Don't forget Lt. Gen. Richard Ewell. The loss of his leg did not impair him much at Gettysburg; in fact, it actually conveyed an advantage in sparing him from a wound. Among the first-hand accounts I have collected that mention Ewell during that battle, the only instance of his disability being a limitation was his inability to climb to the cupola of a church to personally observe the field. On the field he rode a horse, but on the march he was known to ride in a carriage:
- General Ewell, with several of his staff officers, came up to the gallery of the Catholic Church on High Street, for observation from the cupola. As the General was unable to go up, he sat down on a bench not three feet from me up the ladder to the roof and so had to get reports of the battle from aides who called down to the General from time to time. “Things are going splendidly, we are driving them back and gaining everywhere.” [Charles F. McKenna, 150th Pennsylvania, Battle Reminiscences]
- General Ewell has just passed from the R. C. [Roman Catholic?] Church in a carriage – but has driven so rapidly that we had only a glimpse of him. [Diary of Miss Lutie Kealhofer of Hagerstown, Maryland, June 21]
- Ewell is riding around town with his one leg, being followed by an attendant carrying his crutches. [Justus Silliman, 17th Connecticut, at the German Dutch Reformed Church in the southeast end of town]
- During the day, Gen. Ewell, accompanied by Capt. H. B. Richardson, his Chief of Engineers, rode past our brigade and started on a little reconnoitering tour on a road that entered the town where our left rested. We told him it was dangerous. The old General declared that they were fully 1,500 yards distant. He had not proceeded 20 paces when a ball perforated his wooden leg and Richardson was shot through the body. [Civil War Memoirs of Capt. Wm. J. Seymour, Louisiana Tigers, p. 79]
I recollect a few instances in the same battle where partially disabled soldiers still served, especially in a support capacity. Indeed, with dwindling Confederate manpower in the latter part of the war, disabled soldiers were encouraged to take on support roles to free up able-bodied men for the ranks:
- 10 August 1863, order read on dress parade yesterday evening that all men on detached service, as Commissary and Quarter Masters, Sergeants, clerks, etc. must return to their companies and their places filled by disabled soldiers.
[Voices from Company D - a book on the 5th Alabama Infantry]