{⋆★⋆} BG Sorrel, Gilbert Moxley

Gilbert Moxley Sorrel​

Born: February 23, 1838

Birthplace: Savannah, Georgia

Father: Francis Sorrel 1793 – 1870

(Buried: North Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia)​

Mother: Matilda Aminta Douglass Moxley 1806 – 1860

(Buried: North Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia)​

Wife: Kate Amelie DuBingnon 1846 – 1919 (11 – 22 – 1867)

(Buried: North Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia)​

Children:

One Son didn't live to adulthood​

Occupation before War:

Clerk for banking house for Georgia Central Railroad

Civil War Career:

1861: Private in Georgia Hussars​

​

1861: Volunteer Aide to James Longstreet​

​

1861 – 1862: Captain & Chief of Staff to James Longstreet​

​

1862 – 1863: Major & Chief of Staff to James Longstreet​

​

1863 – 1864: Lt. Colonel & Chief of Staff to Lt. General Longstreet​

​

1864 – 1865: Brigadier General in the Confederate Army​

​

1864: Served in the Battle of Petersburg Wounded during battle​

​

1865: Served in Battle of Hatcher's Run Wounded during battle

Occupation after War:

Executive for Ocean Steamship Company​

​

Member of Board of Georgia Historical Society​

​

Escort for General Robert E. Lee when he visited Savannah, Georgia​

​

Wrote his memoirs being published in the year of 1905 after his death​

Died: August 10, 1901

Place of Death: Roanoke, Virginia

Cause of Death: Not known

Age at time of Death: 63 years old

Burial Place: North Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia

 

[Pollaco]

The memoirs about his career were "Recollections of a Confederate Officer". by Gilbert M. Sorrel. The majority of the war was served as a staff officer and only about 4 months in field command.But even with such a short time in this position He was wounded 3 times.The command he last held was Wright's old brigade in Mahone's division in the 3rd Corps.

 

[Luke Freet]

Gilbert Moxley Sorrel​

Born: February 23, 1838 View attachment 345942

Birthplace: Savannah, Georgia

Father: Francis Sorrel 1793 – 1870

(Buried: North Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia)​

Mother: Matilda Aminta Douglass Moxley 1806 – 1860

(Buried: North Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia)​

Wife: Kate Amelie DuBingnon 1846 – 1919 (11 – 22 – 1867)

(Buried: North Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia)​

Children:

One Son didn't live to adulthood​

Occupation before War:

Clerk for banking house for Georgia Central Railroad View attachment 345943​

Civil War Career:

1861: Private in Georgia Hussars​

​

1861: Volunteer Aide to James Longstreet​

​

1861 – 1862: Captain & Chief of Staff to James Longstreet​

​

1862 – 1863: Major & Chief of Staff to James Longstreet​

​

1863 – 1864: Lt. Colonel & Chief of Staff to Lt. General Longstreet​

​

1864 – 1865: Brigadier General in the Confederate Army​

​

1864: Served in the Battle of Petersburg Wounded during battle​

​

1865: Served in Battle of Hatcher's Run Wounded during battle View attachment 345944​

Occupation after War:

Executive for Ocean Steamship Company​

​

Member of Board of Georgia Historical Society​

​

Escort for General Robert E. Lee when he visited Savannah, Georgia​

​

Wrote his memoirs being published in the year of 1905 after his death​

Died: August 10, 1901

Place of Death: Roanoke, Virginia

Cause of Death: Not known

Age at time of Death: 63 years old

Burial Place: North Laurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah, Georgia

View attachment 345945​

I visited the Sorrel house in Savannah (owned by his father Francis before his second wife Matilda killed herself) a year ago. His father was born in Haiti to a French father before the revolution there. The tour guide claimed that his mother was a black slave woman on the property his father owned, making him half-black and his son Moxley a quarter-black. This apparently wasn't revealed until after Moxley's death. I have my doubts about this story, as I've only heard it from this tour guide and nowhere else.

 

[gentlemanrob]

Happy Birthday Brig. General Moxley Sorrel! Salutes remembering General Moxley Sorrel on his birthday.

