Was born in Madison County, Va., in 1824, and descended from British and Continental ancestors, who settled in Virginia in 1700.
He took the degree of Master of Arts at Washington College, Va., and studied law in the office of George W. Summers, Esq., in Charleston, Kanawha Co., Va. In 1847, he was commissioned Captain in the Volunteer Army by President James K. Polk, and joined Gen. Taylor's Army of Occupation in Mexico, just after the battle of Buena Vista, thus seeing no active service in the Mexican war.
Gen. Kemper was for ten years a member of the Virginia Legislature, for two years Speaker of the House of Delegates, and for a number of years chairman of the committee on military affairs. He was also President of the Board of Visitors of the Virginia Military Institute.
On the 2d of May, 1861, he was commissioned by the Convention of Virginia, on the nomination of Gov. Letcher, Colonel of Virginia Volunteers, and assigned to the command of the 7th Regiment of Infantry, which command he assumed at Manassas, the regiment being 850 strong.
He was first engaged with his regiment in the battle of Bull Run, July 18, 1861, and thereafter at the first battle of Manassas, July 21, 1861, where his regiment was temporarily incorporated in a brigade commanded by Col. Jubal A. Early, and aided in striking the final blow on the extreme left of the Federal line, which immediately preceded the retreat and final rout of that army.
Three days after the battle of Manassas his regiment was assigned to a brigade commanded by Gen. Longstreet. This brigade was subsequently given to the command of Gen. A. P. Hill, and under him Col. Kemper, with his 7th Regiment, was in the hottest of the fight at the battle of Williamsburg, May 5, 1862, and engaged with the enemy for nine successive hours, capturing several pieces of artillery and four hundred prisoners.
Immediately after this battle, he was promoted to the command of the old brigade, which had been successively commanded by Longstreet, Ewell, and A P. Hill; and commanding it, participated in the first day's fight at Seven Pines, May 31, 1862, and the seven day's fighting around Richmond in the same year. In the second battle of Manassas, Brig.-Gen. Kemper commanded temporarily a division composed of several of the brigades afterwards composing Pickett's Division. Here, with these same "Pickett's Men," of after-celebrity, he was opposed to the extreme left of the enemy; but acting upon his own judgment at the moment, changed front so as to strike the enemy's right flank, and soon after it was done, received a message from Gen. Lee to make precisely the same movement he had already effected with such success, inflicting tremendous loss upon the enemy. He commanded his own brigade in the battles of South Mountain and Sharpsburg. Soon after the return of Kemper's Brigade from the first Maryland campaign it was incorporated in Pickett's Division.
At the battle of Fredericksburg, December, 1862, Gen. Kemper with his brigade was temporarily detached from the division and joined the troops on Marye's Heights on the afternoon of that day, under a hot fire. He was again detached from the division early in 1863, and sent with his brigade to North Carolina, where he commanded the forces at Kingston, opposed to the Federal force under Gen. Foster, who then held Newbern. He rejoined Pickett's Division in front of Suffolk, Va., participated in the operations at that place, and marched with the division into Pennsylvania, his troops taking their full share in the terrible massacre at Gettysburg. Gen. Kemper was desperately (supposed to be mortally) wounded, while gallantly leading his brigade into that infernal slaughter-pen. He was brought off that bloody field, but without hopes of his recovery, and afterwards taken prisoner. He was held a prisoner in the hospitals for three months, but upon the written certificates of several of the United States surgeons, that he must soon die, he was finally exchanged for Brig.-Gen. Graham, United States Army, slightly wounded and captured at Gettysburg.
On the same field, two of Gen. Kemper's staff-officers, Captain Thomas Gordon Pollock, A. A. and Inspector-Gen., and Lieut. George E, Geiger, A. D. C., both gallant and valuable officers, were killed.
After his exchange and return to Virginia, Gen. Kemper was for a long time too much disabled to perform any duty in the field. He attempted to return to the command of his brigade, but was totally unable to do so. He is permanently disabled, and still a sufferer from partial paralysis of his lower limbs, carrying now an unextracted ounce ball about the base of the spine.
Although unable to perform field duty, he was assigned to the important service of commanding the local forces in and around Richmond, the reserve forces of Virginia and the Bureau of Conscription; and while in discharge of this duty, put nineteen thousand men into the Confederate service, from Virginia, In June, 1864, he was commissioned Major-General. Gen. Kemper was an excellent officer in the field, with all the courage and pure chivalry of a volunteer patriot, fighting for his country's honor and independence, he combined the solid qualities and sound judgment of a practical statesman. In battle or in council, he was an officer of superior capacity; and his distinguished career, along with that of many of his associates in arms, is a demonstration of what excellence may be attained by the highest type of a citizen soldier. Upon being obliged to retire from the field, Gen. Kemper published to his brigade a farewell letter, which I think most fit to insert in this brief sketch of his military life. This leave-taking from his old and much endeared command was by no means the end of his usefulness in the Confederate cause.
RICHMOND, MAY 2, 1864.
TO THE OFFICERS AND MEN OF KEMPER'S BRIGADE:
For months it has been my expectation and fixed purpose to resume my old command, at the opening of this campaign. But at the last moment my plans have been thwarted by an over-ruling necessity. I am now warned by eminent medical advisers, that my condition is such as positively incapacitates me for the duties of a field commander, and for doing justice to yourselves in that relation; that further service in the saddle must result in the ruin of my constitution, if not the destruction of my life, without enuring to the benefit of the country.
Under these circumstances I have been assigned to the command of the reserve forces of the State of Virginia. I have not sought the position; but struck down by the casualties of war and unable longer to lead your veteran battalions, I believe it an imperative duty to yield obedience to the order.
It is the most painful duty of my life to sever the relations which for three years have harmoniously united us; which have carried us together through memorable and fiery trials, and have bound you to my heart with ties stronger than "hooks of steel." No portion of our armies will present to the world more splendid annals of valor than the First, Third, Seventh, Eleventh and Twenty-fourth Regiments of Virginia Infantry. Let us ever remember also as honored comrades, though now separated from us, the noble Seventeenth Virginia, identified with us by two years of common toils and achievements. It were enough of honor to have shared the fortunes of any of these regiments. Any soldier might well be proud to possess the command of them all. Stouter heroes have not trod the field of battle. In your torn flags, your scarred persons, your rolls of gallant dead, you bear memorials of a long succession of glorious conflicts; from the smoke and fire of not one of them have you emerged without honor.
I will not tell you to preserve unsullied in the future the reputation, above all price, which the past has secured. The veteran brigade which Longstreet, Ewell and A. P. Hill were proud successively to command at the beginning of the war, as dauntless as the Imperial Guard, knows how to die but not to surrender.
Fellow soldiers! I bid each of you an affectionate adieu. I cease to be your commander, but firmly and forever remain your friend. I shall, as heretofore, watch your career with the profoundest solicitude for your welfare. May the God of battles steel your nerves and shelter your forms amid the perils of the field! May peaceful homes, a stable government, an admiring country, be at once the monuments and the rewards of your valor!
JAMES L. KEMPER
SOURCE: Walter Harrison, Pickett’s Men: A Fragment of War History, p. 38-43
No comments:
Post a Comment