"Gettysburg: The Soldiers' Battle" Distance Learning Broadcast 2004, Soldier Bios, Page 1

Gettysburg The Soldiers' Battle, 2004 Broadcast

Soldiers Biographies, Page 1

Note to teachers: Prior to April 26, assign each student in your class the identity of one of the soldiers in this section. Remind the students that these are the names, photographs and biographies of real people who fought at the battle of Gettysburg. Give the students time to read about their soldier and see his picture; this might also be a good time for a writing or class reporting activity. Each week prior to the broadcast, students can check to see where their soldiers have marched in the Gettysburg campaign. The purpose of this activity is to personalize the battle and the Civil War. After the broadcast, students will be able to discover whether or not their soldiers survived the battle of Gettysburg.

A Note About the Soldiers in Gettysburg: The Soldiers Battle- The soldiers selected represent a fair sampling of the men who served in the Union "Army of the Potomac" and Confederate "Army of Northern Virginia" during the Gettysburg Campaign. They range from generals to privates. Nearly every state that had men at Gettysburg is represented, as well as the three central branches of military service- infantry, artillery, and cavalry. Some states, such as Iowa and Kansas, did not have any troops who served at Gettysburg. There were also no African-American troops serving with either army at Gettysburg. Though recruiting of African Americans for Union service began in early 1863 and "US Colored Troops" saw combat action in various places that same year, there were no regiments of African-American soldiers attached to the "Army of the Potomac" in 1863.

1. Major General John F. Reynolds, 1^st Corps Commander, Army of the Potomac, U.S.A.

John Reynolds is most often associated with the Battle of Gettysburg, which is ironic since he turned down the offer to command the Union army just before this major battle of the Civil War. Born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania on September 21, 1820 into a family with twelve brothers and sisters, John was tall, with dark hair and dark eyes. In 1837, he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, and graduated from there in 1841. He served as a second lieutenant in Company E of the 3^rd U.S. Artillery, and was stationed in Baltimore, Maryland, St. Augustine, Florida, and at Charleston, South Carolina. When the United States became involved in the Mexican War, his regiment was stationed in Texas. He was promoted twice during that war, to captain and then to major. In the 1850's Reynolds served in various stations around the country including California, Utah, New York, and Virginia.

On the eve of the Civil War, he was serving as the commandant of West Point. When the war finally erupted, Reynolds was promoted to brigadier general and given command of a brigade in the Army of the Potomac. During the Seven Days Campaign in Virginia in 1862, he assumed command of his division, but was captured on June 28 and spent six weeks as a Confederate prisoner before being paroled. After the battle of Antietam, he was given command of the 1^st Corps (a force of 10,000 or more men) and promoted to major general, a position he would hold at Gettysburg.

John Reynolds was a quiet man and very private about his personal life. His men respected him because he was fearless in battle. As one of his men said, he would never order them to go where he would not go himself. Officers on his staff noticed that he wore a Catholic medal from a chain around his neck at all times. This seemed strange because he was a Protestant by faith. But he took special care of the medal. Hanging from the same chain was a gold ring in the shape of clasped hands. On the inner band of the ring were inscribed the words "Dear Kate." An observant person might have also noticed that Reynolds did not wear his West Point ring. Why not? And, who was Kate? No one, not even the general's family, knew of her.

Kate, was Miss Catherine Hewitt. She and Reynolds had met in 1860 when he was returning from a post in California. They immediately fell in love, but the war disrupted any plans they had for marriage. John knew the risks of soldiering and the couple agreed to put off marriage until the war was over when they would marry and honeymoon in Europe. Yet the end of the war seemed like a distant dream in June of 1863. Just before Gettysburg, Reynolds was offered command of the Army of the Potomac but declined the offer because he believed that certain members of Lincoln’s cabinet and the War Department would meddle in his decisions and not give him the freedom necessary to achieve final victory. As a result, the position was given to General George G. Meade. Both men, however, would be always associated with the battleground that would place them in history books for centuries.

