Major Charles Fessenden Morse: June 24, 1864

Near Marietta, Ga., June 24, 1864.

My letter of the 19th brought our operations up to that date, and closed just as we were about to start on a fresh move. An advance of a few hundred yards brought us to their works, — a line so strong that if decently well held, I don't think it could be carried by assault by the best infantry in the world. We pushed on by the flank about a mile, then struck the enemy. All this movement was in a pouring rain (from the 1st to the 21st, inclusive, eighteen of the days were rainy), which finally came in such torrents that we were obliged to halt for two or three hours before making our dispositions.

The enemy was found entrenched on a ridge in our front. We began, just before night, to throw up a slight line of works to protect us from sharpshooters. I had the extreme right of the division. One of our men, First Sergeant Lord, of Company K, was mortally wounded while constructing breastworks; he was a splendid fellow, and had been recommended for a commission.

At five o'clock on the 20th, our division was relieved by Wood's Division, Fourth Corps. We moved gradually along the line to the right, connecting at night with the left of the Twenty-third Corps; this gained us a position pretty well on the enemy's left flank. On the 21st our line was slightly changed; on the 22d, our corps swung forward on its left in a north-easterly direction, the Twenty-third Corps following our movement, except that its right was well refused. The object of the movement was to take possession of the Powder Spring road, an important highway leading from Marietta. By stretching out our division into a single line, and connecting some parts of it with a line of skirmishers, its right just reached this road, and connected with the left of the Twenty-third Corps.

Before the troops were all in line, word was sent in from the skirmishers that the enemy was massing for an attack on our centre and left. We were just ready and nothing to spare, when Hood's Corps came out of the woods in our front (to my left, the length of about two regiments), and advanced, with their usual yell, in four lines. The division opened upon them with musketry and artillery, and before their first line had gotten within fifty yards, they were all broken and repulsed; their loss was very heavy, as they were in entirely open ground. I think three or four hundred will cover our division's loss. I had only two men wounded. Towards the close of the attack our situation was very critical; our ammunition was nearly exhausted, and not a single support was near. If there had only been one line behind us, we could have advanced at once and taken large numbers of prisoners. As soon as support did arrive, we advanced our skirmish line, but the enemy had gone, leaving their dead and hundreds of small-arms on the ground. I enclose you a fragment of the Fifty-third Virginia's flag, which was captured by the Fifth Connecticut.

I think our division has a right to brag a little on this tight, for if a single regiment had misbehaved, our line would have been broken. We are still in the same position as on the 21st, but there is a constant movement of troops to our right, threatening, you see, all their lines of communications and retreat. They still hold Kenesaw Mountain, which is due north from here. If they can only be forced to attack us, I think we can use them up completely. On the 21st, we took prisoners from three divisions, comprising the whole of Hood's Corps, which forms at least one quarter of their entire army.

I will give the Western army credit for their superior use of artillery. Wherever infantry goes, the batteries follow right in line, and in this way guns can be used continually at very short range, producing, of course, deadly effect. At Gettysburg, every colonel in our brigade besought the chief of artillery to put some guns in position in our line, but we were told that it couldn't be done, as the gunners would be picked off by sharpshooters. Here they have to take the same chances as an infantry man.

SOURCE: Charles Fessenden Morse, Letters Written During the Civil War, 1861-1865, p. 171-3

Brig.-Gen. Lewis A. Armistead

Lewis Addison Armistead, the gallant and lamented officer (of whom this is a brief biographical memoir, attached to the record of the brigade he first organized) and commanded up to the moment of his death), was born in Newbern, N. C., on February 18, 1817.

He was the son of Gen. Walker K. Armistead, of the United States Army, a native of Virginia, and Elizabeth, daughter of Hon. John A. Stanley of N. C.

