigade for an entire year's duration.

Mahone took command of Anderson's division, which he led for the remainder of the war, starting at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House.

Nevertheless, Mahone rallied the remaining nearby Confederate forces, repelling the attack, and the U.S. soldiers lost their initial advantage.

Mahone's quick and effective action was a rare cause for celebration by the occupants of Petersburg, embattled citizens, and weary troops alike.

After several years of operating under receiverships, Mahone's relationship with the creditors soured, and an alternate receiver, Henry Fink, was appointed to oversee the A, M & O's finances.

Before the Civil War, the Virginia Board of Public Works had invested state funds in a substantial portion of the stock of the A, M & O's predecessor railroads.

Mahone also directed some funds to help found the predecessor of today's Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, also near Petersburg.

[19] In 1881, Mahone led the successful effort to elect the readjuster candidate William E. Cameron as the next governor, and he became a United States Senator.

He gained control over Virginia's federal patronage from President James A. Garfield and by the right to select both the Senate's Secretary and Sergeant at Arms.

Although out of office, Mahone continued to stay involved in Virginia-related politics until he suffered a catastrophic stroke in Washington, D.C., in the fall of 1895.

A large portion of U.S. Highway 460 in eastern Virginia (between Petersburg and Suffolk) parallels the 52-mile (84 km) tangent railroad tracks that Mahone had engineered, passing through some of the towns that the two are believed to have named.

The monument states: To the memory of William Mahone, Major General, CSA, a distinguished Confederate Commander, whose valor and strategy at the Battle of the Crater, July 30, 1864, won for himself and his gallant brigade undying fame.