Category Archives: Gen. James Longstreet

Wig Wag flags at Fort Sanders

Artillery supported the 13th Regiment’s charge against Fort Sanders at Knoxville in the ice and snow of winter, 1863. The big guns were spread out so far around the southern curve of the battlefield that their commander had to use … Continue reading

Posted in Battles: Chickamauga, Battles: Fort Sanders, Gen. James Longstreet, Siege of Knoxville, The Minute Men of Attala | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Bragg: The man who knew no fear

It’s safe to say that the 13th Regiment’s most reviled time of the whole war was when they served under Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg in Tennessee. Bragg was a small man. His chief, post-war published critic Sam Watkins said it … Continue reading

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A rather inert, indolent manner

General Richard Heron Anderson, who took over the First Corps after Longstreet was wounded at the Wilderness, was a “short, thick, stocky” man who was very different from the Bull of the Woods, as First Corps soldiers had begun calling … Continue reading

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Battles: The Wilderness

“About the first of May, we started for the Wilderness,” Private William J. Pace of the Newton Rifles wrote after the war, according to the regiment’s independent historian Jess McLean. “which was the beginning of one of the most hard … Continue reading

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Gordonsville and a Grand Review

On April 7, 1864, President Davis ordered Longstreet to move his troops to Charlottesville and there report to Gen. Lee. The move began by train on April 12 and they had all arrived by April 14. They camped on the … Continue reading

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The Journey: Return to Virginia

Longstreet’s reduced corps (including Humphreys’ Mississippi Brigade) left its winter quarters in the vicinity of Russellville, Tennessee, “in the last of March [1864],” according to independent historian H. Grady Howell Jr. They moved northeast to Bristol, on the Tennessee-Virginia state … Continue reading

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General McLaws’ court martial

Although convened in February, 1864, McLaws’ court martial for dereliction of duty in the assault on Fort Sanders at Knoxville, was on-again, off-again, for the next several weeks. Finally, on March 11, the trial commenced at a private home in … Continue reading

Posted in Battles: Fort Sanders, Gen. Benjamin G. Humphreys, Gen. James Longstreet, Gen. Lafayette McLaws, Humpreys Mississippi Brigade, Siege of Knoxville | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Furloughs

Most of the senior officers had already left on furlough, despite continued cannonading and rifle firing for several miles around nearly every day, when General Longstreet issued a Dec. 27, 1863 order on the subject for the junior officers and … Continue reading

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