Richard Stoddert Ewell
Born: February 8, 1817
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Birthplace: Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Father: Dr. Thomas Ewell 1785 – 1846
(Buried: Riverside Cemetery, Madison County, Tennessee)
Mother: Elizabeth Stoddert 1785 – 1859
(Buried: Riverside Cemetery, Madison County, Tennessee)
Wife: Lizinka Campbell Brown 1820 – 1872
(Buried: Nashville City Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee)
Married: May 26, 1863 in Richmond, Virginia
Education:
1840: Graduated from West Point Military Academy (13th in class)
Occupation before war:
1840: Brevet 2nd Lt. United States Army, 1st Dragoons
1840 – 1845: 2nd Lt. United States Army, 1st Dragoons
1840 – 1842: Frontier Duty at Fort Wayne, Indian Territory
1842 – 1843: Frontier Duty at Fort Scott, Kansas
1843: Escort for Santa Fe Traders
1843 – 1844: Frontier Duty at Fort Scott, Kansas
1844 – 1845: Recruiting Duty for United States Army
1845: Frontier Duty at Fort Scott, Kansas
1845: Participated in the March to Arkansas River
1845 – 1847: 1st Lt. United States Army, 1st Dragoons
1845: Frontier Duty at Fort Scott, Kansas
1846: Served on the Coast Survey
1846: Recruiting Service for United States Army
1846 – 1848: Served in the Mexican War
1847 – 1849: Brevet Captain United States Army
1848 – 1850: Recruiting Service for United States Army
1849 – 1861: Captain United States Army, 1st Dragoons
1850 – 1851: Frontier Duty at Rayado, New Mexico
1861: Resigned from United States Army on May 7, 1861
Civil War Career:
1861: Colonel of Confederate Army Cavalry
1861: Wounded during the Skirmish at Fairfax Court House
1861 – 1862: Brigadier General of Confederate Army Infantry
1861: Participated in First Battle of Bull Run saw little action
1862: Participated in the Shenandoah Valley Campaign
1862: Participated in the Second Battle of Bull Run
1862: Wounded in left leg had to be amputated Battle of Groveton
1863 – 1865: Lt. General of Confederate Army Infantry
1863 – 1864: Commander of 2nd Army Corps, Army of Northern Virginia
1863: Participated in the Battle of Gettysburg wounded in wooden leg
1864: Participated in the Battle of the Wilderness
1864: Participated in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
1864 – 1865: Garrison Commander in Richmond, Virginia
1865: Surrendered and Captured during Battle of Saylor's Creek
1865: Prisoner of War held at Fort Warren, Boston Harbor until July
Occupation after War:
1865 – 1872: Farmer in Springfield, Tennessee
Leased a cotton plantation in Mississippi for planting cotton
President of Columbia Female Academy board of trustees
Communicant for St. Peter's Episcopal Church
President of Maury County Agricultural Society
Died: January 25, 1872
Place of Death: Spring Hill, Tennessee
Cause of Death: Pneumonia
Age at time of Death: 54 years old
Burial Place: Nashville City Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee
Posting for birthday.
Ewell's time as a Confederate commander was fascinating. The guy was a bit of an odd-ball. He spoke with a noticable lisp, and as photos can attest his eyes and nose made him look bird-like. Had some odd habits; he usually slept sitting in a chair, curled up in a ball.
Ewell's record as a commander was rather mixed. He was Jackson's right hand man in the Valley, before being wounded at Groveton, losing a leg in the process. He would marry his cousin, Lizinka Brown, during his recuperation.
By the time he returned to duty in mid-May 1863, General Jackson had fallen, and a replacement was needed. In the reorganization of the army, Ewell was promoted to Lt. General and given command of Second Corps, containing most of Jackson's old corps. It seems that Lee promoted A. P. Hill as he was his own favorite, while Ewell was Jackson's. Ewell had barely served under Lee prior to his wounding at Groveton, so was not well known by Lee, whereas Lee was well acquainted with A. P. Hill, who had come to his rescue at Antietam. This factors into Lee's personnel management between these two excellent division commanders, who would both underperform as corps commanders.
Ewell would start off strong with a second victory at Winchester, where his troops overran and bagged 5000 Union troops under Robert Milroy. Soon after, however, Ewell's legacy would be tainted by his performance at Gettysburg. Here, his men helped rout the Union XI Corps on the first day. Rather than carry on the fight to Cemetery Hill and end the battle there and then, Ewell held back. He was crucified by historians for years for this decision, though recent studies of the battle seem to justify Ewell's decision. His two lead divisions had been fought out from the day's fighting already, and his third division under Johnson hadn't arrived until near nightfall; night battles were not something too common in this day and age. Indeed, the very reason Ewell was here instead of Stonewall Jackson was because the latter was scouting for such a nighttime action at Chancellorsville.
I am not enough of a Gettysburg expert to comment on his performance on the next two days, but it seems his performance wasn't well regarded by many in the rank and file, many having gone from excitement at his promotion and victory at Second Winchester, to wondering "if only Jackson were here..."
Ewell didn't play a large role in the Fall 1863 campaigning, mostly being absent due to complications from his missing leg. While in winter camp, officers like Stephen Ramseur soured on Ewell further, and were especially frustrated with his wife's presence in camp. I believe it was Stephen Ramseur who once remarked about whether Ewell, his wife or his chief of staff Sandie Pendleton commanded the Second Corps, and that he preferred the young Pendleton over the other two.
