Gettysburg personalities: Richard Ewell

After the death of Lt. General Stonewall Jackson at Chancellorsville in May of 1863, the Army of Northern Virginia was reorganized into three corps. Prior to Jackson's death, Lee's army had consisted of two large corps, commanded by Jackson (II Corps) and Lt. General James Longstreet (I Corps.)

After the reorganization, Longstreet retained command of the changed I Corps, and two of Jackson's division commanders were promoted from Major General to Lt. General and were given command of the other two corps. II Corps' new commander was Richard S. Ewell and A.P. Hill became the commander of the newly formed III Corps. Ewell was promoted Lt. General with a date of rank one day earlier than Hill, thus becoming the third-highest ranking officer in the Army of Northern Virginia, behind only Longstreet and Lee.

There were several differences between Stonewall Jackson and Richard Ewell. For one thing, Jackson was pious, took his religion seriously, started each battle by raising his left arm heavenward, as if blessing the battlefield or perhaps beseeching the Almighty for victory. He never explained, that I could find, and I suppose none had the courage to ask. He continued this odd practice until a Yankee bullet or piece of shrapnel violated his middle finger in mid-blessing one day. Jackson refused to have the finger amputated.

Ewell, on the other hand, was unabashedly profane; one can easily visualize clouds of blue smoke emanating from his mouth as he cursed that proverbial blue streak. Of course, even so, he couldn't hold a candle to his fellow division commander, Major General Jubal Early, who worked in profanity the way Michelangelo had worked in marble. Jube was the acknowledged master in that area. Early and Ewell had been division commanders under Jackson, and it might be possible (I only offer this as conjecture from my reading) that Ewell was a bit under the influence of the brash Early, even after he became Early's commanding officer. I ask you to keep this thought in mind as we later speak of the end of day one at Gettysburg.

Perhaps the most important difference, in my mind at least, between Ewell and Stonewall Jackson was this: Jackson was an intuitive commander of large numbers of men on the battlefield, used to making independent decisions and able to adapt to rapidly changing conditions with the ebb and flow of battle. Jackson was as close to Robert E. Lee as perhaps any other general when it came to being able to see the big picture and being able to form reactive strategies. Lee was a person who gave open-ended orders to his corps commanders, and gave them leeway to do what they did best. Lee did not micromanage his commanders. This worked well with Jackson and Longstreet (also a legendary self-starter.)

Ewell, in contrast, wouldn't do anything major without specific orders. Ewell was a fine soldier and tenacious in battle when given a task to accomplish on the battlefield. That shouldn't be doubted. But he was also a "consensus man" who sought advice from his division commanders, especially Jubal Early.

A third difference between Jackson and Ewell is probably not relevant to Gettysburg, but bears mentioning. Ewell, though profane, was compassionate with his soldiers, took care of them whenever he could. Jackson drove his men to the point of exhaustion, sometimes marching them barefoot in the snow and reprimanding brigade commanders for resting them. Jackson was much more like Grant was on the Northern side, I think, with regard to being willing to take casualties. Gettysburg, however, was not a place for compassion or for avoiding casualties.

But it was Jackson, on his deathbed, who recommended Ewell to General Lee, and it is probably unlikely that Ewell would have been given command of II Corps and promoted to Lt. General, had it not been for this recommendation; Lee hadn't known much about, or at least not thought about Ewell that much before Jackson's recommendation. Jackson's recommendation was, however, gold to Robert E. Lee, and so it came to pass.

Richard Stoddert Ewell was - bar none - the most bizarre senior officer in the Confederate Army; the word "eccentric" simply doesn't do him justice. Wounded countless times, given to chronic illness - both real and in his mind - profane almost beyond belief, a man who had convinced himself he was being eaten up inside by something and would eat little else but a gruel of grain and milk; a man so nervous and high strung that he couldn't bear sleeping in a bed lying flat and spent nights curled around a camp stool; a man with an annoying quavering shrill voice and pronounced lisp which grew greater the more excited he got, which was frequently; who was given to carrying on conversations with himself, often stopping in mid-sentence when speaking to others to observe such things as - "I wonder why Davis made me a general?" - before continuing as if nothing were unusual in talking like that; a man who walked with a wooden leg, having lost his leg to amputation after being severely wounded at Second Bull Run (Second Manassas); a former expert horseman and dashing calvary commander who now went to battle in a buggy.

After his amputation, Ewell had been nursed back to health for several months by his first cousin, a well-to-do widow from Tennessee by the name of Lizinka Brown. Ewell and Lizinka had flirted as teenagers but she had married Mr. Brown and nothing came of the flirtation. Circumstances were different now, however, and, during Ewell's months-long convalescence, love was rekindled in the crusty heart of the lifelong bachelor. Near-death, which often brings solemn (if sometimes short-lived) promises to God, coupled with new-found love and marriage, tempered General Ewell. At least it cleaned up his mouth and calmed him down to where he was only greatly abnormal. Even so, he would often still introduce his new wife, absentmindedly, as "Mrs. Brown," and still held forth with his internal conversations. But he was quieted, and "...no longer came crashing from the trees on horseback or jumping his horse into rivers without first seeing how deep the water was."

