Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 3.djvu/635

Rh  in at least ten of the severest battles of the war." R. E. Lee added: "This regiment and its gallant colonel challenge the respect and admiration of their countrymen." November 1, 1862, he was promoted to brigadier-general and assigned to the command of Pickett's old brigade. While in winter quarters he obtained leave of absence and was married to Elizabeth Beverly, but was soon afterward called to Fredericksburg to take command of a new brigade of Virginians for Pickett's division, composed of the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, Thirtieth and Thirty-second regiments, to which the Twenty-ninth was added later. During the Pennsylvania campaign of 1863 he was on duty with his brigade at Hanover Junction. Rejoining the army near Winchester, he moved in advance as Lee fell back toward the Rappahannock, and rendered valuable service in driving the enemy from Chester and Manassas gaps. In the fall and winter of 1863-64 he took his brigade to southwest Virginia and east Tennessee, co-operating with Longstreet; engaged the enemy at Dandridge in January, and then returned to Petersburg. Ordered at once to Kinston, N. C., he took part in the operations against New Bern until called to the defense of Richmond. He and his brigade were distinguished in the defeat of Butler at Drewry's bluff, May 16th. He shared the service of Pickett's division during the siege of Petersburg and Richmond. In the spring of 1865 Corse and his men fought bravely at Dinwiddie Court House and Five Forks, and ended their military career with honor at Sailor's creek. After the surrender by Ewell, General Corse was conveyed to Fort Warren, and there confined until August, 1865. He left Washington on his way to Fort Warren on the day that Lincoln was assassinated, and he and the fourteen generals accompanying him narrowly escaped the violence of a mob at a town in Pennsylvania, on the next morning. Nothing saved them that day but the pluck and determination of the small guard of Union soldiers and officers who had them in charge. After his release from Fort Warren he returned to Alexandria and engaged in the banking business with his two brothers, J. D. and William Corse. He was very seriously injured in the fall of a part of the capitol at Richmond. It is probable that the injuries received on this occasion caused in part the blindness from which he suffered for 