Robert E. Lee
Battle Tales
General Wilcox in Gettysburg:
Wilcox's Brigade led Anderson's Division's stop-and-start march from Fayetteville on July 1st. When the division went into bivouc on Herr Ridge late that afternoon, Wilcox's men were posted on the right, about one mile south of Chambersburg Pike near Black Horse Tavern. That night, Brigadier General Andrew Humphrey's Union division took a wrong road as it approached the battlefield and almost bumped into Wilcox's men in their camps. At 7:00 a.m. the next morning, July 2nd, Wilcox filed back into the Pike and advanced Seminary Ridge and then south along the ridge to Pitzer's Woods, where Anderson personally placed Wilcox's Brigade in line with its flank refused. Wilcox's Alabama regiments (the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 14th) took up their new position about noon. The 10th held the far right, with the 11th on its left flank; the exact alignment of the other regiments at this time is unclear. Wilcox held thus the right flank of the division, and at that time comprised the extreme right flank of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Just as Wilcox was completing the deployment of his brigade (he was still in the process of sending the 10th Alabama to the right), an enemy force in heavy skirmish order advanced into Pitzer's Woods and directly into the 10th regiment from the south. The Federals, about 100 men from Berdan's Sharpshooters and another 200 from the 3rd Maine Infantry, had been dispatched to reconnoiter the woods to determine if the Confederates were opposite of Major General Dan Sickles' Federal Third Corps in strength. A short but sharp exchange followed in which the 10th Alabama lost 10 killed and 28 wounded, and the enemy 67 killed and wounded. It was the first serious fighting on July 2nd. Although none of the Confederates deemed the engagement important, Berdan himself exaggerated the number of men he engaged and his report and his report convinced Sickles he was about to be attacked. Sickles, in turn, advanced his corps to occupy the high ground along the Emmitsburg Road---directly in the path of Longstreet's forthcoming assault.
After the brush with Berdan, Wilcox's men watched as Longstreet's two divisions filed south past their rear on the way to their marshaling positions for the late-afternoon attack on the Union left. Wilcox belatedly learned that he would take part in the day's assault and would advance toward Cemetary Ridge when Longstreet's men, attacking at right angles to his own, moved forward on his right. Lee personally discussed with Wilcox his assignment that day. The brigadier pointed out for Lee where he believed the Union left was (about 600-800 yards in his front), and confirmed that he could carry out his assignment. With some of his regiments facing south, though, it was impossible to directly attack the enemy. For reasons that remains unknown, his brigade was not shifted into a better position to carry out the attack.
Longstreet opened his attack with Hood's Division about 4:30 p.m., and Mclaws' moved out about one hour later. By 6:00 p.m., Longstreet's assault reached Wilcox's front. Before him was Brigadier General Andrew Humphrey's Federal division, aligned along the Emmitsburg Road. The Federals were already feeling heavy pressure from Brigadier General William Barksdale's Mississipians, who had just advanced on Wilcox's immediate right. Because of his unusual alignment, Wlicox had to file his men several hundred yards to the left into the low ground between Sprangler house, where he took position on the right of Edward Perry's (Colonel David Lang's) small Florida Brigade. When finally deployed, the 8th Alabama was positioned on the right on the Staub farm, with the 10th, 11th, 14th, and 9th regiments extending the line north past Sprangler farm. A large gap of some 200 yards apparently existed between the 8th and 10th regiments, although no one seems to have noticed at the time. The almost solid mass of the enemy to his front caused an officer in the 9th to pray for strength.
Wilcox's advance through the gathering dusk was immediately greeted with heavy artillery fire, which cut the general's bridle and killed and wounded many. Colonel Lang, who had orders to "advance with General Wilcox" moved his Floridians forward on Wilcox's left flank. The Alabamians crashed into humphrey's line, mostly between Klingle and Rogers farms. Although the Federals put up a terrific fight, the combined weight of his attack, with Barksdale's Brigade one one side and Land on the other, drove Humphrey's brigades to the rear. Wilcox's regiments eventually fought their way several hundred yards beyond the road to near Plum Run, where they finally stopped to re-organize. Wilcox, who had captured a number of guns, sent three seperate requests for reinforcements to General Anderson to support the final assault on Cemetary Ridge; none came. Although Wilcox was bitter about the way Anderson handled his division that afternoon and evening, it is hard to imagine where reinforcements for Wilcox would have come from.
