"Pierced By a Dozen Balls" As He Tried to Stop a Surrender Flag at Gettysburg
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- čas přidán 25. 01. 2024
- On the morning of July 3, U.S. and Confederate forces battled for supremacy at Culp's Hill. At one point in the action, a member of a gray regiment raised a white flag to surrender, and a staff officer galloped forward to order the flag down. Union soldiers fired a volley into the officer, bringing him and his horse down. The dead man was Maj. Benjamin Watkins Leigh of Virginia. Here are two period accounts of his death.
"Life on the Civil War Research Trail" is hosted by Ronald S. Coddington, Editor and Publisher of Military Images magazine. Learn more about our mission to showcase, interpret and preserve Civil War portrait photography at militaryimagesmagazine.com and shopmilitaryimages.com.
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Well done, as always, Ron. Your efforts are much appreciated and admired by many.
Couldn’t imagine the scenes after battle, many descriptions also contain lots of horses especially artillery horses. Those sights followed those soldiers and other eyewitnesses for the rest of their lives
One of the unfortunate side effects of the necessary focus on specific aspects of the battle in the movie Gettysburg was that it elevated those highlighted episodes above others in the public consciousness. Even for those who’ve never seen the movie, its cultural ripples brought more attention to Buford, the 20th Maine, and Pickett’s Charge. Thus equally important and harrowing areas of the battle are often overlooked.
So true about Culp's Hill being overlooked. I tend to forget about it myself.
Ron you are a great historian I can't imagine the sites these men had to see? Absolutely tragic
Thank you for highlighting the action on Culp's Hill, which is so often forgotten. I have studied the Civil War for as long as I can remember and that second quote might be the most vivid description of the dead and dying that I have ever heard from the Civil War.
I’ve heard that description of the trees on the slope of the hill before. Testament to the hail of gunfire, where even the trees were shredded and poisoned by lead.
Ron this was an amazing story! Thank you for another job well done!
Do want to seem to be a stalker but I could listen to these Stories all day long . REALLY thanks for sharing
I thoroughly enjoy your stories. Your presentation is informative and manner of delivery
if very pleasant. New videos by you are the first things I look for everyday on CZcams. Thank you.
Thank you for this education. Your continuing coverage of Civil War history is as good as it gets.
I love these stories. For me it gives a true reflection on history by those who gave their all to each person's cause. On Culps Hill, it does my head in how this part of the Great Battle is so overlooked.
Hell yeah Ron! Love it!
Ha!!
Nice work Ron!!
In total agreement that the action around on and around Culp's Hill is often overlooked in assessments of Gettysburg.
The totality of the devastation wrought at these battles is mind boggling, and serve as a warning that changing technology was already having an impact on old strategy and tactics, that would continue well into the early 20th century. Percussion and early rifled fire made the reliance on Volley Fire deadly, as the rate and accuracy of firepower changed. Far to many Generals failed to recognize, let alone adjust for a need to change tactics. Their solution, to merely throw more men into the fray, only raised casualty counts.
A whole generation of young men on both sides slaughtered.
Thank you so much.
So, who shot Major Lee ? His own troops, or the opposition ?
Another "what if" to contemplate: what if Gen Lee had concentrated Picketts forces on Culps Hill instead of charging up the center, could he have turned the Union flank and won the Battle of Gettysburg?
To me and many of my friends in the reenacting living history community day one is just as interesting as two or three. I have done a lot of reading on day one.
wouldn't going from Colonel to Major be a demotion
Lee was made acting colonel! This means he was not an actual colonel! At the time he was an acting colonel he was only a captain! Afterwards Lee was removed as acting colonel and he was then promoted to major! This explains how the promotion of Lee transpired!
Custer was only a captain and an acting general
Has anyone created a data base of all these individual accounts of battles?
Yes. There are many lists online of engagements. Best place to start is Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Civil_War_battles
Trying to stop his men surrendering, I wonder which side actually shot him?
The historical record shows that Leigh was killed by solders of the 7th Ohio stationed on Culp’s hill. The regimental commander of the 7 Ohio ordered his men to cease-fire so that the prisoners could be brought into the lines. Colonel of the 7 Ohio wrote, “At the time the white flag was raised, a mounted rebel officer… was seen to come forward and endeavor to stop the surrender, when he was fired upon by my men and instantly killed.”
The damn yankees
NO! Benjamin Watkins Leigh did not make the ultimate sacrifice (11:22). He was killed in action by Union forces fighting to suppress the rebellion. He went to war to defend slavery and he died fighting to protect slavery. Before the start of the Civil War, Leigh lived within a household that owned 93 human beings. He, himself, personally owned an additional 34 human beings. Like the confederacy itself, Leigh lived and died a wealthy slaveowner defending a society grounded on human chattel slavery.
... that's why more Black's fought for the South...
It was not a "civil war" by definition! A "civil war" is when 2 or more groups fighting for control of the government. The Southourn army, although north of DC, never attacked it, because they weren't interested in "control" of "the government", they legally SUCCEEDED!
It is the war on "northern agression!"
The war was about States Rights, and the unproductive north BANKERS putting export tariffs on Southern cotton. The South produced 3 to 4 times more (food ++l than they used, while NYC imported nearly everything!
Source: "Pre-war America', Princeton Press 1916. FACTS!
Also, slavery was dying with the "Missouri Compromise."
So... really the war was about the bankers (international cartel) en-SLAVING southerners.
You don't know history!!!
p.s. my family was forced to use their schooners to move yankee troops and supplies, but were never paid, even after filling out forms and petitioning after the war.
That's SLAVERY!
Exactly.
He died fighting for southern independence and constitutional rule of law what a moron the same old tired wore out nonsense from you holier than thou yankees.
It's interesting that the Confederacy is always vilified for condoning slavery, but actually the United States of America in the 19th century as a whole condoned slavery; the North benefitted from the institution by their needs of cotton and sugar and use of tobacco. The abolitionist movement, while vocal about the evils of slavery and the need to abolish it were not as effective as some have tried to describe them. Even Abraham Lincoln was quoted that he "didn't want to be painted by the abolitionist's brush." Lincoln's primary goal was to preserve the Union; he was very clear about that by his reply to New York Tribune founder and publisher Horace Greeley.
"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union."
Those were Lincoln's words to Horace Greeley, the noted publisher of the New York Tribune and an abolitionist. Lincoln's "forbearance" about slavery meant that he was willing to condone it if it would help preserve the Union and while people throughout 19th century America had various opinions about slavery, it was tolerated by the country as a whole.