The Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond by Gary W. Gallagher

Author:Gary W. Gallagher [Gallagher, Gary W.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780807847534
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 1998-08-31T00:00:00+00:00

AN EXAMPLE - of the many artistic representations of Lewis A. Armistead leading his Virginia soldiers against the Federal defenses on Cemetery Ridge. Louis Shepheard Moat, ed., Frank Leslie’s Illustrated History of the Civil War (New York: Mrs. Frank Leslie, 1895), p. 418

After his encounter with Captain Bingham, and completely unaware that he would fall prey to the twisted spirit of Abner Doubleday, Armistead came under the care of a succession of surgeons at the Eleventh Corps hospital. Surgeon Henry C. Hendrick of the 157th New York Infantry described the general’s wounds as being in a leg and in his left arm. Neither had resulted in a broken bone. “He had lost quite a great deal of blood, but,” the surgeons thought, “the wounds were not necessarily fatal. He never rallied, however, and died a little past noon on the Fourth of July.”60

Lewis Armistead walked to his death at the head of his brigade. His friend Dick Garnett had preceded him onto the deadly field on horseback. Garnett was mounted because he could not walk. During the march toward Gettysburg, the general had run afoul of Pickett’s headquarters staff even more painfully than had Armistead. A “fiery steed” belonging to Capt. Robert Anderson Bright “slashed out and kicked Gen. Garnett on the ankle.” The general’s last known correspondence, dated June 25, 1863, makes clear the effect of his injury. Writing from Chambersburg to “My dear Mrs. Dandridge,” Dick Garnett complained that his leg was “still quite sore” and was only “improving slowly.” At that date he could not even ride on horseback and feared he would “not be able to do so for a week or more.” Eight days later he was killed on horseback. Despite his own physical woes, Garnett exuded confidence in the army’s commander, whom he referred to as “General Robert,” and in the “fine condition” of the army.61

Garnett attacked at the head of the left half of Pickett’s front line on July 3. Maj. Charles Stephens Peyton of the 19th Virginia, who fell wounded in the assault near Garnett, called the general “our cool, gallant, noble brigade commander” and described his final attack vividly: “Never had the brigade been better handled. . . . There was scarcely an officer or man in the command whose attention was not attracted by the cool and handsome bearing of General Garnett, who, totally devoid of excitement or rashness, rode immediately in rear of his advancing line, endeavoring, by his personal efforts . . . to keep his line well closed and dressed. He was shot from his horse while near the center of the brigade, within about 25 paces of the stone wall.” Sometime early in the fighting, Garnett’s dark bay mare was killed outright. The general then mounted his best horse (valued at $675 as compared with $550 for the mare), a bay gelding “of fractious spirit.” Both Garnett and the gelding went down near the wall. Lt. Col. Norborne Berkeley of Garnett’s brigade, lying wounded and awaiting capture, saw the horse badly wounded next to the dead general and “unable to move from the spot.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.