The 262 men of Colonel William Colvill, Jr.'s 1st Minnesota watched in stunned disbelief as the Confederate assault swept all before it. For some distance on either side of them there was nothing but empty terrain and a single battery of guns. Major General Winfield Hancock rode upon the regiment and, pointing to the flag of the 11th Alabama, ordered Colvill to advance and take it. A well-ordered bayonet charge ensued and the Minnesotans advanced to the creek, where they blasted a volley into Wilcox's already disorganized line. A protracted shoot-out took place which shredded Colvill's regiment. The valiant asault, however, plugged a critical gap on the ridge and convinced Wilcox it was time to withdraw. He had peirced deep into the Union line, but was unable to advance safely without support on his flanks. Unwilling to risk the utter destruction of his brigade in the growing darkness, the Alabamian ordered his men back in the gloaming. Three of the brigade's four regimental commanders and 577 men were left lying on the field--fully one third of its strength. Afterward, Wilcox was offended when Lee wrote in his report that the Alabamian had been "compelled" to retire.
On July 3rd, when Lee decided to launch a massive strike against the Union right center on Cemetary Ridge, Wilcox's Brigade, together with Perry's three regiments (which were under his charge), were selected to support the right flank of the attacking column. They moved to within 200 yards of the Emmitsburg Road to support the Confederate guns that battered the enemy in preparation for Pickett's Charge. After the attacking the attacking column advanced about 3:00 p.m., however, Wilcox did not. Whether he was to have advanced together with Pickett is open to question. Some evidence suggests Wilcox recieved no less than three orders to advance, while others claim he was not ordered forward until twenty minutes after Pickett moved out. Colonel E. Porter Alexander later wrote that Wilcox's Brigade advanced past his line of guns "some ten minutes after the crisis was over...As they passed us I could not help feeling a great pity for the useless loss of life they were incurring, for their was nothing left for them to support." Wilcox realized as much, writing later with disgust, "Not a man of the Division that I was ordered to support could I see." Although he did not engage enemey infantry, his brigade retired after suffering 204 casualties from heavy artillery fire. Wilcox was in tears after this futile bloodletting that signaled the end of the battle.
While neither Anderson nor A. P. Hill offered any commendations for the work performed by their subordinates at Gettysburg, Wilcox's star remained bright. On August 1st, two weeks after Major General W. Dorsey Pender died, from his Gettysburg wound, Lee recommended Wilcox as the best man available to fill the vacancy at the head of Pender's Division. President Jefferson Davis accepted the recommendation, and two days later Wilcox was at last a Major General. The choice was a popular one--especially with those who knew Wilcox. He served steadily during the rest of the war as a division chief.
Settling in Washington, D.C. after the war, Wilcox enjoyed nation-wide esteem and held a number of government appointments, serving as chief of the railroad division of the Land Office from 1886 until his death from a brain hemorrhage in 1890.
I'd like to meet:
The 16th president of the Southern States, Jeff Davis.
Heroes:
These are some flags flown mainly by men from Alabama, but very few men from other states were also included. These are not all of the Alabama flags flown in battle, but are just an example of what our designs, and other state's designs, looked like.
Most people only know about the Army of Northern Virginia battle flag, and the Confederate Navy flag. They are the one's that most people see, that present a red field, a blue saltire, a white border along the saltire, and 13 white stars. But, actually there are many Confederate battle flags. These are just a few from Alabama.
There are many other beautiful ones, from other states. Many men died one right after the other, trying to keep these flags in the air, during battle. Place your cursor over the images, to see who these flags belonged to.
Pictures in a Scroll Box