Thus, newly married and fitted with a wooden leg, just days after the death of the great Stonewall Jackson, did the new commander of II Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, the new Lt. General Richard Ewell, report back for duty to General Lee. A month or so later he would be in Gettysburg.

---------

The above is my summary of Ewell, gleaned from reading several books, some written by his contemporaries. Below are a few descriptive excerpts from some far greater writers (actual historians!) than the equally quirky Relax Max.

---------

Larry Tagg:

Rather short at 5 feet 8 inches, he had just a fringe of brown hair on an otherwise bald, bomb-shaped head. Bright, bulging eyes protruded above a prominent nose, creating an effect which many likened to a bird—an eagle, some said, or a woodcock—especially when he let his head droop toward one shoulder, as he often did, and uttered strange speeches in his shrill, twittering lisp. He had a habit of muttering odd remarks in the middle of normal conversation, such as "Now why do you suppose President Davis made me a major general anyway?" He could be spectacularly, blisteringly profane. He was so nervous and fidgety he could not sleep in a normal position, and spent nights curled around a camp stool. He had convinced himself that he had some mysterious internal "disease," and so subsisted almost entirely on frumenty, a dish of hulled wheat boiled in milk and sweetened with sugar. A "compound of anomalies" was how one friend summed him up. He was the reigning eccentric of the Army of Northern Virginia, and his men, who knew at first hand his bravery and generosity of spirit, loved him all the more for it.

— Larry Tagg, The Generals of Gettysburg

Misc:

During the winter of 1861 - 1862, Lizinka Campbell Brown, one of the richest women in America, went to visit her son in the Confederate army in northern Virginia. He was the chief aide to Gen. Richard S. Ewell, a lisping, pop-eyed, beaked-nosed, baldheaded man who also happened to be Lizinka's cousin and love interest. Ewell courted and proposed to Lizinka during her stay, but she coyly refused to commit herself.

Misc:

Ewell was known for his odd sense of humor. He was worried that he might be killed in Pennsylvania, specifically at Cashtown, where he thought the great battle would be fought. "It isn't that I mind getting killed," he said. "It's the idea that my name will go down in history as being killed at a place called Cashtown."

Misc:

On June 6, 1862, after a violent skirmish with Union cavalry, Ewell revealed a previously unseen, tender side to his surly character - he personally loaded each of his wounded into ambulances. When he finished, he dug into his meager purse and gave most of his money to a local farmer, who had volunteered to house the injured. The funds were to be used for whatever his men might need.

Misc:

Had two horses shot out from under him in battle at Mexico City. Was wounded fighting Apaches under Cochise. When not fighting Indians, Ewell worked a small silver mine he had come into possession of, to no avail. Had nearly-spent bullets bounce off his chest two times during the Civil War.

Misc:

While riding down from Seminary Ridge in late afternoon of Gettysburg day one, with some of his officers, was shot in the leg by a Union sharpshooter. They were shocked. He laughed. It was in his wooden leg.

Misc:

Seriously considered that Stonewall Jackson was insane and never backed off that belief. "He (Jackson) is as crazy as a March Hare. But he has method in his madness." [ The reason Ewell pronounced Jackson insane was because Jackson refused to season his food with black pepper because he claimed it weakened his left leg. Ewell thought that was enough evidence that Jackson wasn't all there. Oddly, Ewell thought his own quirks were quite normal.]

Misc:

Born in Washington D.C. Graduated 13th in his class at West Point. Nicknamed "Baldy."

---------

Glenn Tucker (paraphrased and abridged by RM for this blog post):

By the morning of June 24th, the good citizens of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania had become somewhat used to the Confederate soldiers marching through their town. So far, some 10,300 soldiers had been counted, presumably for the purpose of reporting it to some Federal official, should any appear and ask the number. Soon, they lost count. To the tune of "The Bonnie Blue Flag," Rodes' entire division appeared, marching past the town square. Then, about a half hour later, the curious citizens watched as a carriage pulled by two horses pulled up in front of the Franklin Hotel, followed by a group of horsemen. A thin, sallow-faced man emerged slowly, assisted by some of his escort. The gathered crowd saw that he had a wooden leg and walked with a crutch. He entered the hotel, aided by the other officers, took over the large front parlor, ran up the Confederate flag, and established the headquarters of the Second Corps of Lee's army. General Richard S. Ewell's first order prohibited the sale of intoxicants in the town, and a guard was placed on all stores of liquor. One of the Confederate officers engaged in procuring supplies was one Major Todd, brother of the wife of President Lincoln.

---------

I'm going to leave out the anecdote of Ewell running off a group of Union cavalry in the middle of the night, cursing them insanely as he chased them down the street wearing only his underwear. Or perhaps I didn't leave it out after all.

Ewell lived on his wife's Tennessee estate after being released from prison after the war, and lasted to age 54, not that bad for all he went through. He is buried in Nashville.