2. Major General James Ewell Brown (JEB) Stuart, C.S.A.

James Ewell Brown Stuart had the plain and simple nickname of "Jeb", but he was anything but plain and simple. As a Confederate cavalryman, it was Stuart’s job to find and count the numbers of enemy soldiers and to also mask the movements of his own army from the enemy. General Robert E. Lee called Stuart the "eyes of the army," and he and his men continually demonstrated great courage. By the time of the Battle of Gettysburg, Stuart had become a dashing symbol of hope for the people of the South, with his plumed hat, red-lined cloak, and a red flower or ribbon tied to his jacket.

Born into a military family at Laurel Hill Plantation in Virginia in 1833, he was attending college by the age of 15. He entered the United States Military Academy in 1850 and was a popular cadet. A classmate remembered that Stuart showed "strict attention to his military duties, an erect, soldierly bearing, an immediate and almost thankful acceptance of a challenge to fight any cadet who might in any way feel himself aggrieved, and a clear, metallic, ringing voice." Stuart graduated in 1854 and took up duties in Texas and Kansas, where he became acquainted with the fiery abolitionist John Brown and where he also got married. Although he received a commission as captain in the U.S. Army in April 1861, he quit in order to fight with Virginia and the Confederacy. For a brief time he was an infantry officer under "Stonewall" Jackson but in May, 1861 he found his real calling; Stuart was made commander of the 1^st Virginia Cavalry. By September he was promoted to Brigadier General at the age of 28. Regarded as an ideal soldier, Confederate General Johnston asked of Stuart "How can I eat, sleep or rest in peace without you upon the outpost."

Stuart’s flair and courage had made him a legendary cavalry leader by 1863; yet he would have to prove his worth to General Lee during the Gettysburg campaign.

3. Brigadier General Henry Hunt, Chief Artillery Officer, Army of the Potomac, U.S.A.

Henry Jackson Hunt was born on September 14, 1819, a member of a long line of military men dating back to the civil wars of England. He was of medium height, with a slender build, and was totally deaf in his left ear. His father, Samuel Hunt, was a lieutenant stationed in Michigan Territory and Hunt spent much of his early childhood traveling with his father. His mother died early in his childhood due to complications of the birth of Henry’s younger sister, Julia. In 1829, due to sickness, Henry’s father also died, leaving him and his siblings orphans. His brother and sister were sent to live with relatives in Detroit, and Henry went to live in Northwestern Ohio with his Uncle John. Uncle John had many political connections, and in 1835 he secured an appointment for Henry to the United States Military Academy in West Point. Hunt graduated on June 21, 1839.

Dulled by a career of inaction, the war in Mexico gave Hunt a chance to distinguish himself, earning two brevets to the rank of major. After the war, he married, had two children, and served on the western frontier. Perhaps his greatest tragedy was when his wife died on May 12, 1857. He married his second wife, Mary Craig Hunt in December 1860, on the eve of the Civil War. Shortly before the battle at Bull Run, Hunt was promoted to major and given command of the newly formed 5^th United States Infantry of the Army of the Potomac. Despite the Federal Army’s defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run, Hunt distinguished himself and earned a promotion to Chief of Artillery, Department of Northeastern Virginia, and shortly thereafter was given command of the Artillery reserve in the Army of the Potomac, with the rank of colonel. He was later promoted o the rank of brigadier general and his organization of the army's artillery was unsurpassed. Henry Hunt's skills at placing and using his guns were sorely tested by his Confederate opponents and by some of his fellow officers at Gettysburg.

4. Major General John Bell Hood, Army of Northern Virginia, C.S.A.

John B. Hood was a tall, handsome man with blue, piercing eye, long sandy blonde hair, and a strong, booming voice. One soldier described him as "a tall, rawboned country-looking man, with little of the soldierly appearance that West Point often gave its graduates." Another wrote "he had a personality that would attract attention anywhere." John Hood was a likeable person. He was also utterly fearless in battle, a quality that earned him the respect of his men. In all the desperate fighting of the Civil War leading up to Gettysburg, he had not been injured one single time.

