Richard Stoddert Ewell

Richard Stoddert Ewell

Richard Stoddert Ewell (born February 8, 1817 in Georgetown , Washington, DC ; † January 25, 1872 in Spring Hill , Tennessee ) was a captain in the US Army until 1861 , then general in the Confederate Army in the American Civil War and after the war a farmer .

Life

After he graduated from the Military Academy in West Point , New York in 1840 as 13th of 42 (in his senior year was also the later Commander in Chief of the US Army, William T. Sherman ), he became a lieutenant of the Dragoons . Ewell excelled in the Mexican War and in battles against the Indians and was promoted to captain at the time of the secessionist crisis.

He returned his patent in 1861 and became a colonel in the Confederate Army. Promoted to brigadier general, he was involved in the first battle of the Bull Run , albeit on a rather quiet section of the front. He was promoted to major general in early 1862 and was one of Stonewall Jackson's key subordinates during the Shenandoah campaign in 1862 . Ewell also served on the Jackson Peninsula before being seriously wounded in the opening stages of the Second Battle of Bull Run . He lost a leg and it was almost a year before he was returned to command.

When Robert E. Lee reorganized his army for the planned march north after the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, he handed the II Corps of the Northern Virginia Army , mainly composed of Jackson's former , over to Ewell, who had recovered and was promoted to Lieutenant General Major associations. With this corps Ewell succeeded in the second Battle of Winchester from 13-15. June 1863 a first respectable success, and at the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg his troops succeeded in the right flank of the Potomac Army , the XI. Corps to flee. After that, Ewell was commissioned by Lee to take the important hills Cemetery Hill and Culp's Hill if possible . Ewell thought this was not possible and decided to attack only after the arrival of the third division of II Corps. When the division was ready, however, darkness had fallen and the attack did not take place. This decision, justifiable in view of Ewell's level of knowledge, was more or less heavily criticized by contemporaries and historians.

In the fall of 1863 Ewell was wounded again, but this time lighter, and so in 1864 he was able to lead his corps into the battle of the Wilderness . After the battle of Spotsylvania Court House , Lee officially relieved Ewell of his duties as commanding general because of "health problems" and was appointed commander of the quieter military area of Richmond . In reality, however, Lee was dissatisfied with Ewell's performance. Ewell's efforts to be reinstated as commanding general of II Corps failed because of Lee's resistance. He kept command of the Richmond Military Area until the fall of the city. On the retreat to the west , he was cut off during the fighting on Saylor's Creek with his troops from the rest of Northern Virginia Army and captured and taken to Fort Warren, from where he was released until the summer 1865th

Ewell spent his retirement years as a farmer in Tennessee, where he died on January 25, 1872. He is buried in Nashville City Cemetery in Nashville .

Unlike many other high-ranking Confederate officers, Ewell had barely participated in the discussion of the guilt for the Gettysburg defeat.

See also

• List of Confederate Generals in the Civil War
• List of generals of the Union in the Civil War

literature

• Percy G. Hamlin (ed.): The Making of a Soldier: Letters of General RS Ewell. Richmond VA 1935.
• Percy G. Hamlin: "Old Bald Head" (General RS Ewell): The Portrait of a Soldier. Strasburg VA 1940.
• Samuel J. Martin: The Road to Glory: Confederate General Richard S. Ewell. Indianapolis IN 1991.
• Donald C. Pfanz: Richard S. Ewell: A Soldier's Life. Chapel Hill, NC 1998.
• Paul D. Casdorph: Confederate General RS Ewell: Robert E. Lee's Hesitant Commander . Lexington KY 2005.
• Ewell, Richard Stoddert . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 10 : Evangelical Church - Francis Joseph I . London 1910, p. 40 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Richard Stoddert Ewell's grave in the Find a Grave database .