He was entered as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point, but on account of some youthful escapade (I have been told, the partial cracking of Jubal A. Early's head with a mess-hall plate), he was retired from that Institution before graduation. He was appointed Second Lieut, in the United States Army, from citizen's life in June, 1839, and assigned to the 6th Regiment of Infantry (commanded at that time by Gen. Zachary Taylor, who afterwards became the distinguished Mexican hero, and President of the United States). He served during the latter part of the Florida war, under his father, Gen. W. K. Armistead, and was promoted First Lieut, by President Tyler, to rank as such from March 30, 1844. He joined Gen. Scott, in Mexico, at the siege of Vera Cruz, was breveted Captain for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battles of Contreras and Churubusco; afterwards was breveted Major for gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Molino del Rey. These brevets were conferred by President Polk. March 3, 1855, he was commissioned Captain in the 6th Infantry by President Pierce. Early in 1861, he resigned his commission in the United States Army, and in company with Gen. Albert Sidney Johnson and other officers of that army, who had also resigned, crossed the plains, and offered his services to the State of Virginia. He was soon commissioned Colonel and given command of the 57th Regiment of Virginia Infantry. In April, 1862, he was commissioned by President Jeff. Davis Brig.-Gen. in the provisional army of the Confederate States; and set to the organization of a brigade of infantry. This brigade was composed of the 57th, 53d, and 14th Virginia Regiments and 3d Georgia Regiment; subsequently the 3d Georgia was exchanged for the 38th Virginia, and the 9th Virginia added to the brigade. This brigade, known as Armistead's, was assigned to Huger's Division of Longstreet's 1st Army Corps. Gen. Armistead was first engaged with his brigade (or a portion of it rather) at the second day's fight of Seven Pines, June 1, 1862, where he personally distinguished himself for extreme gallantry.

He next commanded his brigade at the battle of Malvern Hill, where it was heavily engaged, and where he again displayed his usual gallantry, and did signal service. He commanded his brigade throughout the first Maryland campaign, and in September, 1862, on the return of the army to Culpepper Court-House, Va., he was assigned with his brigade to Pickett's Division of Longstreet's Corps, and remained with that command up to the time of his death, taking part in all its actions. As a firm disciplinarian and executive officer, in addition to his high qualities for personal courage and judgment, he had no superior in the service. He conspicuously led his brigade in the celebrated charge of Pickett's Men at Gettysburg; advancing in front of his line, waving his hat upon the point of his sabre, and cheering his men on, when he was shot down after having taken the first line and guns of the enemy. He was found mortally wounded among the foremost ranks of the dead and dying, taken charge of by Maj.-Gen. Hancock, his old companion in arms of the United States Army, and sent to the 11th Corps hospital at Gettysburg, where he died of his wounds on the following day. Fallen, a noble soldier in his harness, he lies near the field of his honor and glory; buried with the speedy shrift of the times of war, but his memory ever preserved with those who knew him well—as the brave soul, the kind heart, the cheerful temper he always was.

Gen. Armistead was a widower; and was killed, leaving only one child — a son — who, although quite a youth at the time, was his father's aide-de-camp — W. Keith Armistead.

SOURCE: Walter Harrison, Pickett’s Men: A Fragment of War History, p. 33-5

William Roane Aylett: Colonel, 53rd Virginia Infantry CSA & Great Grandson of Patrick Henry

William Roane Aylett [son of Colonel William Roane Aylett & Alice Brockenborough], of Newport News, descends from one of the pioneer settlers of Virginia, and from a very old family in England. The name originally appeared in the latter county as Ayloffe, and is found in Braxted Magna, in Essex. In 1612, Sir William Aylcffe, of Braxted Magna, was knighted by King James I., and later created a baronet. He married Catherine Sterne, had three sons and four daughters, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir Benjamin Ayloffe. About this time the spelling of the name is found in many forms, including: Ayliffe, Ailett, Aylett and Ayloff. Sir Benjamin Ayloffe was a "high minded, grand old English gentleman, of great nobilitie of soul, tenderness of heart in all things and times, an unswerved Royalist to the last." He married three times, and had issue only by the second wife. Margaret Fanshame, who died in 1662. They were: William, Benjamin, Henry, Captain John and Catherine.

