Detail from View of the West Front of Monticello and Garden by Jane Braddick Peticolas showing George Wythe playing with a hoop.

George was the youngest child of Martha Jefferson Randolph and Thomas Mann Randolph. He was born in 1818 at Monticello and named for his grandfather’s law teacher.

From 1831-1839, George served in the United States Navy. He studied at the University of Virginia, receiving his law degree in 1841. In 1852, George married Mary Elizabeth Adams Pope, a wealthy Richmond widow. They had no children.

During the Civil War, George rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Confederate army. He was chosen as Secretary of War for the Confederacy in March 1862. He resigned due to poor health in November 1862. He died five years later and was buried at Monticello.