|
General George Pickett
Compiled Military Service Record
George Edward Pickett
(Confederate)
Pickett, George Edward, born in
Virginia,
appointed from
Illinois to cadet at United
States Military Academy (West Point),
July 1, 1842;
graduated forty-ninth in a class of fifty-six.
Biographical data
and notes:
- Born Jan 28 1825 in Richmond
- George Edward Pickett died on Jul 30 1875
U.S. Army Compiled Military Service Record
Brevet second lieutenant, Eighth
Infantry, July 1, 1846.
Second lieutenant, Second Infantry, March 3, 1847;
transferred to Seventh Infantry, July
13, 1847; transferred to
Eighth Infantry, July 18, 1847.
Brevet first lieutenant, August
20, 1847, for gallant and
meritorious conduct in the battles of Contreras and
Churubusco,
Mexico, and Brevet Captain, September 13, 1847,
for gallant conduct
in the battle of Chapultepec, Mexico.
First
lieutenant, June 28, 1849.
Captain, Ninth Infantry, March 3, 1855.
Resigned June 25, 1861.
C.S. Army Compiled Military
Service Record
Enlistment:
- Enlisted on Oct 10 1862 as a General Officer
Promotions:
-
Promoted to Major (Full, Army) (date not indicated)
- Promoted to Brig-Gen (Full, Vol) (date not indicated)
- Promoted
to Colonel (Full, Vol) (date not indicated)
- Promoted to Major-Gen (Full, Vol) (date not indicated)
Major, Corps
of Artillery, C. S. A., March 16, 1861.
* * * * * *
Brigadier general, P. A. C. S.,
January 14, 1862.
Major general, P. A. C. S., October 10, 1862.
Commands.
July 23, 1862, commanding Third Brigade,
Longstreet's
Division, Army of Northern Virginia.
Brigade composed of the Eighth,
Eighteenth, Nineteenth,
Twenty-eighth and Fifty-sixth Virginia Regiments Infantry,
Army of Northern Virginia.
August
13, 1862, commanding division in Longstreet's
Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, composed of the brigades of
Garnett,
Armistead, Kemper and Jenkins. Corse's Brigade was
afterward added.
Commanding Department of North Carolina, September
23,
1863.
August 31, 1864, commanding a division in First Corps,
Army of Northern Virginia.
January 31,
1865, same command.
Died at Norfolk, Va., July 30, 1875.
Source: General Officers of the Confederate States of America; Confederate Military History, (1987)
Recommended Reading: Pickett, Leader of the Charge: A Biography
of General George E. Pickett, C.S.A. Publishers Weekly: This first modern
biography of the man who led the final Confederate attack at Gettysburg depicts neither an archetypical cavalier nor a shallow
incompetent. Though Pickett's promotion owed something to the patronage of his superior Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, he had
an excellent record of brigade command and did as well on July 3, 1863, as anyone was likely to have done in the circumstances.
Continued below...
Nevertheless, Pickett lost the confidence of Robert E. Lee and spent most of the rest of the war on peripheral
assignments in North Carolina and southern Virginia. Performing adequately under direct supervision, Pickett showed no aptitude
for independent command despite some successes, notably in organizing the defenses of Petersburg in 1864. Longacre's sympathy
for his subject leads him both to overestimate Pickett's military capacities and to understate Gettysburg's impact on a man
who in its aftermath arguably suffered from what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder. This work is still a useful
addition to the literature on Confederate command in the Civil War.
Recommended
Reading:
Pickett And His Men, by La Salle Corbell Pickett (448 pages). Description: A graduate
of West Point Academy and classmate of such military notables as George B. McClellan and Thomas J. Jackson, George Edward
Pickett began his Confederate career as a Colonel, then rose to the rank of Brigadier General, in which capacity he served
under General James Longstreet at the Seven Days' Campaign in January of 1862, and finally to the rank of Major General later
that same year. He is perhaps best known for commanding the ill-fated charge up Seminary Ridge at the Battle of Gettysburg.