 

[ErnieMac]

The memoirs about his career were "Recollections of a Confederate Officer". by Gilbert M. Sorrel. The majority of the war was served as a staff officer and only about 4 months in field command.But even with such a short time in this position He was wounded 3 times.The command he last held was Wright's old brigade in Mahone's division in the 3rd Corps.

Recollections of a Staff Confederate Officer is available online for free for those interested.

Recollections of a Confederate staff officer : Sorrel, G. Moxley (Gilbert Moxley), 1838-1901 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive

315 p. 22 cm

archive.org

 

[Luke Freet]

At the Battle of the Wilderness, after Martin Smith discovered that the unfinished railroad bed would allow Confederate troops to sneak behind the union flank and strike Hancock in a weakpoint in his line, Longstreet assigned Sorrel, then his Chief of Staff, to lead four brigades (all of which were led by men twice his rank) on this assault. Sorrel carried out the task with vigor, and his attack would send Hancock to a route. He would be present for Longstreet's wounding; I believe he was one of two riders who rode up to the firing troops to order a ceasefire. He was promised his brigadier star that night by Lee, though it wouldn't come until later in the year, when he was permanently assigned to command Wright's old Brigade.

 

[USS ALASKA]

Florida Historical Quarterly
Volume 38
Number 2 Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 38,
Issue 2
Article 8
1959
Book Reviews
Florida Historical Society

This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Florida Historical Quarterly by an authorized editor of STARS. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Sorrell, Gilbert Moxley. Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer, Edited by Bell Irvin Wiley. Monographs, Sources, and Reprints in Southern History (Jackson, Tenn., 1958. McCowat-Mercer Press, 1958. Illustrations, appendixes, index. $5.00.)

This is another volume in the series of contemporary Confederate accounts of the Civil War reprinted under the general editorship of Professor Bell Irvin Wiley. It is one of the most important of the Southern Civil War sources, and in this writer's opinion one of the most readable of the volumes in this series of reprints. Furthermore, it makes this all-important document readily available to the Civil War specialist for the first time: the earlier editions were small and most of the copies have passed into private collections.

The Recollections of Brigadier General Sorrel begin with the events immediately preceding Sumter, but do not enlarge upon military affairs until the author receives a volunteer commission as an aid to General Longstreet just in time to participate in the fighting at the first Battle of Bull Run. From this time on Sorrel was in the midst of nearly all the important engagements of the Army of Northern Virginia for the remainder of the War. His only long absences from duty with it came when his organization was sent to Eastern Tennessee to cooperate with General Bragg, and later, in 1865, when he was severely wounded just before the end of the struggle and was compelled to miss the final scene at Appomattox.

During all these campaigns, General Sorrel was an important staff officer or a field commander. As such he was not only associated with the ranking commanders in the Confederate Army, but usually participated in the planning as well as the execution of the events he describes. He frequently understood the causes for failure or success-why individuals performed or failed to perform the assignments given to them. Further, he was often in a position to evaluate the effectiveness of many of the Federal Commanders. Directly or indirectly, he had an intimate acquaintance with many of the leaders of both sides whose names crowd the pages of our Civil War history.

The shortcomings of the work detract little from the book's value. The chief one is the fact that the account was not written until some 35-40 years after the events had taken place. Another is the lack of continuity-for which the author makes his own apologies. It sometimes makes one wonder what will come in the next paragraph, but again does not detract from the historical value of the account. These characteristics probably stem from the fact that Sorrel died shortly after completing his Recollections. It is likely that he intended to "polish it up" before submitting it for publication. This is further supported by the fact that the first edition was not printed until 1905, or about four years after the author's death.

Compensation for these minor defects is to be found in the accuracy of Sorrel's contributions. He had a keen sense of history as he had served for a long time as an official of the Georgia Historical Society. He treated his experiences with a remarkable objectivity. He used a free and easy style which made his experiences both readable and sincere; and he maintained a well-balanced approach in his evaluations of his contemporaries. His sense of humor persisted. He was loyal to his state and cause, modest, honest, and sincere in his presentations. He avoided the mistake made by so many others-that of blood-curdling, wild-eyed accounts of fighting-sometimes magnified greatly by the intervening years. Rather, he portrayed many neglected incidents that occurred between the major battles and captured the real atmosphere of the period.

