In the narrative of the Civil War, Edward Porter Alexander has loomed larger in death than in life. Just 25 years old when the war broke out, Porter Alexander had already served as an engineer and officer in the U.S. Army, but the native Georgian resigned his commission in May 1861 and joined the Confederacy after his home state seceded.
Though he participated in several battles, he played his biggest role at the Battle of Gettysburg. On the third day, Lee decided to make a thrust at the center of the Union’s line with about 15,000 men spread out over three divisions. Though it is now known as Pickett’s Charge, named after division commander George Pickett, the assignment for the charge was given to Longstreet, whose 1st Corps included Pickett’s division. Longstreet had serious misgivings about Lee’s plan and tried futilely to talk him out of it.
Before he even wrote his memoirs, he wrote a letter in 1877 that was published in the Southern Historical Society, which kept a literary journal that helped develop the “Lost Cause” and became the clearinghouse for many Confederate writers after the war. In this letter, Porter Alexander narrates his account of Gettysburg.
This edition of Edward Porter Alexander at Gettysburg is specially formatted with a Table of Contents and includes images of Porter Alexander and Gettysburg.