John Bell Hood was born in Kentucky in 1831, the son of a doctor who enjoyed a successful practice and owned land, slaves and horses. As a boy, John enjoyed riding, fishing and hunting, and earned something of a reputation as an unruly young man. John’s father hoped his son would study medicine but John wanted to join the army. His uncle, who was a U.S. Congressman, managed to obtain an appointment for John to West Point, the U. S. Military Academy. Apart from the rigors of a cadet’s life, academics at the academy were difficult. John admitted later he was "more wedded to boyish sports than to books," and he did poorly in his studies. In 1852 the academy received a new superintendent, Colonel Robert E. Lee, who Hood came to know and greatly respect. Little did either man imagine how their association would change in a few short years.

John managed to get through the academy and graduated 44 out of 52 in the class of 1853. He served in the infantry in California for a time, then won a transfer to the 2^nd U.S. Cavalry, which he joined in Texas. When the war broke out in 1861, Lieutenant Hood’s sympathies were with the South even though his home state of Kentucky did not secede. He resigned from the army and offered his services to the Confederate States. He was commissioned a colonel and placed in command of the 4^th Texas Infantry, which was assigned to duty in Virginia. In the winter of 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general and ordered to take command of what was called the "Texas Brigade" although it contained Georgia as well as Texas units. On June 27, 1862, Hood led his brigade into combat at the Battle of Gaines Mill, a place northeast of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. It was a terribly bloody conflict and Hood lost 87 men killed and 425 wounded. But it was his unit that broke the Union line and helped bring about the Confederate victory in the battle. One of his soldiers recalled, "I tell you what.... I got mighty nervous and shaky while we were forming in the apple orchard to make that last desperate charge on the batteries. But when I looked behind me and saw old Hood... looking as unconcerned as if we were on dress parade, I just determined that if he could stand it, I would." More hard fighting followed for Hood and his men at the Battles of Second Manassas in August, South Mountain, and Sharpsburg (also called Antietam), the bloodiest single day of the Civil War on September 17, 1862. By this time Hood commanded a division of two brigades. At Sharpsburg, Hood lost 1,000 out of 2,000 of his men in some of the most frightful violence ever seen in North America.

General Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson himself recommended that Hood be promoted to major general after the battle: "I regard him as one of the most promising officers of the army." The promotion was approved and Hood became a major general. Hood's division avoided heavy fighting at the Battle of Fredericksburg, after which his division was ordered to Suffolk, Virginia, (southeast of Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia) where they busied themselves in collecting supplies for the army and in watching a Union force that had occupied the city. During this time he met Sally Preston who was nicknamed "Buck", a pretty, sophisticated young woman who was part of Richmond's social elite. Hood was in love, but duty called him away that spring. General Lee, having won the Battle of Chancellorsville, contemplated an invasion of Pennsylvania and he wanted Hood's Division back with the army. By late May, Hood and his 8,000 men were back with the Army of Northern Virginia, confident that victory awaited them in the north.

5. Colonel Patrick O'Rorke, Commanding Officer, 140^th New York Infantry, U.S.A.

At age 27, Patrick O’Rorke had already successfully overcome many obstacles in his life. Born in Ireland in 1836, Patrick and his seven brothers and sisters moved to America with their parents when he was only a year old. They eventually settled in Rochester, New York. Patrick’s father died eight years later in an accident while working for the railroad. Young Patrick was an excellent student, and in 1857 he received an appointment to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Being Irish and Catholic in that era meant that one would have more obstacles to overcome for both were looked down upon by most Americans. Nevertheless, he overcame these biases and graduated first in the class of 1861. He was commissioned the rank of second lieutenant and participated in the first major battle of the war at Bull Run, Virginia in July 1861. A bullet passed through his coat and a horse was killed beneath him, but O’Rorke otherwise escaped unharmed. In July 1862 Lieutenant O’Rorke received a furlough (the army’s term for a vacation) and returned home to Rochester, where he married his childhood sweetheart, Clara Wadsworth Bishop. Soon after his marriage, O’Rorke was promoted to colonel and placed in command of the 140^th New York Infantry Regiment (at full strength a regiment consisted of 1,000 men).

