Lewis Addison "Lo" Armistead (18 February 1817 – 5 July 1863) was a Brigadier-General of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. Armistead led his brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg, advancing up to Cemetery Ridge in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the "high water mark of the Confederacy", before being mortally wounded and captured.
Biography[]
Lewis Armistead was born in New Bern, North Carolina on 18 February 1817, the nephew of War of 1812 hero George Armistead and Union governor Edward Stanly and the grandson of congressman John Stanly; his family had been in Virginia since the 1600s, coming to America from Yorkshire in England. Armistead left West Point due to academic failure, as he had trouble with French class, and he broke a plate over the head of fellow cadet Jubal Early, a future fellow Confederate general. In 1839, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the US Army, and he was breveted a Major after fighting at Molino del Rey and being wounded at Chapultepec during the Mexican-American War. He served in the American West during the 1850s, serving as a Quartermaster in Los Angeles, California with his friend, Winfield Scott Hancock.
American Civil War[]
Armistead in 1863
When the American Civil War started in 1861, Armistead resigned from the US Army headed to Texas and became the colonel of a Virginia infantry regiment in the Confederate States Army, siding with his American South homeland. He served as a brigade commander in the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee and fought in all of the major battles in Virginia in 1862 and 1863, and he was one of the brigade commanders present at the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. Armistead told James Longstreet about his desire to meet with Hancock again, and he gave Longstreet a package containing his personal Bible, telling him to give the package to Hancock's wife in the event of his death. Armistead led a brigade under George Pickett when the Confederates charged the Union positions at Cemetery Hill, and he put his hat on the tip of his sword and led his men forwards. He was shot three times after crossing the wall, and he was captured. He was unable to see Hancock because Hancock had also been wounded, and Armistead died of his wounds on 5 July at the age of 46.
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