Armstead Williams
Allegiance Service/ branch Years of service 1839–61 (USA) 1861–63 (CSA) Rank Unit Commands held Armistead's Bde, Div, Battles/wars. Lewis Addison Armistead (February 18, 1817 – July 5, 1863) was a career officer who became a in the during the.
On July 3, 1863, as part of during the, Armistead led his brigade to the farthest point reached by Confederate forces during the charge, a point now referred to as the. However, he and his men were overwhelmed, and he was wounded and captured by Union troops; he died in a field hospital two days later. Contents. Early life Armistead, known to friends as 'Lo' (for ), was born in the home of his great-grandfather, John Wright Stanly, in, to and Elizabeth Stanly.
He came from an esteemed military family. Armistead was of entirely English descent, and all of his ancestry had been in Virginia since the early 1600s. The first of his ancestors to emigrate to North America was William Armistead from. Armistead's father was one of five brothers who fought in the; another was Major, the commander of during the that inspired to write ', which would later become the national anthem of the United States. On his mother's side, his grandfather was a, and his uncle served as military governor of eastern North Carolina during the Civil War. Armistead attended the, but resigned following an incident in which he broke a plate over the head of fellow cadet (and future Confederate general).
He was also having academic difficulties, however, particularly in French (a subject of difficulty for many West Point cadets of that era), and some historians cite academic failure as his true reason for leaving the academy. His influential father managed to obtain for his son a 's commission in the 6th U.S. Infantry on July 10, 1839, at roughly the time his classmates graduated.
He was promoted to first lieutenant on March 30, 1844. Armistead's first marriage was to Cecelia Lee Love, a distant cousin of, in 1844. They had two children: Walker Keith Armistead and Flora Lee Armistead. Armistead then served in, Arkansas, near the Oklahoma border.
Serving in the, he was appointed for and, wounded at, and was appointed a brevet for and Chapultepec. Armistead continued in the Army after the Mexican War, assigned in 1849 to recruiting duty in Kentucky, where he was diagnosed with a severe case of, but he later recovered. In April 1850, the Armisteads lost their little girl, Flora Love, at. Armistead was posted to, but in the winter he had to take his wife Cecelia to, where she died December 12, 1850, from an unknown cause. He returned to Fort Dodge. In 1852 the Armistead family home in Virginia burned, destroying nearly everything. Armistead took leave in October 1852 to go home and help his family.
While on leave Armistead married his second wife, the widow Cornelia Taliaferro Jamison, in, on March 17, 1853. They both went west when Armistead returned to duty shortly thereafter. The new Armistead family traveled from post to post in Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas. The couple had one child, Lewis B. Armistead, who died on December 6, 1854, and was also buried at Jefferson Barracks next to Flora Lee Armistead. He was promoted to captain on March 3, 1855.
His second wife, Cornelia Taliaferro Jamison, died on August 3, 1855, at, during a. Between 1855 and 1858 Armistead served at posts on the in, and in.
In 1858, his was sent as part of the reinforcements sent to in the aftermath of the. Not being required there, they were sent to California with the intention of sending them on to. However, a attack on civilians on the diverted his regiment to the southern deserts along the to participate in.
Col., at the head of a column of six companies of infantry, two of dragoons, and some artillery, struggled up the Colorado River from Fort Yuma. On April 23, 1859, Colonel Hoffman dictated a peace to the overawed Mohave chiefs, threatening annihilation to the tribe if they did not cease hostilities, make no opposition to the establishment of posts and roads through their country, and allow travel free from their harassment. Hoffman also took some of their leading men or family members hostage. Afterward he left for, taking most of his force with him; others went down river by steamboat or overland to Fort Tejon.
Captain Armistead was left with two infantry companies and the column's artillery to garrison Hoffman's encampment at Beale's Crossing on the east bank of the Colorado River, Camp Colorado. Armistead renamed the post. In late June 1859 the Mohave hostages escaped from Fort Yuma. Trouble broke out with the Mohave a few weeks later when they stole stock from a mail station that had been established two miles south of Fort Mojave, and attacked it. Mohaves tore up melons planted by the soldiers near the fort, and the soldiers shot a Mohave who was working in a garden. Eventually after a few weeks of aggressive patrolling and skirmishes, Armistead attacked the Mohave who returned fire in a battle between about 50 soldiers and 200 Mohave, resulting in three soldiers wounded. Twenty-three Mohave bodies were found but more were killed and wounded and removed by the Mohave.
Following this defeat, the Mohave made a peace, which they kept from then on. Civil War. This monument on the marks the approximate place where Armistead was mortally wounded. The wall behind the monument marks the Union lines. When the Civil War began, Captain Armistead was in command of the small garrison at the in, which was occupied in 1860. He was a close friend of, serving with him as a in, before the Civil War. Accounts say that in a farewell party before leaving to join the Confederate army, Armistead told Hancock, 'Goodbye; you can never know what this has cost me.'
