RICHARD STODDERT

See also:

• RICHARD STODDERT EWELL (1817-1872)

EWELL (1817-1872)  , American soldier, lieutenant-general in the Confederate army, was born in Georgetown, now a part of Washington, D.C., on the 2nd of February 1817, and graduated at West Point in 184o . As a cavalry officer he saw much active service in the Mexican War and later in Indian warfare in New Mexico . He resigned his commission at the outbreak of the Civil War, and entered the Confederate service . He commanded a brigade in the first Bull Run campaign, and a division in the famous Valley Campaign of " Stonewall " Jackson, to whom he was next in rank . At Cross Keys he was in command of the forces which defeated General Fremont . Ewell's division served with Jackson in the Seven Days and in the campaign of Second Bull Run . At the action of Groveton Ewell lost a leg, but did not on that account retire from active service, though other generals led his men in the sanguinary battles of Antietam (where they lost 47% of their numbers) and Fredericksburg . After the death of " Stonewall " Jackson, Ewell was promoted lieutenant-general and appointed to command the 2nd Corps, with which he had served from the beginning of the Valley Campaign . His promotion set aside General J . E . B . Stuart, the temporary commander of Jackscn's corps; that Ewell, crippled as he was, was preferred to the brilliant cavalry leader was a marked testimony to his sterling qualities as a soldier .

The invasion of

Pennsylvania soon followed, Ewell's corps leading the advance of Lee's army . A federal force was skilfully cut off and destroyed near Winchester, Va., and Ewell's corps then raided Maryland and southern Pennsylvania unchecked . At the battle of Gettysburg, the 2nd Corps decided the fighting of the first day in favour of the Confederates, driving the enemy before them; on the second day it fought a desperate action on Lee's left wing; Ewell took part in the closing operations of 1863 and in all the battles of the Wilderness and Petersburg campaigns . In the final campaign of_1865 he and the remnant of his corps were cut off and forced to surrender at Sailor's Creek, a few days before his chief capitulated to Grant at Appomattox . After the war General Ewell lived in retirement . He died near Spring Hill, Maury County, Tennessee, on the 25th of January 18/2 .