Richard S. Ewell
Richard Stoddert Ewell ( born February 8, 1817 in Georgetown, Washington, DC; † January 25, 1872 in Spring Hill, Tennessee) was until 1861 the captain of the U.S. Army, then a general in the Confederate army in the American Civil War and after the war Farmer.
After graduating from the Military Academy at West Point, New York in 1840 13 out of 42 ( in his Graduation year was among other things, the future commander of the U.S. Army, William T. Sherman), he was a lieutenant in the dragoons. Ewell distinguished himself in the Mexican War and in fighting against the Indians, and had risen to the time of the secession crisis as captain.
He gave back his patent in 1861 and became a colonel in the Confederate army. Promoted to brigadier general, he participated in the first battle of Bull Run, but on a relatively quiet sector of the front. Beginning of 1862 he was promoted to Major General and was one of Stonewall Jackson's most important subordinates during the Shenandoah campaign in 1862. Ewell also served on the peninsula under Jackson before he was severely wounded in the opening phase of the Second Battle of Bull Run. He lost a leg, and it took almost a year until he took over a command.
When Robert E. Lee reorganized his army for the planned march to the north after the Battle of Chancellorsville in May, 1863, he gave the convalescent and promoted to Lieutenant General Ewell, the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, the former is mainly from Jackson major formations composed. With this corps Ewell succeeded in the second battle of Winchester on 13 - 15th June 1863 a first moderate success, and also at the beginning of the Battle of Gettysburg succeeded his troops, the right flank of the Potomac Army, the XI. Corps, to put to flight. Then Ewell received the order from Lee to take the important hill Cemetery Hill and Culp 's Hill if possible. Ewell felt this was possible and decided to attack only after the arrival of the third division of the II Corps. When the Division was ready, but the darkness had fallen and the attack was omitted. This reasonable overlooking Ewell's knowledge decision was strongly criticized by contemporaries and historians more or less.
In the fall of 1863 Ewell was wounded again, but this time more easily, and so it was possible to him in 1864 to lead his corps in the Battle of the Wilderness. After the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House Ewell was officially released from Lee because of " health problems " from his duties as the Commanding General and used as commander of the Military District quieter Richmond. In reality, however, Lee was dissatisfied with Ewell's performance. Ewell's efforts to be reinstated as Commanding General of the II Corps, failed to Lee's resistance. The Military District of Richmond command he retained until the fall of the city. On the retreat to the west, he was cut off during the fighting at Saylor 's Creek with his troops from the rest of Northern Virginia Army and captured and taken to Fort Warren, from where he was released in the summer of 1865.
End of his life spent Ewell in peace as a farmer in Tennessee, where he died on 25 January 1872. Unlike many other high-ranking Confederate officers to Ewell had little involvement in the discussion of the blame for the defeat at Gettysburg.