Joseph T. Derry , A. M. , Author of School History of the United States; Story of the Confederate War, etc., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 6, Georgia
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

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Biographical

[388] [389]

Major-Generals and brigadier-generals, provisional army of the Confederate States, Accredited to Georgia.

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Brigadier-General E. Porter Alexander

Brigadier-General E. Porter Alexander, a native of Georgia, was appointed to the United States military academy from that State, and was graduated in 1857 as brevet second lieutenant, corps of engineers. He served at West Point as assistant instructor in practical military engineering from October, 1857, to March, 1858, when he went on duty in the field with the Utah expedition. Returning to the military academy near the close of 1858, he remained until 1860, first as assistant instructor, next as assistant professor of engineering, then as instructor in the use of small-arms, military gymnastics, etc., and finally was attached to a company of engineer troops at West Point. Afterward he was a member of the board for the trial of small-arms, and assistant engineer in the construction of the defenses at Alcatraz island, San Francisco harbor. In 1861, when it became evident that war could not be avoided, Lieutenant Alexander resigned his commission in the army of the United States, and on April 3d entered that of the Confederate States as captain of engineers. He was on the staff of General Beauregard as engineer and chief of signal service from July 1st to August, 1861, acting in this capacity at the first battle of Manassas. Subsequently, until November 8, 1862, he was chief of ordnance of the army of Northern Virginia. He was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of artillery in December, 1861, and colonel of artillery in December, 1862. From November 8, 1862, to February 26, 1864, he commanded a battalion of artillery of Longstreet's corps, composed of the batteries of Eubanks, Jordan, Moody, Parker, Rhett and Woolfolk. At Fredericksburg [390] he so arranged the artillery of Longstreet's corps as to sweep every approach to Marye's hill. To General Longstreet he remarked, ‘We cover that ground so well that we will comb it as with a fine tooth comb. A chicken could not live on that field when we open on it.’ The artillery did do fearful execution on the dense masses of Federal troops who tried to carry that position. At Chancellorsville he was present in command of his battalion of artillery. At Gettysburg he commanded the reserve artillery of Longstreet's corps, and with his battalion prepared the way for Pickett's great charge on the third day of that fateful battle. When Longstreet went to Georgia in September, 1863, Colonel Alexander was with his forces, but did not reach Chickamauga in time to take part in the battle. He acted as chief of artillery for Longstreet in the Knoxville campaign, and in subsequent movements in east Tennessee until ordered back to Virginia. On February 26, 1864, he was commissioned brigadier-general, and he served as chief of artillery of Longstreet's corps until the surrender at Appomattox, participating in the battles of the Overland campaign, and in those of the long protracted siege of Richmond. After the war he was professor of mathematics and of civil and military engineering in the university of South Carolina from January, 1866, to October, 1869, and president of the Columbia oil company from October, 1869, to May, 1871. He then began a successful career in railroad management, as superintendent of the Charlotte, Columbia & Augusta railroad until October, 1871; as president of the Savannah & Memphis railroad company until 1875, and subsequently as president and general manager of the Western railroad of Alabama, and of the Georgia railroad and banking company. He was vice-president of the Louisville & Nashville railroad, 1880-82, capital commissioner of the State of Georgia, 1883-88, and from 1887 to 1893 president of the Central railroad and banking company and Ocean steamship company. [391] He is the author of a treatise on ‘Railway Practice,’ and historical papers, such as ‘The Great Charge and Artillery Fighting at Gettysburg,’ and ‘Longstreet at Knoxville.’

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Brigadier-General George T. Anderson

Brigadier-General George T. Anderson is a native of Georgia and before the war was a man of considerable property. He did not have the advantage of a military training at West Point, but did acquire practical knowledge of warlike affairs during the conflict with Mexico, where he served as a captain. When the Eleventh Georgia regiment was organized in 1861, he was elected its colonel and went with his regiment to Virginia. During the Seven Days battles around Richmond, he led a brigade consisting of his own regiment, the First regulars, Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh Georgia, and was engaged in all the operations of Magruder's command during those eventful days. Speaking of the battle of Malvern Hill, Gen. D. H. Hill says: ‘I never saw anything more grandly heroic than — the advance after sunset of the nine brigades under Magruder's orders.’ Still holding the rank of colonel, he led this brigade through the fiery ordeals of Second Manassas and Sharpsburg, conducting himself with such gallantry and showing such skill in the handling of his troops that on the 1st of November, 1862, he received the commission of brigadier-general, the duties of which position he had performed so faithfully throughout the year. The next battle in which he was engaged was at Fredericksburg. At the time of the battle of Chancellorsville, he was with Longstreet in southeast Virginia. In the desperate struggle for the possession of Round Top on the afternoon of July 2, 1863, at Gettysburg, more than 2,000 officers and men of Hood's division were killed or wounded, and among the severely wounded were Generals Hood and G. T. Anderson. In September following he had sufficiently recovered to go with Longstreet to the assistance of Bragg in north [392] Georgia, and after the investment of Chattanooga he and his brigade marched under Longstreet into east Tennessee and took part in the siege of the city of Knoxville and the assault upon the Federal works. Here Anderson's brigade was again called upon for desperate fighting. True to its record, it bravely seconded the efforts of the commanding general, adding to its already brilliant reputation. In the second day of the battle of the Wilderness, Anderson's was one of the four brigades under Mahone which attacked the Federal left wing in flank and rear, and rolled it up in confusion toward the plank road and then back upon the Brock road. At Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor and throughout the protracted struggle around Richmond, Anderson and his brigade continued their faithful and heroic work. He was in Field's division of Longstreet's corps in the final scene at Appomattox Court House. After the return of peace, General Anderson returned to Georgia and served in several important official stations. For awhile he was local freight agent of the Georgia railroad at