Although Colonel O’Rorke believed in strict discipline, one of his soldiers wrote that every man in the regiment "knew that in his Colonel, as long as he did his duty, he had a kind friend." Another soldier in the 140^th described Colonel O’Rorke as the "ideal of a soldier and gentleman." Soon, however, he would face the greatest challenge in his life, the Battle of Gettysburg.

6. Brigadier General J. Johnston Pettigrew, Army of Northern Virginia, C.S.A.

"I consider Pettigrew the most promising young man of the South." This is what one person wrote of James Johnston Pettigrew, born on July 4, 1828 in Tyrrell County, North Carolina. He entered the University of North Carolina at the age of 15 and his distinguished scholastic record has never been equaled. The young lad even earned the praise of then President James K. Polk. After graduation, Pettigrew traveled abroad where he learned to speak and write French, German, Italian, and Spanish, and to read Hebrew and Arabic. On his many travels, Pettigrew grew to admire the Spanish and Italians as a warm, generous, chivalrous, and brave people, comparing them to many Southerners that he knew. However, he did not like the Germans and the English. He thought these people to be cold, grasping, and hypocritical, much like many Yankees he knew. In the nineteenth century, many Americans judged others solely based on their nationality and heritage so his views of Northerners and Southerners was very typical.

Upon returning to America, he received a special gift- James Johnston, a wealthy planter and Pettigrew's namesake, handed over fifty thousand dollars to the thirty-year old traveler. In making the gift, it was hoped that Pettigrew would never want for money and could devote his life to public service. Pettigrew chose the military to serve his country and his state, not knowing that there was a war on the horizon.

In December 1860, Pettigrew was serving as an aide to the governor of South Carolina and participated in negotiations with the Union commander to evacuate Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. The Civil War began on April 12, 1861, when the Confederates fired on the fort. With war declared, Pettigrew returned to North Carolina and accepted the command of the 22^nd North Carolina Infantry. Because of a need for qualified officers, the new colonel was soon ordered to Virginia to accept a promotion to brigadier general on February 26, 1862. When a young relative requested a "safe place" on Pettigrew's staff, he replied, "I assure you that the most unsafe place in the Brigade is about me. By all means let him get rid of this idea of a safe place, which he will regret after time. The post of danger is certainly the post of honor." During the Peninsula Campaign that summer he was severely wounded and captured. Exchanged two months later, the general recovered from his wounds and returned to his North Carolina brigade in General Lee's Army. He was just in time to set out through the Virginia countryside and march toward Pennsylvania.

7. Major Edwin B. Wight, 24^th Michigan Infantry, U.S.A.

Major Edwin B. Wight was not just another member of the 24^th Michigan Infantry, he had helped to raise the regiment amidst unusual circumstances in 1862. Born in 1838 in Detroit, Michigan, Edwin worked as a lumberman there until July of 1862. A year prior to Gettysburg, at age 24, he was immediately made Captain of Company A, 24^th Michigan Infantry. In the early part of the war, companies were raised for regiments by holding war meetings in small towns and communities. These meetings were great social events with speakers, bands and decorations, and prompted many men to join the army in the heat of all the patriotic gaiety and excitement. If there was a member in the community who had helped to organize the meeting and the regiment, he was usually rewarded with a high rank. Such was probably the case with Edwin, who became a promoter of this new regiment by speaking at various war meetings in Wayne County, Michigan.

