General William Barksdale: "Game to the Last"

During the Civil War, many commanding generals often rode to the front of their troops during battle. It was one of the outdated tactics that cost the lives of many commanders. One of them who fell at Gettysburg while riding into the storm of lead in the Peach Orchard on July 2, 1863 was a fiery man who wore the gray. His name was William Barksdale.

William Barksdale was born in Rutherford County, Tennessee on August 21, 1821. He was named for his father, who was a veteran of the War of 1812 and had fought with Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans. The younger William’s paternal grandfather was Nathan Barksdale from Virginia, a veteran of the American Revolution. It was only natural that the martial spirit was part of young William Barksdale – a spirit that would shape his life.¹

The elder William Barksdale died in 1835, leaving William, his mother Nancy, and his three younger brothers without means. They made their way to Mississippi, where William went to law school. He passed the bar in 1843, and the following year became the joint editor and proprietor of the local newspaper in Columbus, Mississippi.²

Barksdale soon accumulated substantial wealth, and tried his hand at planting. He owned a sizable estate with thirty slaves. When the Mexican War broke out, he left his home and joined the fight as a private. He survived the conflict and was brevetted for bravery, ending the war with the rank of captain. He returned home with a deeper interest in politics. He served in Congress during the Franklin Pierce administration. He fiercely defended the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1853 – both of which ignited the tinder box of what would become the Civil War.³

Mississippi was the second state to secede from the Union on January 9, 1861, as a result of the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. Barksdale immediately followed his state and offered his services to the Confederacy. He enlisted as a private but was soon promoted to the rank of colonel, and commanded the 13^th Mississippi Regiment. He fought at Ball’s Bluff, the Seven Days Battles, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. He rose to the rank of brigadier general and commanded a brigade after the Battle of Malvern Hill during the Peninsula Campaign in 1862. After Fredericksburg, Barksdale enjoyed a brief leave in January 1863, where he visited his family in Mississippi. He spent a few days with his wife, Narcissa, and their sons. He returned just before the Battle of Chancellorsville, where he was hotly engaged on the right flank of the Army of Northern Virginia. By now, his Mississippi brigade was battle hardened, piercing the air with their rebel yells. Barksdale was immensely proud of his men, and believed they were unstoppable.⁴

In early June, 1863, General Lee and his army headed northward into Pennsylvania. Barksdale’s brigade was part of Lafayette McLaws’ Division, Longstreet’s Corps. Most of the Mississippians wore the dyed butternut brown uniform, as many were unable to purchase gray ones. Barksdale’s men were among the later troops to arrive at Gettysburg in time to fight on the afternoon of July 2, 1863. They were given the order to attack en echelon, a progressive type of fighting. Barksdale rode his bay stallion to the front and center of his brigade line. “Attention Mississippians!” he called. “Battalions forward!” According to one survivor of the day, “fourteen hundred rifles were grasped with firm hands.”⁵

Barksdale was a large man, approaching 42 years that summer day, and his face appeared alive with excitement. He wore a red sash around his ample waist, making him easily visible from all over the field as he and his brigade advanced across the Emmitsburg Road toward the Peach Orchard. Nearing the Sherfy farm, the troops swept any resistance, taking six pieces of artillery. They then engaged the 114^th Pennsylvania (Collis’s Zouaves) and the 11^th New Jersey Regiments. These Union forces offered a stiff resistance, and the Mississippi men began to fall.⁶

Barksdale furiously shouted at his men, ordering them to keep fighting. He led them into the Peach Orchard, and headed for Cemetery Ridge. The ground behind them was thickly strewn with the bodies of the men in butternut mingled with blue. One soldier recalled, “Of the 1400, there were less than 500 of us.”⁷

Twice General Barksdale sent for reinforcements, but none came. Other Confederates were equally, dangerously, engaged on other parts of the field.⁸

As Barksdale’s Brigade crossed the chaotic Peach Orchard, they then encountered the Union brigades of Carr and Willard. As the Mississippi men fought their way through them, the sun began to set. As they reached the Trostle farm, several shots were fired from Cemetery Ridge, where Barksdale was stunned to see more Union blue along the line. One bullet hit Barksdale in the chest. Two more slammed into his leg. Barksdale fell from his horse, mortally wounded.⁹

Barksdale’s men attempted in vain to move their general from the field, but his ponderous weight was too heavy for them.¹⁰

As darkness covered the field, the Mississippians attempted to return to the field to find their commander. The Union men, however, had found him first.

