Wilson Gaines Richardson

He graduated from the University of Alabama with A.B. (1844) and A.M. (1847) degrees after which he served as a tutor in ancient languages at the university.[4] He received his Ph.D. from Hiram College.[1] From 1854 to 1859 Gaines was professor of Latin and French at the University of Mississippi in Oxford and then at Oakland College from 1859–1862.[5]

With the outbreak of the Civil War, Gaines enlisted as a private in the Lamar Rifles;[6] he was wounded in action at the Battle of Gaines's Mill. Afterwards Gaines Richardson became a paymaster in the Confederate States Navy, serving aboard the CSS Selma (1856) and CSS Alert and was subsequently taken prisoner following the Battle of Mobile Bay on August 5, 1864. Gaines was exchanged March 4, 1865 at Ship Island, Mississippi, surrendered at Citronelle May 4, 1865 and paroled May 18, 1865 at Grenada, Mississippi.[7]

After the war Gaines Richardson was professor of ancient languages and French at Davidson College in Davidson, North Carolina;[1][8] professor of Latin and French at Central University, Kentucky (1874–1878), and professor of languages at Austin College, Texas (1878–1881). From 1882 to 1884 he attended Princeton Theological Seminary and served as a pastor at Staunton, Tennessee (1884–1886). Hiram College conferred an honorary Ph.D. in 1876.

Wilson Gaines Richardson was twice married: he wed Louisa Vinson, daughter of Dr. Robert Lewis and Martha (née Bush) Kennon of Jackson, Miss., on February 4, 1857, and following her death, Mrs. Anne Herring on February 10, 1876.