Jubal Anderson Early was born here on November 3, 1816. He graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1837 and served as a lieutenant in the Seminole War in Florida before resigning in 1838. He practiced law in Rocky Mount, Va., was a member of the Virginia House of Delegates from 1841 to 1842, served as a major in the Mexican War from 1847 to 1848, and was commonwealth’s attorney in Franklin and Floyd counties. A delegate to the Virginia Secession Convention in 1861, he initially opposed secession but voted for it after President Abraham Lincoln called for troops following the surrender of Fort Sumter. Early then entered Confederate service as colonel of the 24th Virginia Infantry. Promoted to general after the First Battle of Manassas in July 1861, he later led troops in every significant battle of the Army of Northern Virginia and in 1862 became one of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s most trusted subordinates. Caustic, aggressive, and famously profane, he was, in Lee’s words, “my bad old man.” In June 1864, after Lee appointed him to independent command, Early defeated Union Gen. David Hunter’s army at Lynchburg, launched a raid that reached the inner defenses of Washington, D.C., and fought a campaign in the Shenandoah Valley against Union Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s army. After the war, he went from this house to Mexico, Cuba, and Canada before returning to Virginia in 1869 after the general amnesty and settling in Lynchburg to practice law. He was the first president of the Southern Historical Society and a relentless promoter of Lee’s leadership. Known as “Old Jube,” he died in Lynchburg on March 2, 1894, and is buried there in Spring Hill Cemetery.