Richard Brooke Garnett

145 years ago today, the Battle of Gettysburg culminated in a bloody engagement that has become popularly known as Pickett's Charge. Amidst the courage and cowardice, blood and struggle, triumph and tragedy, lies one story that has become as dear to my heart as it is laden with heartbreak - the death of Confederate General Richard Brooke Garnett, who fell at the head of his brigade as it assaulted the wall at the Angle.

Garnett was born November 21, 1817, the second son (and eldest of twin sons) born to William and Anna Maria Garnett. Deciding early upon a career in the army (perhaps due to the influence of his mother's brother, General George Mercer Brooke, who fought with Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812), Richard desired to attend West Point. However, his father's politics did not endear the family to the local Congressman, so Richard's appointment was eased by Uncle George, who dropped a casual note to his old comrade-in-arms, Jackson, who just happened to be living in the White House. An inconsistent student, Richard struggled at West Point, taking five years to finish the four-year course of study. However, finish he did, unlike nearly 50% of those entering each class. He graduated in 1841, in the middle of his class. He spent the next nearly 20 years in a variety of frontier posts from Florida to Ft. Laramie. He served for 5 years on his uncle's staff, a career decision that did not prove advantageous, as his contemporaries gained battle experience and brevets in Mexico. By 1861, he was serving in Benecia, California. When Virginia seceded from the Union, Garnett reluctantly followed her, resigning his commission on May 17.

After making his way by boat via Cuba back to Virginia, Garnett secured a commission as Lt. Colonel in Cobb's Georgia Legion. However, he served only two months in the post before receiving his general's star on November 14, 1861. As fate would have it, Garnett was assigned to command the Stonewall Brigade, succeeding the brigade's beloved first commander, Thomas J. Jackson. Jackson took an immediate dislike to Garnett, but the men quite liked their new general. He was solicitous of their welfare, and the men called him "The Soldier's Friend."

However, Jackson continued to voice doubts about Garnett's ability and worthiness for command. In March 1862, acting on outdated intelligence from his cavalry commander, Turner Ashby, Jackson decided to attack what he assumed was a Union brigade near Winchester, Virginia. Unfortunately for the Confederates, they were really facing a whole Union division. The attack stalled, and the Stonewall Brigade found itself repeatedly charged by fresh Union troops, risking being outflanked and running out of ammunition. Without orders (he had not been told to hold the position at all hazards), Garnett exercised his command authority. With men already leaving the ranks due to empty cartridge boxes, Garnett ordered the brigade to retreat. He also ordered the 5th VA, which had been placed in reserve, to deploy and cover the retreat of the rest of the brigade. Jackson was infuriated. He felt the men should have stood fast and fought with the bayonet if necessary. The First Battle of Kernstown was Jackson's only defeat and he blamed Garnett, even though Jackson attacked without fresh intelligence, he never used his artillery to support his attack, and once he knew he was vastly outnumbered and in danger of being outflanked, he did nothing to remedy the troops' deployment or provide reinforcements. Instead, despite the support of all of Garnett's colonels, Jackson arrested him and pressed charges.

Feeling the charges "blasted [his] character as both a soldier and a man," Garnett fought to have a court martial convened, knowing he would be exonerated. Although Robert E. Lee tried to get Jackson to drop the charges, Jackson refused. A court martial was held in August 1862, but was suspended after a day and a half of testimony from Jackson and his aide, Sandy Pendleton. It was never reconvened, and Jackson's death in May 1863 meant that Garnett would never receive the justice he felt due him. Despite his treatment at the hands of Jackson, Garnett would sincerely mourn his death and serve as an honorary pall bearer at Jackson's Richmond funeral.

After the aborted court martial, Lee (obviously believing the charges to be without merit), released Garnett from arrest and assigned him to temporary command of George Pickett's brigade, as George had been wounded during the Seven Days' battles in June 1862. He would lead the five Virginia regiments - 8th, 18th, 19th, 28th, 56th - capably though not brilliantly at South Mountain and Sharpsburg (Antietam). Following Pickett's elevation to division command, the brigade formally became Garnett's until his death at Gettysburg.

Garnett and his brigade were spectators at Fredericksburg in December 1862 as his portion of the defense line was not threatened. Along with most of James Longstreet's First Corps, Garnett would spend the spring of 1863 in North Carolina on skirmish duties and gathering supplies and would miss Lee's great victory at Chancellorsville. With all of the Army of Northern Virginia at last reunited, Lee would begin the movement north into Union territory as what would become known as the Gettysburg Campaign began. On the road north, Garnett was kicked by a fractious horse belonging to one of Pickett's aides and his ankle severely injured. According to his last letters, Garnett was unable to ride for a time and even traveled part of the way in an ambulance. As Pickett's division was the last in a long line of Confederate troops, they missed the first two days of the Battle of Gettysburg. However, they were on the field on the morning of July 3, and as the only fresh troops in Lee's army, they would become the centerpiece in Lee's final offensive assault, aimed at the center of the Union line, a line defended by hardened veterans who would not repeat the defeats suffered early in the war and would stand fast and fiercely defend Northern soil.

After a long bombardment that Lee hoped would soften and demoralize the Union troops (it did not have the decisive effect Lee hoped), Confederate attackers rose from their advanced positions and formed for the assault. Heat and the shot and shell of return Federal fire had already taken some toll on the men. Despite orders for officers not to ride in the charge, Garnett, partly because of his injury and partly due to the need to be able to oversee and maneuver his brigade, as his was the brigade of direction for Pickett's division, Garnett (along with Generals Pickett, Kemper, Pettigrew and Trimble, as well as several colonels and members of the generals' staffs) ignored the order and went into the charge mounted.