The youngest son, Captain John Aylett, came to Virginia in 1656. He had a wife Anne, and had three sons: Philip, mentioned below; Benjamin, born 1660; William, 1662; and two daughters. Philip Aylett, son of Captain John and Anne Aylett, moved to King William county, Virginia,

in 1686, and founded the family seat at Fairfield. His only known child, Colonel William Aylett, of Fairfield, who bore the arms of Aylett of Braxted Magna, England, was clerk of the county court from 1702 to 1714, member of the house of burgesses, 1723 to 1726, and a vestryman of St. John's parish in 1731. He married Sibylla Hubard, and they had children: Philip, William, Benjamin, John, Elizabeth, Judith and Anne. The second son, Captain William Aylett, born 1700, died 1744; his will proved August 28; his executors were: Major Lawrence Washington, Augustine Washington, Philip Aylett. Anne, youngest daughter of Colonel William Aylett, married Augustine Washington, brother of George Washington. Their portraits are now in the possession of William Roane Aylett. The eldest son, Philip Aylett, resided at Fairfield, married Martha Dandridge, and had children: Unity, William, Anne, and John. Colonel William Aylett, senior son of Philip and Martha (Dandridge) Aylett, was born 1743, and was a very prominent man of King William county, vestryman of St. John's parish; a member of the house of burgesses; member of the Virginia conventions of 1775-76, and a warm personal friend of General Washington. He resigned his seat in the legislature, May 22, 1776, to accept a commission from the American congress as deputy commissary general of the forces in Virginia. He died at Yorktown in 1781. He married, in 1766, Mary Macon, and their son, Colonel Philip Aylett married Elizabeth Henry, daughter of Patrick Henry. Colonel Philip Aylett held a general's commission in the war of 1812, and possessed a very large plantation at Montville, the ancestral home in King William county, on which multitudes of slaves were employed in the cultivation of cotton, corn and tobacco. Like all of his family, he adhered to the Episcopal church, and was a stanch Democrat in political principle. Colonel Philip Aylett married Judith Page Waller, and had children: Patrick Henry, William Roane, Patty Waller and Rosalie.

William Roane Aylett, junior son of General Philip and Judith P. (Waller) Aylett, was born in 1832, on the paternal plantation in Montville, and was educated under private tutors and at Rumford Academy and the University of Virginia, graduating from the latter institution in both academic and law courses. He engaged in the practice of law in his native county, in which he was very busily occupied until the outbreak of the war between the states. As soon as war appeared inevitable, he organized a company of men, which was attached to the Fifty-third Virginia Regiment of Volunteers, and was elected its first captain. He was soon promoted lieutenant-colonel, and at the time of his retirement was in command of the regiment as colonel, the organization forming a part of Pickett's division, Armistead's brigade. At the battle of Gettysburg, he received a severe wound, and suffered minor injuries on various other occasions. At Sailor's Creek he was made prisoner' and was subsequently paroled, after which he returned to his law practice, and made himself famous. For sixteen years he was commonwealth's attorney. For many years he was a vestryman of the Episcopal church, was a member of Pickett's Camp, Confederate Veterans, and in politics a sound Democrat. He died in 1900. In 1858 he married Alice Brockenborough, born 1838, died 1895. Children: 1. Sallie, married Richard T. Goodwin, and had children: Richard and Sallie. 2. Pattie Waller, wife of Dr. George Carrington Callaway, had children: Alice, Carrington, Henry, Edward, Pattie, Aylett. 3. Philip, married Christianna Fernquest, and had a daughter, Elsie. 4. Alice Page, married Dr. Moses T. Hoge, Jr., and became the mother of Alice. Bessie, William A., and Susan. 5. William Roane, of further mention below [omitted]. 6. Bessie B., wife of Austin B. Mitchell, and mother of Austin and Pattie Mitchell. 7. Patrick Henry, single.

SOURCE: Lyon Gardiner Tyler, Editor, Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Volume 5, p. 1089

For chart of William Roane Aylett’s line of descent from Patrick Henry see HERE.