Continued below...
After the war, he fled to Canada
and was denied a full pardon until only one year before his death in 1875. LaSalle Corbell Pickett spent the rest of her life
honoring her husband and shaping his image as a Confederate hero and this book is the product of her efforts. I am unaware
of a single Pickett biography that doesn't quote this book. This work also allows the reader the opportunity to walk
in the shoes of George Pickett. Highly recommended for the Civil War buff and anyone remotely interested in the Battle of
Gettysburg.
Recommended
Reading:
Pickett's Charge, by George Stewart. Description: The
author has written an eminently readable, thoroughly enjoyable, and well-researched book on the third day of the Gettysburg battle, July 3, 1863. An especially rewarding read if one
has toured, or plans to visit, the battlefield site. The author's unpretentious, conversational style of writing succeeds
in putting the reader on the ground occupied by both the Confederate and Union forces before,
during and after Pickett's and Pettigrew's famous assault on Meade's Second Corps. Continued below...
Interspersed with humor and down-to-earth observations concerning battlefield conditions, the author conscientiously
describes all aspects of the battle, from massing of the assault columns and pre-assault artillery barrage to the last shots
and the flight of the surviving rebels back to the safety of their lines… Having visited Gettysburg
several years ago, this superb volume makes me want to go again.
Recommended Reading: Pickett's
Charge: Eyewitness Accounts At The Battle Of Gettysburg (Stackpole Military History Series). Description:
On the final day of the battle of Gettysburg, Robert E. Lee ordered one of the most famous infantry assaults of all time:
Pickett's Charge. Following a thundering artillery barrage, thousands of Confederates launched a daring frontal attack on
the Union line. From their entrenched positions, Federal soldiers decimated the charging Rebels, leaving the field littered
with the fallen and several Southern divisions in tatters. Written by generals, officers, and enlisted men on both sides,
these firsthand accounts offer an up-close look at Civil War combat and a panoramic view of the carnage of July 3, 1863.
Recommended Reading:
Pickett's Charge--The Last Attack at Gettysburg (Hardcover). Description:
Pickett's Charge is probably the best-known military engagement of the Civil War, widely regarded as the defining moment of
the battle of Gettysburg and celebrated as the high-water mark of the Confederacy. But as Earl Hess notes, the epic stature
of Pickett's Charge has grown at the expense of reality, and the facts of the attack have been obscured or distorted by the
legend that surrounds them. With this book, Hess sweeps away the accumulated myths about Pickett's Charge to provide the definitive
history of the engagement. Continued below...
Drawing on exhaustive research, especially in unpublished personal accounts, he creates a moving narrative
of the attack from both Union and Confederate perspectives, analyzing its planning, execution, aftermath, and legacy. He also
examines the history of the units involved, their state of readiness, how they maneuvered under fire, and what the men who
marched in the ranks thought about their participation in the assault. Ultimately, Hess explains, such an approach reveals
Pickett's Charge both as a case study in how soldiers deal with combat and as a dramatic example of heroism, failure, and
fate on the battlefield.
Recommended Reading: Into
the Fight: Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. Description: Challenging conventional
views, stretching the minds of Civil War enthusiasts and scholars as only John Michael Priest can, Into the Fight is both
a scholarly and a revisionist interpretation of the most famous charge in American history. Using a wide array of sources,
ranging from the monuments on the Gettysburg battlefield to the accounts of the participants themselves, Priest rewrites the
conventional thinking about this unusually emotional, yet serious, moment in our Civil War. Continued below...
Starting with a fresh point of view, and with no axes to grind, Into the Fight challenges all interested
in that stunning moment in history to rethink their assumptions. Worthwhile for its use of soldiers’ accounts, valuable
for its forcing the reader to rethink the common assumptions about the charge, critics may disagree with this research, but
they cannot ignore it.
|