Advancing through the maelstrom of shot and shell, the brigade covered the distance to the fence at the Emmitsburg Road, losing men with every step. Garnett and his aides maneuvered the brigade in obliques to close with the right of Pettigrew's command just as the troops reached the road. Although some men were so shattered by the hell of battle that they lost all ability to move forward and remained in the small shelter of the road, most continued over the two fences and through the gaps to begin the final assault. Now, 400 yards from the Union line, Federal forces behind a low stone wall opened with musket fire that joined with the terrible roar of canister from the big guns. Kemper's troops, on the right of Pickett's division, were being flanked by a Vermont brigade and were moving to their left into Garnett's men, who by this time had lost their initial formations and were becoming intermingled. The 8th and 18th VA, on Garnett's right, were faced with an unbroken line of Union troops and took cover in some rough ground to pour musket fire into the blue lines. The few Union troops in front of the other regiments, including Cushing's battery, fired their last rounds and the survivors moved up the slope to join the troops at the crest. For a brief moment, no blue soldiers were directly in their front. A few of Garnett's men crossed the stone wall, but orders from Garnett, who had seen the troops on the crest, brought them back again. As Garnett awaited Armistead's brigade to close behind him, a musket ball crashed into the General's head, killing him instantly. Armistead's command advanced to the stone wall, and approximately 250-300 men followed the general over the barrier, where Armistead was mortally wounded. The breach in the Union line was short-lived as Federal troops poured into the Angle, combat becoming close, brutal, and deadly. A few Confederates made it back over the wall and began the long retreat back to their lines. The others were killed, wounded, and captured. Other Confederate commands were equally thrown back. All had been done that blood and bone, flesh and courage could do. The Confederate assault, and the Battle of Gettysburg was over, although further Cavalry action would take place on the flank.

Years after the war, Captain Henry T. Owen, 18th VA, would write his account of the battle for a Philadelphia newspaper: "Garnett galloped along the line saying: 'Steady, men! Steady! Don't double quick. Save your wind and your ammunition for the final charge!' and then went down among the dead, and his clarion voice was no more heard above the roar of battle."

As history would reveal, this would be the last Confederate advance into Northern territory, and although nearly two more years of battle remained and thousands of men would yet give their lives, the course of the war had changed irrevocably and ultimate victory would belong to the Union.

For Richard Brooke Garnett, however, along with so many others, the war was over. Union soldiers were the masters of the field, and in time-honored tradition began the task of looting the enemy of anything valuable or interesting. Garnett, stripped of his rank, sword, and any identifying markings, would appear to be just another dead Confederate. He would remain unidentified, and would be buried on the field with his men, a place Robert E. Lee once stated was a place of honor. Indeed, Richard Garnett would be the only general, on either side, killed during the war, not to be found, identified, and returned to his family for burial. Presumably, his remains were gathered up when Confederate bodies were returned to the South some years after the battle, and now rest co-mingled with those who fought beside him in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery. A memorial stone was dedicated to his memory a few years ago.

Years after the war, his sword was found in a Baltimore pawn shop by former Confederate General George Steuart, who purchased and kept it. After Steuart's death, it was returned to Garnett's niece, who later donated it to the Museum of the Confederacy, where it is today. I have had the incredible honor to see the sword, draw it from its scabbard, and hold it reverently. It is inscribed: "R. B. Garnett USA"

The illustration below, is a painting by renowned Civil War artist Dale Gallon, depicting Garnett leading his brigade up to the Angle, moments before his death. I have had the joy of visiting the Gettysburg Battlefield annually (often 2-3 times per year) since 1996. In that time I have been privileged to meet many of the ranger-historians at the Gettysburg National Military Park and the Licensed Battlefield Guides. One in particular, LBG Wayne Motts, now Director of the Adams County Historical Society, has become a special friend. At the time Mr. Gallon painted "Confederate Glory," I helped collect some research materials on Garnett for Wayne, who was working as Mr. Gallon's historical expert. Some of this background material helped Wayne in crafting the essay which accompanied the print. For this tiny assist, I was privileged to be given a copy of the print, which now hangs above my bed. When it arrived, and I poured over the enclosed essay, I was astounded to read that Wayne had included me in his acknowledgments as "a Garnett expert" who had helped "at every turn." It was, perhaps, one of the most memorable days in my life. That such a fine historian and gentleman should so refer to me moved me beyond words.


Richard Brooke Garnett is a man who "tread so lightly upon history, that he left few footprints behind." At the time of this writing, there are no biographies, no repositories of letters (although his last two known letters are held at Duke University), no memoirs or personal accounts. His name is mentioned only generally in many of the numerous books on Gettysburg, others receiving far more attention from historians. I was enormously delighted that since he once again is barely mentioned at the new Gettysburg Museum, that a quote from Garnett is displayed prominently on the wall leading into the gallery for July 3. "This is a desperate thing to attempt" - Garnett's assessment of the task before him and all those who made that doomed, but brave assault.

Richard Brooke Garnett was not a great general, but a soldier who did his duty as he saw it, and made the ultimate sacrifice of his life in service to his country and his cause. He may not have lived an extraordinary life, but I have come to regard him with great respect and affection.

Like many others, I have been "heart-drawn" to Gettysburg, to "this deathless field...to ponder and to dream," in the words of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. On each visit there, I make the same prayer, for all those who fought and struggled on the now serene landscape to rest in peace and honor. For Richard Brooke Garnett, I vow that he will be remembered.



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