Of course, once the Overland Campaign began, Ewell would see action once more. His performance at the Wilderness may have been his finest performance of the war. His lone corps held up against Warren's & Sedgwick's Corps for most of the battle, keeping Lee's left stable while the latter focused on the volitile southern front. On the second day, when General Gordon approached Ewell with his plan to roll up the Union flank, Ewell initially demurred before giving the go-ahead late in the day. The attack was a minor success, capturing two Union brigadiers and hundreds of prisoners. Gordon and others would bemoan that the attack didn't get immediately implemented, and that if it was, a greater success would have been had. Indeed, Gordon went so far as to claim that the go-ahead was actually Lee's influence; that he had overruled Ewell's (really, Jubal Early's) objections and insisted Gordon attack.
This last story has been torn to pieces by modern historians, who point out that Lee had all but taken command of the rebel right flank for that entire day, and didn't visit Ewell's HQ at any point for this to have been the case. It seems that Ewell had changed his mind, or maybe he even planned for the attack to go in later on to maximize its success; as shown later at Cedar Creek and Fort Stedman, Gordon's propensity for surprise attacks proved to lose steam and suffer heavily from Union counterattacks. By attacking near nightfall, Union troops could only stem the tide before bedding down for the night, and were unlikely to counterattack for previously explained reasons.
Ewell's performance around Spotsylvania is what destroyed his reputation for good. His troops manned "the Mule Shoe" salient, a precarious position that should have been abandoned at the first oppurtunity. This was proven on May 10th, when Doles' Brigade was nearly destroyed by a Union assault on his sector of the line. That night, when asked if his men could hold the salient or if they should withdraw to a reduced line, Ewell chose the former, saying with artillery support, his troops can hold it without issue. Thus, Ewell deserves at least some of the blame for the disaster of May 12th.
During the Union assault, Ewell was by Lee's side. He struggled to rally his men, shouting abuses at them and even threatening to strike them with his sword. Lee had enough of this, and told Ewell to back off, saying he couldn't control himself, let alone his troops. It seems this incident destroyed Lee's faith in Ewell.
Eventually, partly thanks to General Gordon's efforts and Lee's shuffling of reserves to seal the breach, the Army of Northern Virginia avoided destruction. Ewell's Corps once fielded 17610 infantrymen at the the Wilderness. After the bloodbath at the Mule Shoe, that number dropped to less than 9000.
Ewell would have one last shot at saving himself from removal. After repulsing a Union assault on May 18th, Lee sent Ewell's Corps on a flanking attack, targetted around Harris' Farm. This went poorly; despite some early successes against overwhelmed Union heavy artillerists, Union reinforcements stopped his momentum. Ewell's facilitating nearly cost him what was left of his corps; luckily, he was able to withdraw his command in the darkness. His corps lost another 900 men in the fighting. Ewell's career also died here.
After retreating to Hanover Junction, Ewell took ill once more, his stump leg still causing issues. Jubal Early was soon promoted to replace Ewell, who was ingominiously reassigned to command the Department of Richmond. While Ewell would theoretically be in charge of the troops defending north of Petersburg, he'd often be superceded by other officers, like Richard Anderson, Charles Field, Longstreet, and even Lee himself.
Ewell was breifly considered to replace Leonidas Polk in command of a corps around Atlanta. His own wife angled her beloved for such a position, but nothing came of it. Ewell remained around Richmond until April 1865.
Ewell's final combat came around Saylor's Creek. There he commanded a provisional corps, made up of troops that had been left behind around Richmond when Petersburg fell; these included Joseph Kershaw's Division of Longstreet's Corps; a hodgepodge division of volunteers, reservists, militia, and heavy artillerists under General Custis Lee; and a battalion of naval personnel. This force faced off against Horatio Wright's VI Corps. Heavy fighting ensued along the creek, with Crutchfield's Heavy Artillery Brigade and Commodore Tucker's Naval Battalion doing hard fighting. However, Ewell's Corps quickly disintegrated. Mass surrenders ensued, and Ewell fell into Union captivity. Thus ended Ewell's military career.
Ewell fascinates me personnally. Comparing him to A. P. Hill, Ewell's record was far better as a corps commander than his fellow Virginian. Certainly his lows were awful, such as at the Mule Shoe & Harris' Farm, but whereas I struggle to find high points for Hill in corps command, that comes with no difficulty for Ewell. While he wasn't facing top-flight officers around Second Winchester, a lesser commander would have likely not succeeded in bagging so much of Milroy's force. He also held up his end of the battlefield quite well at the Wilderness, while holding off two of Grant's corps; his decision to hold off on Gordon's plan until late in the day pointed to a excellent sense of perception. Certainly, that perception was quite absent at the Mule Shoe & Harris' farm a few weeks later.
On top of this, Ewell seemed to come to the conclusion early on that slavery was a milestone around the South's neck; he infamously told Davis after First Manassas that the only way the Confederacy wins the war is if they freed the slaves. When the Confederacy finally decided to experiment with the idea of black soldiers in 1865, it was Ewell's staff who took the lead in organizing recruitment; of course, there was no time to implement this, as Richmond fell a month after the new recruitment law was in place.
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