“I came upon the general – dying,” recalled a member of General Humphreys’ staff. “One of our men held the poor fellow’s head upon his breast, while another moistened his lips with water.” The general, grateful, remarked, “Oh! How kind you are!” to the men in blue.¹¹

Eight Union soldiers carried Barksdale on a stretcher to the Hummelbaugh house, a small white clapboard structure on Cemetery Ridge, used as a field hospital. Barksdale was unconscious for a time, a blessing that relieved him of his pain. His left leg was broken, pierced with two minie balls. A doctor bandaged both his legs. “I did all in my power to relieve him,” the surgeon said. Barksdale was conscious during the dressing of his wounds. “He asked whether I considered his wound necessarily mortal. I told him I did.”¹²

Barksdale was placed that night on the porch of the Hummelbaugh house. He spoke alternatively of love for his family and cursing the yankees. The very men he cursed helped him through the night, giving him water with a spoon. “Bring me water, cold water,” he said. “When I am well I am a great lover of water, and now that I am shot all to pieces and burning with fever, I must have cold water.”¹³

Through the night, he grew delirious. He said, “You think you have whipped us, but wait until morning.” He added, “Tell my wife I died at my post.”¹⁴

He did not live to see the dawn. His body was placed on a blanket and buried in the Hummelbaugh yard. For a few years, the Gettysburg sod was his grave. In 1867 a nephew came to retrieve him, and brought him home to Mississippi, where crowds met the coffin as it arrived by train. The general was laid to rest in Greenwood Cemetery in Jackson, Mississippi.¹⁵

At Gettysburg’s Grand Reunion in 1913, there were only a few remaining of Barksdale’s Mississippi Brigade. One of them, T.M. Scanlon, mingled with the men in blue and gray near the Sherfy farm. One of his former nemeses walked up to Scanlon, placed his hands on his shoulders and said, “The world has never seen any braver men than Barksdale and his Mississippians.”¹⁶

Probably the most succinct compliment to the general was given by one of the survivors of the Mississippi Brigade. Remembering the vivacious commander, he said of Barksdale, “He was game to the last.”¹⁷

Sources: The 13^th Mississippi File, Gettysburg National Military Park (hereafter GNMP). Ancestry.com: William Barksdale Family Tree. Barksdale, William Folder #5: Participant Accounts, GNMP. The Clarion Ledger, Jackson Daily News, 22 Sept. 1868, Commander Brake Collection, US Army War College, Carlisle, PA. Hill, D.H. “Land We Love,” April 1868. “Barksdale Museum Exhibit Recalls General’s Exploits”, The Jackson Daily News, Sunday, Sept. 22, 1965. Letter, Carswell McClellan, 7 Jan. 1890, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, copy GNMP. The Gettysburg Compiler, 20 July 1863. Letter, A.T. Hamilton, Asst. Surgeon 148^th PA, July 6, 1863, copy GNMP. Letter, H.T. Holmes to Commander Robert L. Brake, Sept. 11, 1974, Commander Brake Collection, US Army War College, Carlisle, PA. Letter, David Parker to Mr. Barksdale, 22 March 1882. Copy, GNMP. Pfanz, Harry W. Gettysburg: The Second Day. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1987. Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. The Weekly Clarion, 17 Jan. 1867, Jackson MS (Copy GNMP).

End Notes:

1. Barksdale Family Tree, Ancestry.com. 

2. Southern Historical Society Papers, Wilson Library, NC. Barksdale’s brother, Harrison, also perished in the war, along with one of his sons. 

3. Ibid. 

4. Hill, p. 29. 

5. Ibid. p. 30. 

6. Pfanz, pp. 321-322. Barksdale, folder #5, GNMP. There are many conflicting reports of Barksdale’s appearance during the battle. Some claim his hair flowed, others that he was bald, others that he wore a red fez. The accounts ofthose who fought with him agree that he wore no fez, that he was bald and his head was sun burned, and that he wore a red sash around his waist that day. 

7. Hill, p. 32. 

8. The Jackson Daily News, Sun. Sept 22, 1965. 

9. Letter, HT. Holmes to Robert L. Brake, Sept 11, 1974. US Army War College, Carlisle, PA. 

10. Hill, p. 33. 

11. Letter, Carswell McClellan, 7 Jan. 1890. Duke University, Durham, NC.

12. Letter, A.T Hamilton, July 6, 1863, Barksdale Personal Accounts File #5, GNMP. 

13. Barksdale Participant Accounts File #5, GNMP. 

14. Letter, A.T Hamilton, July 6, 1863, Barksdale Participant Accounts File #5, GNMP. 

15. The Weekly Clarion, 17 Jan. 1867, copy GNMP. 

16. The Clarion Ledger, Sept. 22, 1968. 

17. The 13^th Mississippi File, GNMP.