What This Has Cost Me

Confederate General Lewis Addison Armistead died July 5^th 1863 from a wound received two days earlier at the Battle of Gettysburg during Pickett’s Charge.

Lewis Addison Armistead was born February 18^th 1817 in New Bern, North Carolina the son of Walker Keith and Elizabeth (Stanly) Armistead.  He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1834, but had to leave the school after busting a plate over the head of fellow cadet Jubal Early.  With the help of his father, Armistead obtained a commission to Second Lieutenant in the 6^th United States Infantry on July 10^th 1839.  He made First Lieutenant on March 30^th 1844.  He married his first wife Cecelia Lee Love a cousin of Robert E Lee the same year.  He saw duty in Arkansas and along the Oklahoma border.  Armistead received a Brevet to Captain for actions during the Mexican American War.  Following the war he did duty in Kentucky, and at Fort Dodge.  His first wife died in 1850 and he remarried in 1853.  Armistead continued doing military duty at various post in the west and he lost his second wife as well two children.  He was in command of a garrison in San Diego, California when the Civil War started along with his friend Winfield Scott Hancock.  Armistead resigned his commission and began the trip back to Virginia to join the Confederacy, he told his friend Hancock, "Goodbye; you can never know what this has cost me."

Arriving in Virginia Armistead was made Colonel of the 57^th Virginia Infantry.  He was a brigade commander at the Battle of Seven Pines, Malvern Hill and Second Bull Run.  Armistead was the Provost Marshal during the Sharpsburg Campaign.  He was back commanding a brigade at the Battle of Fredericksburg.  As a part of confederate Lieutenant General James Longstreet’s Corps Armistead missed the Battle of Chancellorsville.

Armistead arrived at Gettysburg along with the rest of General George Pickett’s Division on the evening of July 2^nd 1863.  The next day Armistead led of his men, in what would become known as Pickett’s Charge.  He crossed the field in front of his Brigade, reaching the stonewall at the “Angle”, getting farther than any other brigade that day.  Crossing the wall, he was shot three times in the arm and below the knee.  Armistead’s wounds weren’t thought to be mortal.  He was taken the hospital on the Spangler Farm for treatment where he died as chief surgeon Doctor Daniel Brinton said, “not from his wounds directly, but from secondary fever and prostration,” on July 5^th 1863.  His body was removed to the Old Saint Paul’s Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.  General Lee wrote in his after action report, "Brigadier-Generals Armistead, Barksdale, Garnett and Semmes died as they had lived, discharging the highest duties of patriots with devotion that never faltered and courage that shrank from no danger."

He Received The Masonic Sign

A member of the 140^th Pennsylvania Infantry, Henry Harrison Bingham received his commission on August 22^nd 1862 to First Lieutenant.

Henry Harrison Bingham was born December 4^th 1841 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  He attended Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, and would graduate with a law degree from Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pennsylvania.

Bingham enlisted in the Union Army, and was commissioned First Lieutenant in the 140^th Pennsylvania Infantry August 22^nd 1862.  During the Battle of Gettysburg he was part of Union Major General Winfield Scott Hancock’s Second Corps.  He was near the Angle as Pickett’s Charge came to its conclusion.  Bingham would be the man to whom Confederate Brigadier General Lewis Addison Armistead gave the Masonic sign after being wounded. [Although this story has been discounted recently.] Bingham who was a Captain would come to Armistead’s aid, receive his personal effects and tell Hancock the news of his old friend.  During the Battle of Wilderness Bingham was the aide-de-camp to Union Major General Gouverneur Kemble Warren.  As a Captain in Company G of the 140^th Pennsylvania on May 6^th 1864 he "rallied and led into action a portion of the troops who had given way under fierce assaults of the enemy."  For this action he would be awarded the Medal of Honor.  Bingham was wounded at the Battle of Spotsylvania and captured at the Battle of Fair Oak.

After the war Bingham was appointed by President Andrew Johnson to Postmaster of Philadelphia, a post he held until December 1872.  He was a delegate at the Republican National Conventions from 1872 through 1900.  He was a Congressman from 1879 until his death, serving as the Chairman of several committees.  Bingham died March 22^nd 1912 in Pennsylvania and is buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

The Un-repentant Rebel

Lieutenant General Jubal Anderson Early was born on November 3rd 1816, he established through his writings the Southern view of the Lost Cause.

Jubal Early was born in Franklin County Virginia November 3rd 1816, the son of Joab and Ruth (Hairston) Early. While he was a cadet at West Point he had a disagreement with Lewis Addison Armistead, causing Armistead to break a plate over Early’s head. Early graduated in 1837 from the Military Academy ranking 18th out of a class of 50. He served with the 3rd US Artillery against the Florida Seminoles, before resigning from the military in 1838. He became a lawyer and served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1841 to 1843.

Early politically was a Whig and he opposed secession at the Virginia Convention in April 1861. However, President Abraham Lincoln’s call for troops to put down the rebellion angered Early, and he accepted a Confederate commission in the Virginia Militia. He was promoted after First Manassas to Brigadier General. General Robert E Lee valued Early’s aggressive fighting style and his capacity for independent command. Lee called him, his “Bad Old Man”. His soldiers named him “Old Jubilee”.

After being wounded in 1862 at Williamsburg, he returned to servce under the command of Major General Thomas J Stonewall Jackson. At Fredericksburg Early counterattacked Union General George Gorden Meade troops, plugging a gap in Jackson’s line, for this he was promoted to Major General. At Gettysburg he was in command of a division in Lieutenant General Richard S Ewell’s corp.

Early did not surrender, and he fled to Texas when the Army of Northern Virginia laid down their arms. He was hoping to find a Confederate force holding out there. He excapt to Mexico, and from there sailed to Cuba and finally to Canada. He wrote a memoir about his Valley Campaign while living in Toronto Canada. He was pardoned in 1868 and returned the Virginia where he resumed practicing law. Ever the un-repentant Rebel he strongly promoted the “Lost Cause” movement and was among those who maligned General James Longstreet’s actions at Gettysburg. Early died in 1894 after falling down stairs in Lynchburg Virginia, and is buried in the Spring Hill Cemetery.