Edward Porter Alexander (26 May 1835 – 28 April 1910) was a Brigadier-General of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War.
Biography[]
Edward Porter Alexander was born in Washington, Georgia, United States on 26 May 1835, the sixth of ten children born to a family of wealthy planters. He graduated from West Point in 1857, third in a class of 38 cadets, and he served in the US Army Signal Corps before resigning on 1 May 1861 to join the Confederate States Army at the start of the American Civil War. At the First Battle of Bull Run, he made history by being the first commander to signal fellow soldiers on the battlefield with flags from a long distance, warning Nathan George Evans that his flank was being turned; this allowed for Joseph E. Johnston to come to his aid and win the battle. On 31 December 1861, Alexander was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel, and he was Chief of Ordinance of the Army of Northern Virginia under Johnston. During the Seven Days' Battles, he collected intelligence on the location of the Union forces, and he commanded the army's artillery at the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg; James Longstreet put a lot of pressure on him when he left it up to him to determine when the Union artillery had been suppressed (in preparation for George Pickett's disastrous charge). Alexander fought in his home state before fighting in all of the battles of the 1864 Overland Campaign, and his suggestion to scatter the Army of Northern Virginia rather than surrender it at Appomattox was ignored by Robert E. Lee. After the war, Alexander became a math teacher and author, and he died in 1910 at the age of 74.