Isaac E. Avery

Isaac Erwin Avery
Isaac Erwin Avery, 1862 or 1863
Nickname(s)	"Ike"
Born	(1828-12-20)December 20, 1828 Burke County, North Carolina, US
Died	July 3, 1863(1863-07-03) (aged 34) Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, US
Place of burial	Hagerstown, Maryland, US
Allegiance	Confederate States of America
Service/branch	Confederate States Army
Years of service	1861–63
Rank	Colonel
Battles/wars	American Civil War First Battle of Bull Run Battle of Seven Pines Seven Days Battles Battle of Gaines' Mill Battle of Fredericksburg Battle of Chancellorsville Battle of Gettysburg Assault on Cemetery Hill †
Signature

Isaac Erwin Avery (December 20, 1828 – July 3, 1863) was a planter and an officer in the Confederate States Army. He died at the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Avery is most remembered for a poignant blood-stained note that he wrote as he lay dying on the slopes of Cemetery Hill at Gettysburg.

Early life

Isaac Erwin Avery was born at Swan Ponds in Burke County, North Carolina, the fourth son of Isaac Thomas and Harriet Erwin Avery, who in total had 16 children. Three of the brothers, including Col. Clark M. Avery of the 33rd North Carolina, and William Waightstill Avery would be killed during the Civil War and another crippled for life.

Avery was the grandson of

Avery later formed a partnership with Charles F. Fisher and Samuel McDowell Tate to act as contractors in the building of the Western North Carolina Railroad in the mid-1850s.

Civil War service

With his state's

Gettysburg and death

With Hoke's wounding at the

Avery died the following day in a nearby Gettysburg field hospital. He was initially buried in Riverview Cemetery in Williamsport, Maryland, but later reburied at Washington Confederate Cemetery, part of Rose Hill Cemetery, in Hagerstown, Maryland.^[3]

Legacy

Accolades were quick to come for the fallen Tar Heel colonel. The man who assumed the brigade command with Avery's demise, Col. Archibald C. Godwin, wrote in his official report: "Here I learned for the first time that our brigade commander (Col. Isaac E. Avery), had been mortally wounded. In his death the country lost one of her truest and bravest sons, and the army one of its most gallant and efficient officers."

Gen. Early in his report wrote: "I had to regret the absence of the gallant Brigadier-General Hoke, who was severely wounded in the action of May 4, at Fredericksburg, and had not recovered, but his place was worthily filled by Colonel Avery, of the Sixth North Carolina Regiment, who fell, mortally wounded, while gallantly leading his brigade in the charge on Cemetery Hill, at Gettysburg, on the afternoon of July 2. In his death the Confederacy lost a good and brave soldier."

The Isaac E. Avery Chapter #282 of the Military Order of the Stars and Bars, a fraternal organization, is named in memory of the colonel.

Notes

References

• Allardice, Bruce S. Confederate Colonels: A Biographical Register. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2008.
  ISBN 978-0-8262-1809-4
  .
• Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: Culp's Hill and Cemetery Hill. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993.
  ISBN 0-8078-2118-7
  .