Lewis Addison Armistead

The memorial stone on the Gettysburg battlefield stands on the spot where Armistead was fatally wounded. The wall behind the memorial stone marks the position of the enemy Union troops .

Lewis Addison Armistead (born February 18, 1817 in New Bern , North Carolina , † July 5, 1863 in Gettysburg ) was an American brigadier general in the Confederate Army in the American Civil War .

Life

Armistead came from a famous, according to some sources, German-born officer family . His uncle was Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead , his parents the engineer officer Walter Keith Armistead and his wife Elizabeth Stanly.

He entered the military academy at West Point but was expelled after an argument with his comrade Jubal Early , whom he hit a plate over the head. Nevertheless, he was accepted as 2nd Lieutenant in the US Army , with whom he fought in Mexico and distinguished himself several times.

At the beginning of the Civil War, Armistead, then Major , decided for the Southern cause and took command of a regiment from Virginia, but was soon promoted to Brigadier General. As such, he commanded a brigade under Division Commanders Benjamin Huger and Richard Anderson before being assigned to George E. Pickett .

As part of Pickett's all-Virginia division , he took part in "Pickett's Charge" at Gettysburg on July 3rd . In the frontal attack on the lines of the II. Unions corps , which, as he knew, his close friend from prewar days, Winfield Scott Hancock , commanded, he was mortally wounded and died two days later, on July 5, 1863, in a field hospital of the Union Army.

Armistead was a member of the Masonic League ( Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 in Virginia ).

family

Lewis Armistead was married twice and had one son. Walter Keith Armistead served as a second lieutenant in Jeb Stuart's unit during the Civil War . After Lewis Armistead was initially buried in the field, he later found his final resting place in the Old Saint Pauls Cemetery in Baltimore , Maryland .

Movie

In the feature film Gettysburg (1993) Armistead is played by Richard Jordan . In the prequel , Gods and Generals (2003) , John Prosky plays Armistead during the Battle of Fredericksburg .

literature

Armistead, Lewis Addison . In: James Grant Wilson, John Fiske (Eds.): Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography . tape 1 : Aaron - Crandall . D. Appleton and Company, New York 1887, p. 90 (English, Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).

Web links

Commons : Lewis Addison Armistead - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Masons at the Battle of Gettysburg and the Masonic Friend to Friend Monument . In: Gettysburg . Bessel.org. Retrieved September 5, 2015.

personal data
SURNAME	Armistead, Lewis Addison
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American officer, brigadier general in the Civil War
DATE OF BIRTH	February 18, 1817
PLACE OF BIRTH	New Bern , North Carolina
DATE OF DEATH	July 5, 1863
Place of death	Gettysburg

[1] Masons at the Battle of Gettysburg and the Masonic Friend to Friend Monument . In: Gettysburg . Bessel.org. Retrieved September 5, 2015.