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Peter Burwell Starke was born in Brunswick County, Virginia, in 1815; his exact birthdate is unknown. Starke worked in the family stagecoach business until the early 1840, when he moved to Bolivar, Mississippi and entered politics. He lost the 1846 election for Congress, but was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1850, and the state Senate in 1856. Joining the Confederate cause, he entered the military in 1862 as colonel of the 28th Mississippi Cavalry. After fighting in operations in central and northern Mississippi, he took part in the Vicksburg Campaign under Brig. Gen. William H. Jackson, and led a brigade without commensurate rank. After fighting at Meridian, Mississippi; he was placed in command of the 28th Mississippi Cavalry in the Atlanta Campaign. Promoted to brigadier general on November 4, 1864, he served under Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest in the Franklin and Nashville Campaign. Maintaining his rank through Forrest's reorganization of command, Starke spent the last months of the war serving under Brig. Gen. James R. Chalmer in Alabama. In the years following the Civil War, Starke held public appointments, served on the board of Mississippi levee commissioners and was sheriff of Bolivar County for a term. In 1873, He retired to his farm near Lawrenceville, Virginia, and died there, on July 13, 1888.
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