The Recollections also point up the growing disparity in the material resources available to the North and South as the war dragged on. The winter of 1862-63 showed the vast superiority of the Federals in this respect for the first time in such items as coffee, shoes, fresh meat and bacon. During Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania Sorrel was more than impressed by the fact that the ". . . drain of war had not here shown itself. . . .", and that good roads and rich crops were in direct contrast to conditions in the South. Later, he commented upon the worn-out condition of the railroads, and the crazy kinds of trains assembled to transport Longstreet's Army to the East Tennessee campaign. During the spring of 1864, he had to spend three days and nights to complete the journey from Richmond to Savannah, Georgia. By mid-spring of 1864 Confederate currency had depreciated to the point where he and other officers circulated a petition asking that the government give them the same rations as the enlisted men. Their pay was not sufficient to purchase food or the essentials of clothing. About the same time he complained that the army was no longer able to keep its ranks filled by enlistments. A few days after Appomattox he contrasted the limitless materiel of the Federal Armies in Richmond with the poor makeshift equipment of his troops.

Professor Wiley has not only included the introduction written for the earlier editions, but has added an excellent introduction of his own. The appendixes of the earlier editions have been supplemented by the addition of several letters and the obituary of General Sorrel. Many good-quality photographs have been included, some of which are not to be found easily in other publications. The present editor has also added a very good index, adequate for all normal requirements.

The publishers have followed their earlier policy of keeping the price of the book within reason, without sacrificing either the quality of the materials or workmanship. The present writer hopes sincerely that when they have completed their presently projected series, they will continue to publish other important and hard-to-find documents of the Civil War.

T. R. PARKER

https://stars.library.ucf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2713&context=fhq

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[Pollaco]

Before becoming Longstreet's aide-de-camp at Manassas Sorrel participated in the capture of Fort Pulaski as a private in the Georgia Hussars.

 

[Pollaco]

"Even Longstreet's most virulent critics have conceded that he put together the best staff employed by any commander , and that his de facto chief of staff,Lt.Col. Moxley Sorrel, was the best staff officer in the Confederacy." Richard L. DiNardo.

 

[ErnieMac]

Sorrel was portrayed by Kieran Mulroney as one of Longstreet's aides in the movie Gettysburg.

 

[Pollaco]

Brother-in-law to Gen. William W. Mackall. Mackall married Sorrell's half sister, Aminta. Sorrell was on Longstreet's staff, Mackall was on A.S. Johnston's and Braxton Bragg's.
.

 

[Pollaco]

One of his occupations after the war was as a cotton broker with his brother Alexander.

 

[Luke Freet]

He had an older brother, Francis Jr., who was a prominent doctor who served in the Mexican War. Sorrel attributes his assignment to Virginia as Longstreet's AAG to Francis pulling strings for him.
Edit: Francis jr was a half brother from Francis Sr.'s prior marriage. I can't remember Francis Sr's first wife, but she died and Francis Sr. remarried to Matilda Moxley (whose surname became Gilbert's middle name and eventually preferred cognomen), and several other children, before committing suicide in 1860, jumping off the balcony of the Sorrel House (apparently she features prominently in Savannah's Ghost Tour scene, as little I care about that).

 

[Pollaco]

One of his occupations after the war was as a cotton broker with his brother Alexander.

Then I may be wrong on his brother's name of Alexander. I knew Moxley was a cotton broker with a brother but wasn't aware of his other half brothers, Francis and Richard.

 

[Pollaco]

He had an older brother, Francis Jr., who was a prominent doctor who served in the Mexican War. Sorrel attributes his assignment to Virginia as Longstreet's AAG to Francis pulling strings for him.

In addition to his brother's "pulling strings'' Sorrel also had some letters of introduction for Gen. Longstreet. Including one from Gen. Beauregard.