Richard Brooke Garnett

Richard Brooke Garnett, a member of Tidewater aristocracy, was born November 21, 1817, at the family mansion in Essex County, Virginia. In 1841 he and his cousin, Robert Selden Garnett, inseparable in their boyhood, graduated in the same West Point class. His military service prior to the War for Southern Independence consisted of service in the Seminole War, the western frontier, a non-combat role in the Mexican War and the Mormon Utah Expedition. Resigning his commission as a captain at the outbreak of hostilities, he tendered his services to the new Southern nation and was commissioned major in the Confederate Regular Army on May 17, 1861. Initially engaged in garrison duty he was not pesent at Manassas for the opening Confederate victory.
On November 14, 1861, Garnett was promoted to brigadier general and was immediately assigned to the Shenandoah Valley, coming under command of General Thomas J. Jackson. By spring 1862, the new brigadier commanded Jackson’s old troops, now known as the Stonewall Brigade and composed of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, 27th and 33rd Virginia Infantry Regiments.
Garnett, like all future commanders of the brigade, assumed responsibility under the shadow of its former leader and would be closely watched by Jackson to see how he was handling his “Old Brigade”. As it turned out, Garnett’s personal attention to the men, combined with the brigade’s dedication to the Southern Cause, formed a comfortable bond between commander and commanded. The Stonewallers experienced something new under Garnett. They found him to be sympathetic to their problems both as units and as individuals. He took particular pains to look after the care and comfort of his charges, much to the dissatisfaction of “Old Blue Light”. Yet Jackson could find no fault in the military handling of the brigade, for it was the best in his Valley Army and he knew it. Then came the battle of Kernstown, Virginia…
In late March Jackson received information from his cavalry commander, Brig. Gen. Turner Ashby, that the Federals were leaving the Valley. Fearful that this was a threat to Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard’s force at Manassas, Jackson set his small army in motion to intercept the Yankees. After an exhausting march of 36 miles, they caught up to the retiring army of Brig. Gen. James Shields on March 23, a Sunday. The Sabbath was not a day the pious Stonewall desired for battle.
Acting on Ashby’s intelligence that a rear-guard of only four regiments were to their immediate front, Jackson sent orders to Garnett to prepare the Stonewall Brigade for action, along with other elements of the Valley Army who had survived the forced march. The engagement grew from skirmishing fire to a full blown battle. Instead of four regiments, Jackson was facing Shield’s entire army.
The Stonewallers were in the thick of it from the outset as the unequal contest swayed back and forth. After two hours of unceasing combat, Garnett’s command began to run low on ammunition. None was at hand since the wagons had been left far behind on the forced march. The brigade now found itself beset by superior numbers attacking from three directions. Garnett made the only logical military decision that would save his fatigued and ammunition-less command. He wrote: “…had I not done so we would have run imminent risk of being routed by superior numbers, which would have resulted probably in the loss of part of our artillery and also endangered our transportation.”
Noting a regiment advancing to his support (Jackson’s last reserve), he hurried a courier to have them stop and form a line upon which the brigade could fall back and rally. He then ordered the battered and bloody brigade to the rear, an action which was to cost Garnett his command and the stigma of court martial charges brought by the enraged army commander.
Relieved from command on April 1, he was ordered arrested and sent under guard to Harrisonburg. His men were furious and considered the action against their leader as a gross injustice. As for Garnett, he, whom Walter Harrison of Maj. Gen. George Pickett’s staff described as the “brave, proud and sensitive spirit,” it “was a cruel blow.” In August 1862, with only Jackson and his aide, Captain Alexander Pendleton, giving testimony, thetrial was suspended due to the pressing duties of renewed campaigning. General Robert E. Lee’s Maryland Campaign was underway and the services of a first-rate brigadier were sorely needed. By order of Lee, Garnett was released from arrest and assigned to Maj. Gen. James Longstreet First Corps.
Garnett campaigned zealously to get a new command and soon was given a brigade in George E. Pickett’s division. He led it well in the 1862 Maryland Campaign. On July 3, 1863, Garnett’s brigade was in the front rank of the Pickett-Pettigrew charge at Gettysburg. Extremely ill, the general was wearing a heavy overcoat in spite of the heat. Garnett got to within twenty yards of the Federal lines when he disappeared in the gunsmoke and confusion. His riderless horse soon galloped toward the rear. Presumably, Federal soldiers stripped his dead body of its sword and other insignia before burying Garnett in one of the mass graves on the battlefield. The marker for General Richard Brooke Garnett in the Confederate Section of Hollywood Cemetery, reads: "Among the Confederate Soldiers' Graves in this area is the probable resting place of Brigadier General Richard Brooke Garnett C.S.A. who was killed in action July 3, 1863, as he led his Brigade in the charge of Pickett's Division on the final day of the battle of Gettysburg. First buried on the battlefield, General Garnett's remains were likely removed to this area in 1872 along with other Confederate dead brought from Gettysburg by the Hollywood Memorial Association. Requiescat in Pace Richard Brooke Garnett 1817 - 1863."
Colonel Eppa Hunton, who was to succeed Garnett, said of him: “He was one of the noblest and bravest men I ever knew.” He had given his life to erase forever the one blight on his distinguished record.