When the war started, Armistead departed from California to Texas with the, then traveled east and received a commission as a, but was quickly promoted to of the. He served in the western part of Virginia, but soon returned to the east and the. He fought as a commander at, and then under in the (where he was chosen to spearhead the bloody assault on ),.
At, he served as Lee's, a frustrating job due to the high levels of desertion that plagued the army in that campaign. Then he was under command in the of at. Because he was with 's near, in the spring of 1863, he missed the. In the, Armistead's brigade arrived the evening of July 2, 1863. Armistead was mortally wounded the next day while leading his brigade towards the center of the Union line in.
Armistead led his brigade from the front, waving his hat from the tip of his saber, and reached the stone wall at the 'Angle', which served as the charge's objective. The brigade got farther in the charge than any other, an event sometimes known as the, but it was quickly overwhelmed by a Union counterattack. Armistead was shot three times just after crossing the wall. Union Captain received Armistead's personal effects and carried the news to Union Major General, who was Armistead's friend from before the war. Armistead's wounds were not believed to be mortal; he had been shot in the fleshy part of the arm and below the knee, and according to the surgeon who tended him, none of the wounds caused bone, artery, or nerve damage. He was then taken to a Union at the George Spangler Farm where he died two days later.
Daniel Brinton, the chief surgeon at the Union hospital there, had expected Armistead to survive because he characterized the two bullet wounds as not of a 'serious character.' He wrote that the death 'was not from his wounds directly, but from secondary bacterium, fever and prostration.' Lewis Armistead is buried next to his uncle, Lieutenant Colonel, commander of the garrison of during the, at the in. In popular media In, the film version of 's novel, Armistead was portrayed by actor, who died shortly afterwards. In the film, the meeting between Armistead and Bingham at the High Water Mark was altered with Lt.
(portrayed by ), brother of Col., taking Bingham's place. In the movie, Armistead was shot in the chest. Actor depicted Armistead for a special appearance in, accompanying Pickett at. Armistead is a character in the novel (2003). See also.
179, describes this name as 'a joke on the shy and quiet-spoken widower who was known to admire the ladies.' 533-34, writes 'A widower. He was a great admirer of the ladies and enjoyed posing as a swain.
This had earned him the nickname 'Lo,' an abbreviation Lothario, which was scarcely in keeping with his close cropped, grizzled beard or receding hairline. ^ Who Was Who in American History - the Military. Chicago: Marquis Who's Who. Armistead, lewis addison (1817-1863).
Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History. ^ The Armistead Family: 1635-1910 By Virginia Armistead Garber pg.
Making the Star Spangled Banner. Resignation of Cadet Lewis A. Armistead, January 29, 1836, RG 77, E 18, National Archives.
107, states that he 'resigned presumably' for breaking the plate. 40, and Warner, p. 11, characterize Armistead as being 'dismissed' from the Academy for his action. Poindexter, p. 144 (the source credited by Warner), recalls that Armistead 'was retired from West Point.' .
Johnson, p. Krick, one of the foremost historians of the Army of Norther Virginia, does not acknowledge multiple marriages. He states that Cecilia (his spelling) died on August 3, 1855, at Fort Riley, Kansas, during a cholera epidemic. 110; Cultural Systems Research, Inc., August 22, 2002, VII. Archived from on 2006-06-17. Halleran, Michael A. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War.
Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 2010. 26–30., article at Gettysburg Discussion Group by Bryan Meyer.
Henry Bishop, Sr. Sold the property in 1848 to George Spangler. At the time of the sale the farm consisted of some 80 acres. Spangler lived on the property for fifty-six years and died in his 88th year in the home in 1904. Poindexter, pp. Retrieved 9 August 2016. References.
Bessel, Paul M. In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Norton & Company, 2000. Eicher, John H.,. Civil War High Commands. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2001.
2, Fredericksburg to Meridian. New York: Random House, 1958. Johnson, Charles Thomas. 'Lewis Addison Armistead.'
In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T.
Norton & Company, 2000. Krick, Robert K. 'Armistead and Garnett: The Parallel Lives of Two Virginia Soldiers.' In The Third Day at Gettysburg and Beyond, edited. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998. Poindexter, Rev. 'General Armistead's Portrait Presented.'
Southern Historical Society Papers 37 (1909). The Killer Angels: A Novel. New York: Ballantine Books, 2001. First published 1974 by David McKay Co. Smith, Derek. The Gallant Dead: Union & Confederate Generals Killed in the Civil War. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005.
Tagg, Larry. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. 'Lewis Addison Armistead.'
In The Confederate General, vol. 1, edited by and Julie Hoffman. Harrisburg, PA: National Historical Society, 1991. Wright, John D. The Language of the Civil War. Westport, CT: Oryx Press, 2001. Gettysburg Discussion Group.
Further reading. Motts, Wayne E. Trust in God and Fear Nothing: Gen. Armistead, CSA. Gettysburg, PA: Farnsworth House, 1994. External links. at.
Armistead Williams Richmond
(This article is substantially the same text as Poindexter's Southern Historical Society paper.).
Jeremy Armstead Williamsburg Va
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