But this regiment that he was about to help lead to Gettysburg, had most unusual beginnings. In mid-July 1862, an attempt was made to raise the 23^rd Michigan Infantry in Wayne County, but a newspaper reported that a disturbance broke out among a disgruntled crowd in attendance at the recruitment rally. Southern supporters from Canada were planted in the crowd to whisper words of dissension, and the celebration exploded into an embarrassing riot. By July 19, a new recruitment process was underway to form the 24^th Michigan Infantry to overturn the disappointing results that stemmed from the riot. With the success of this second recruitment process, the 24^th would be known as "the regiment born of a riot."

Through exhibiting solid leadership skills at the battles of Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, Edwin was promoted to major of the regiment in June 1863. A few weeks later on the morning of July 1, he found himself just a few miles south of Gettysburg, camped beside March Creek with his regiment. He recorded, "The light of the first July sun of 1863 is just penciling a tinge of brightness amid the leafy shadows of Marsh Creek." Shortly after dawn, the 24^th Michigan broke camp and set out northward with the rest of the Union 1^st Corps toward a fateful meeting with a group of Confederates near McPherson's Ridge, west of Gettysburg.

8. Major Edward Croft, 14^th South Carolina Infantry, C.S.A.

Edward Croft was born April 1, 1835 in Greenville, South Carolina, located in the western part of the state in the old Cherokee Indian hunting grounds. When he was a teenager, his parents sent him to the South Carolina Military Academy (called the Citadel today), a private military academy. Five years after graduation, the American Civil War broke out and Edward had the responsibility of using his military training from the Citadel to turn a group of young civilian men, many whom he knew personally from throughout the community, into soldiers.

Edward and all three of his brothers enlisted at the outbreak of war. Edward was promoted to the rank of captain in charge of the "Ryan Guards", a militia company from Edgefield County, South Carolina. As the captain, Edward was responsible for the lives of nearly 100 men. The Ryan Guards was re-designated Company H and together with nine other such companies, formed the 14^th South Carolina Infantry Regiment. The 14^th mustered in, or officially enlisted into the Confederate army, at Camp Butler, South Carolina. Captain Croft and his men spent the opening months of the war along the Atlantic coast. In April 1862 Edward and his regiment were ordered to Virginia where their true baptism in war was about to begin. On June 27, 1862 Edward participated in his first full-scale battle known as Gaines Mill, northeast of Richmond. One of the men in Edward's brigade wrote of this battle, "The terror of the struggle... is inconceivable to those who have never witnessed a great battle." The battle ended in a Confederate victory, but Edward was wounded and his regiment suffered terribly- 18 dead and 190 wounded. Through the rest of 1862 his regiment and brigade saw some of the hardest fighting of any unit in the Confederate army at Second Manassas, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg. By the end of the year the brigade had lost 2,272 men killed and wounded.

We do not know how severely Edward was wounded or how long he may have spent recovering, but he was promoted to major in February 1863. In such a hard-fighting unit like the 14^th, this was a sign that he possessed courage and ability. As a major, Edward was now a field officer and he was allowed to have a horse. Field officers were supposed to be mounted to enable them to move around rapidly to command and control their men. In battle he would take position behind the left five companies of the regiment, where he could supervise their movements. Edward must have believed strongly in the cause for which he fought. He had already been wounded once, and had seen the most frightening and disturbing things imaginable. Yet he remained to do his duty and to lead his men into battle again.

In early May 1863, Major Edward Croft and his regiment took part in another hard-fought battle at Chancellorsville, Virginia, and the 14^th lost 8 men killed and 137 wounded. Following this Confederate victory, Edward and his men rested to prepare for the next new campaign, thoroughly satisfied with their accomplishments as one man wrote: "We were veterans, thoroughly experienced in all that relates to the march of the battle-field, sufficiently drilled to perform any manoeuvre at all likely to be demanded, sufficiently disciplined to obey orders promptly and with energy, yet preserving enough of the proud individuality of Southern men to feel the cause our own, and therefore be willing to encounter the greatest amount of personal danger and moral responsibility."

