Diary of Mary Boykin Chesnut: March 5, 1864

Tom Ferguson walked home with me. He told me of Colonel Dahlgren's¹ death and the horrid memoranda found in his pocket. He came with secret orders to destroy this devoted city, hang the President and his Cabinet, and burn the town! Fitzhugh Lee was proud that the Ninth Virginia captured him.

Found Mrs. Semmes covering her lettuces and radishes as calmly as if Yankee raiders were a myth. While “Beast'” Butler holds Fortress Monroe he will make things lively for us. On the alert must we be now.

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¹ Colonel Ulric Dahlgren was a son of the noted Admiral, John H. Dahlgren, who, in July, 1863, had been placed in command of the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron and conducted the naval operations against Charleston, between July 10 and September 7, 1863. Colonel Dahlgren distinguished himself at Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. The raid in which he lost his life on March 4, 1864, was planned by himself and General Kilpatrick.

SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 294

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