Meet General Ewell
Gettysburg National Military Park Kidzpage

Gen. Richard Ewell (National Park Service)

Lt. General Richard Stoddart Ewell was one of Lee's Corps commanders. He had served under General "Stonewall" Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign in 1862 and was seriously wounded at Second Bull Run. General Ewell returned to the army with a brand new wooden leg to replace the one he lost, newly married to a lady he referred to as "Mrs. Brown", and full of enthusiasm for his new position in command of a portion of General Jackson's corps.

Ewell was born in 1817 and graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 1840. Like many of the other graduates of that school, he served in the western territories and fought in the War with Mexico where he was cited for gallantry. When the Civil War began, he resigned from the US Army and offered his services to Virginia. He rose rapidly in rank and was appointed as a major general within the first year of his service. A cunning and skillful commander, Ewell was the type of officer the Confederacy needed. He was greatly liked by his troops who called him "Old Bald Head". Though he was considered to be eccentric and unpredictable at times, Ewell proved to be a brave and efficient commander when in charge of a brigade or a division. Yet his appointment as a corps commander was a different matter all together.

It was Ewell's troops that led the march through the Shenandoah Valley in the summer of 1863. On June 14-15, his forces defeated the Union forces under General Milroy at the Second Battle of Winchester, Virginia. Ewell's men were the first southern forces to cross the Potomac River into Maryland and Pennsylvania where they reached as far east as Columbia and as far north as Carlisle. Upon receiving orders from General Lee to concentrate his troops at Cashtown, Ewell coordinated the march back to Adams County and their timely arrival north of town. Though his troops would win the day and drive the Union soldiers from the field, the general would be later criticized for his lack of making a commitment in following up his victory with an attack on Cemetery Hill. General Ewell deferred much of his command decisions to his division commanders for the remainder of the battle. General Ewell escaped injury during the battle, except for an incident where his wooden leg received a direct hit from a Union sharpshooter's bullet.

General Ewell did not have a great military career after Gettysburg. Exhaustion and troubles with his old wounds bothered him throughout the Wilderness Campaign in 1864 and he was persuaded to take a leave of absence from the army. He was placed in command of the defenses around the city of Richmond, Virginia and remained there through the siege of the cities of Richmond and Petersburg. In 1865, when Richmond was abandoned to the Union forces, General Ewell and his staff rode west with their troops as part of the retreating army. His force was surrounded and the general captured at the Battle of Saylor's Creek, Virginia on April 6, 1865. Treated as a celebrity by the Union officers who had participated in his capture, the general swapped stories and chatted with his captors late into the evening.

After his release from Federal prison, General Ewell retired to a quiet farming life in Spring Hill, Tennessee. He died on January 25, 1872 and is buried in Nashville.

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Gettysburg National Military Park
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