On June 15, a day that promised to be intensely hot and uncomfortably humid, marching orders reached the headquarters of the 14^th South Carolina. Everyone knew something big was up for most of the army had marched off toward the west in the last week. Where they were bound for, no one knew, but there were rumors that it might be Pennsylvania.

9. Sergeant Ezra Brown, 4^th Michigan Infantry, U.S.A.

Flags were of utmost importance in a Civil War battle. They were a great symbol of pride and encouragement to the soldiers and often the only sign of where to go in the middle of the smoke and chaos. However, flags were also easy for the enemy to see, and it was considered a great and brave deed to capture one. To the 4^th Michigan Infantry, the battle flag that they carried on the way into Pennsylvania was extra special. Colonel Harrison Jeffords, the commander of the 4^th Michigan, had pledged to Michigan Senator Zachariah Chandler and Michigan Governor Austin Blair that he, with regard to the regiment's new flag, would be "its special guardian and defender."

Jeffords was the superior officer of Sergeant Ezra Brown, a young man from Clinton County, Michigan who had enlisted in the town of Adrian on June 20, 1861. He was 22 years old and he joined for the full term of service, three years. Mustered in at the rank of private, his skills in leading men were quickly realized as he was promoted to corporal on August 4, 1861, just two months into his enlistment. Within a year he had been elevated to sergeant, and served in many major battles including Mechanicsville, Gaines Mill, Malvern Hill, Second Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, and Chancellorsville.

On July 2, 1863, Ezra marched with Company K into a wheat field where Colonel Jeffords aligned them on the regiment's brand new United States flag. The 4^th Michigan moved to this position to help protect the Union left flank. What must have Ezra's thoughts been as he looked at those new stars and stripes, waiting for the unknown?

10. Lieutenant William Cannon, 9^th Alabama Infantry, C.S.A.

Like many young southerners in 1861, William Cannon may have believed that the war would be very brief and he was probably eager to get a chance at the Yankees before it was all over. The stress of camp life and fatigue from many hard-fought battles surely must have tested his strength as he and his friends began to realize that the war would last much longer than anyone could have imagined. Born in Lauderdale County, Alabama on October 5, 1839, William’s parents had moved to Alabama from South Carolina at some point before his birth. By 1850 the family owned 700 acres of land worth $7000, quite an achievement at that time. When the war began, 21 year-old William enlisted in Company D, 9^th Alabama Infantry. He must have been a popular young man and natural leader among his peers for he was commissioned a lieutenant, one of the three or four officers who led an infantry company that consisted of 100 men.

The first blow he suffered in the war was not from a Union bullet leading his men into battle, but rather from Typhoid Fever, a disease that killed thousands of men during the war. In fact, two out of every three soldiers who died in the Civil War died from sickness and disease resulting from the conditions of camp life. But William recovered and returned to his regiment in time for fighting at Williamsburg, the old colonial seat of Virginia, in May 1862. Over the course of that spring, summer and fall, William’s regiment fought in numerous battles including Seven Pines, the Seven Days battles, Second Manassas, and Sharpsburg. We do not know whether William participated in all of these, but it is certain that he had endured and seen many terrible things he never dreamed of when he first eagerly enlisted. During the course of the war he was wounded three times, but always returned to duty.

In December 1862, William’s regiment took part in the Confederate victory at Fredericksburg, Virginia. More hard fighting followed in May 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville. The Confederates triumphed again, but their losses were severe. A period of rest followed and by June, the 9^th Alabama counted 325 officers and men in its ranks, a respectable number considering the hard fighting in which they had taken part. William’s company was small with just 28 enlisted men, led by himself and one other officer. On June 14, he and his comrades shouldered their equipment and marched west from Fredericksburg toward the Shenandoah Valley. For this young Alabama soldier, responsible for this small group of men, his energy and enthusiasm for the southern cause would be sorely tested in battle on northern soil in Pennsylvania.

