Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/735

 Rh aroused by the aggressive movements of the Federal government to draw his sword for the defense of his native State and the Confederate cause. He was commissioned colonel of the Twenty-fourth regiment of Virginia infantry, and with this rank commanded a brigade at Blackburn's Ford and Manassas, in the latter battle making a successful onslaught upon the Federal right in flank which aided in precipitating the rout which immediately followed. He was promoted brigadier-general to date from that battle. At Williamsburg he led the charge of his brigade upon the Federal position, and was wounded. In the Manassas campaign of 1862 he commanded a brigade of Ewell's division of Jackson's corps, participating in Jackson's raid around Pope and the defeat of the Federal army in the final engagement. In the Maryland campaign and at Sharpsburg after the wounding of General Lawton, he took command of Ewell's division, and also skillfully directed it at a critical moment against the Federal attack at Fredericksburg. In January, 1863, he was promoted major-general, and during the Chancellorsville campaign was left with his division and Barksdale's brigade, about ten thousand men, to hold the heights of Fredericksburg, where he made a gallant fight against Sedgwick's corps. At the opening of the Pennsylvania campaign he was entrusted by Ewell with the attack upon Winchester, which resulted in the rout of Milroy and the capture of 4,000 prisoners, and thence he marched via York, toward Harrisburg, Pa., until recalled from the Susquehanna river which he had reached, to the field of Gettysburg, where he actively participated in the successes of the first day's fighting and on the second day made a desperate assault on the Federals, gaining vantage ground which he was unable to hold single-handed. At the opening fight in the Wilderness, in temporary command of Hill's corps, he successfully resisted the Federal attempt to flank the army of Lee, and at Spottsylvania Court House in the same