Henry Heth

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This article is about the Confederate general. For the coal magnate, see Henry Heth (businessman).
Major-General (CSA)
Battles/warsCivil War Indian Wars
RelationsGeorge Pickett (cousin)

Henry Heth (/ˈhiːθ/ not /ˈhɛθ/) (December 16, 1825 – September 27, 1899) was a career United States Army officer who became a Confederate general in the American Civil War.

He came to the notice of Robert E. Lee while serving briefly as his quartermaster, and was given a brigade in the Third Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia commanded by A. P. Hill, whose division he commanded when the latter was wounded at Chancellorsville. He is generally blamed for accidentally starting the Battle of Gettysburg by sending half his division into the town before the rest of the army was fully prepared. Later in the day, Confederate troops succeeded in routing two Union corps, but at a heavy cost in casualties. Heth continued to command his division during the remainder of the war and briefly took command of the Third Corps in April 1865 after the death of General Hill. Heth surrendered with the rest of Lee's army on April 9.

Early life

Henry Heth was born at

Virginia Colony after serving in the American Revolution. (The name Heth is pronounced like "Heath".) Henry Heth was born and raised in Virginia, as were both of his parents, all four of his grandparents and all eight of his great-grandparents. All sixteen of his great-great-grandparents came to Virginia from England, specifically from the rural areas of Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire and Surrey.[1]

Heth was wounded at West Point in 1846 with a

1st Infantry Regiment. His antebellum career was served primarily in western posts, some as a quartermaster. He was serving as a first lieutenant in the 6th Infantry when John C. Symmes III refused a captaincy in the new 10th Infantry on March 3, 1855, and Heth was appointed in his place. He played a prominent role in the 1855 Battle of Ash Hollow (also known as the Harney Massacre due to the large number of Lakota women and children killed), leading a company of mounted infantry against the Lakota
. In 1858, he created the first marksmanship manual for the Army.

Heth served at

Masonic Lodge in the Utah Territory. It was granted on March 6, 1859, for Rocky Mountain #205 under dispensation from Missouri; Heth served as the last Senior Warden of the first Masonic Lodge in Utah,[3]
after which the Army was called away from Utah Territory to fight the American Civil War.

Civil War

Heth as a member of the Confederate Army

After the war began at

brigadier general
on January 6, 1862.

In the spring of 1862 Heth was in command of the "Army of the New River," (in actuality the 22nd and 45th Virginia Infantry regiments, with attached cavalry and artillery). Heth's diminutive force held off the forces of General Jacob D. Cox at Giles (County) Courthouse (May 10, 1862) and pursued the enemy to Lewisburg, where Heth was forced to withdraw (May 23, 1862). The actions were critical to keeping federal forces tied up and out of the southern Shenandoah Valley while Stonewall Jackson was conducting his own campaign 120 miles to the north. Despite the small size of his force, Heth submitted his reports as an army commander and had his regimental commanders write their own as "brigade" commanders, possibly assisting in the eventual promotion of Heth to major general.[4]

He was then sent west to the Department of East Tennessee, to serve under Edmund Kirby Smith. During the Kentucky Campaign, he was sent by Smith to take a division north from Lexington, Kentucky, to make a demonstration on Cincinnati. Although this caused a great commotion in the city's defenses, only a few skirmishes occurred.[5] Smith's portion of the army was spread too far north in Kentucky to consolidate with Bragg's portion in time for the Battle of Perryville. Bragg ordered the withdrawal of Confederate forces back to Tennessee, and Smith was subsequently transferred to the Trans-Mississippi Department, his forces again missing a vital battle at Stones River.

In March 1863, Lee, commanding the

major general
on May 24, 1863.

An illustration of Confederate troops at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863

Heth's division made history by inadvertently starting the

Brig. Gen. John Buford
and spread out into battle formation.

Lee had ordered A. P. Hill to avoid a general engagement with the enemy before he could assemble his full army, but Heth's actions had now rendered that order moot. They were engaged, and Union reinforcements started arriving quickly. Heth's decision to deploy his two brigades before the arrival of the rest of his division was an error as well; they were repulsed in hard fighting against an elite division of the

Johnston Pettigrew, saw more action two days later in Pickett's Charge
, and Heth recovered enough to command during the retreat back to Virginia and the minor engagements of the fall of 1863.

Harry Heth commanded his division through the 1864

Appomattox Campaign, fighting at Cumberland Church and retreating to Appomattox Court House
, where he surrendered with Lee on April 9, 1865.

Postbellum years

Heth in 1895

After the war, Heth worked in the insurance business and later served the government as a surveyor and in the

Office of Indian Affairs. He died in Washington, D.C., and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.[6] Heth served as the first Commander of the Centennial Legion of Historic Military Commands when it was founded in 1876.[7]

In popular media

Heth was portrayed by Warren Burton in the 1993 film Gettysburg, based on Michael Shaara's novel, The Killer Angels.

Selected works

  • A System of Target Practice (published in 1858)
  • The Memoirs of Henry Heth (posthumous, 1974).

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Virginia Lives: The Old Dominion Who's who - Page 450 by Richard Lee Morton · 1964
  2. ^ Goodwin, S. H. (1934). "Freemasonry in Utah : Rocky Mountain Lodge No. 205, A.F. & A.M., 1859-1861, Camp Floyd, the First Masonic Lodge in Utah" (PDF). Camp Floyd Historic Lodge No. 205 F. & A. M. Educational bulletin (Freemasons. Utah. Grand Lodge. Committee on Masonic Education and Instruction), no. 1, amplified. Salt Lake City. pp. 16–17. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  3. ^ Goodwin, S. H. (1934). "Freemasonry in Utah : Rocky Mountain Lodge No. 205, A.F. & A.M., 1859-1861, Camp Floyd, the First Masonic Lodge in Utah" (PDF). Camp Floyd Historic Lodge No. 205 F. & A. M. Educational bulletin (Freemasons. Utah. Grand Lodge. Committee on Masonic Education and Instruction), no. 1, amplified. Salt Lake City. pp. 3, 38. Retrieved 14 July 2021.
  4. ^ "Official Records of the War of the Rebellion, Series 1, vol 12, Part 1, page 491-495 (Second Manassas)".
  5. ^ Noe, pp. 86-87.
  6. ^ "Death of General Heth". Vol. C, no. 229. Alexandria Gazette. Library of Congress - Chronicling America. September 27, 1899. p. 2. Retrieved September 20, 2018.
  7. ^ Centennial Legion of Historic Military Commands web site. Retrieved October 3, 2012.

References

Further reading

External links

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