11. Private Oren Lord, 17^th Maine Infantry, U.S.A.

Oren Lord was a 24 year-old farmer from Harrison, Maine, and enlisted as a volunteer in the 17^th Maine Infantry Regiment on August 8, 1862. Lord was twenty-four years old, the average age for a Civil War soldier, but he was not of average height- he stood 6 feet 3 inches tall, just one inch shorter than President Abraham Lincoln.

Oren and other members of the 17^th Maine Regiment spent over a month building forts, infantry trenches and other defenses around Washington, D.C. During this time, he became accustomed to soldier life, as there were frequent drills and daily inspections. In mid-October, the 17^th Maine was relieved of construction duty and transferred to the Army of the Potomac. That December, Oren participated in the terrible Battle of Fredericksburg, the 17^th Maine’s first exposure to a major battle. One man was killed and 19 men were wounded in the regiment. Following a difficult winter campaign that began in January 1863, one that the men called the "Mud March", Oren and the rest of the army returned to their camps near the Rappahannock River where they built winter quarters or small huts made of logs and any material that was available to them. In April, President Lincoln came out to review the troops at this location. A few days later, General Sickles pronounced the camp of the 17^th Maine Regiment, "the model camp of the army".

The army left winter quarters to fight the battle of Chancellorsville in early May where the 17^th saw much action. In a series of fights over four days, the regiment lost 10 killed, 65 wounded, and 38 men missing. These losses were much heavier than at the Battle of Fredericksburg and no doubt affected Oren and the other surviving soldiers. Around June 7, the men in the regiment began to hear rumors about moving somewhere. By the 15^th, Oren knew it was not a rumor; he and his comrades were choking in the dust and heat of a long march. Many fell by the side of the road, suffering from heatstroke or exhaustion. "On no other march have we suffered so with thirst and heat," wrote a member of the regiment. Being a tall fellow, Oren felt the extremes of the heat and the lack of water keenly on those dusty marches, ones that gave a man time to reflect upon who he was, what he was doing, and the loyalties that kept him going.

12. Private Isaac Reed, 7^th Georgia Infantry, C.S.A.

Isaac Anderson Reed was born on July 8, 1840 in Sandy Springs, Georgia. Isaac grew up on his family farm and was a hard working boy, helping with many chores and duties while enjoying the prosperity that his father and mother provided for he and his twelve brothers and sisters. Nathaniel and Celicia Spruill Reed raised a family based on hard work, independence, a belief in God and love of home that was passed down to their children. This commitment was strong in Isaac, who decided to enlist on July 10, 1861, just two days after his 21^st birthday. Isaac joined in the "Roswell Guards", which became Company H of the 7^th Georgia Volunteer Infantry. He was joined a month later by his brother, James and eight months later by two more brothers, Andrew and Samuel, who all served in the same company.

The first personal tragedy of war was felt when Samuel died of disease in the regimental hospital, just two months after enlistment. Isaac, James and Andrew buried their brother and went back to work with their regiment, which had been sent to Virginia. Isaac’s regiment served in the Shenandoah Valley and on the front at Yorktown; at Williamsburg, the Seven Days, Malvern Hill, at Second Manassas (Bull Run), Sharpsburg and Fredericksburg. Though he and his brothers had witnessed death and had been personally touched by it, their strength lay in serving their home state, their kin and the Confederacy. By the summer of 1863, Isaac had risen to the rank of sergeant in Company H and the 7^th Georgia was part of Brigadier General George Anderson’s Brigade, Major General John Bell Hood’s Division, Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s First Corps. On a warm summer's day in June, Isaac and his comrades set out through war-torn Virginia and back to the Shenandoah Valley, following a road that would eventually lead them to Pennsylvania and fighting around a farmer's wheat field more terrible than any he had ever known.

SOLDIERS’ BIOGRAPHIES PAGE 2

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Gettysburg National Military Park
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