James Jay Archer ( born December 19, 1817 - October 24, 1864 ) is a lawyer, US Army officer during the Mexican War, Confederate Army General during the American Civil War . He was captured during the battle of Gettysburg . Archer became the first captured General of the North Virginia Army.
| James J Archer | |
|---|---|
 James J Archer | |
| Date of Birth | |
| Place of Birth | Bel Air, Maryland |
| Date of death | |
| Place of death | Richmond , Virginia |
| Affiliation | USA KSA |
| Type of army | U.S. Army CSA Army |
| Years of service | 1846–48, 1855–61 (USA) 1861–64 (CSA) |
| Rank | captain (USA) Brigadier General (KSA) |
| Battles / wars | mexican war
American Civil War
|
Content
Early years
Archer was born in Bel Air, Maryland, in the family of John and Anna Stump Archer. In 1835 he graduated from Princeton University. He got the nickname "Sally" at the university because of his physique. He studied law at the University of Maryland and had a successful legal practice. When the Mexican War began , he joined the American army as a volunteer and participated in many battles, receiving a temporary promotion to major for courage in the battle for Chapultepec . After the war, in 1848, he moved to Texas, where he was wounded in a duel with Andrew Porter, the future general of the Federal Army. His second in the duel was Thomas Jackson . Returning to Maryland, Archer resumed legal practice, but in 1855 joined the US Army with the rank of captain and was enlisted in the 9th Infantry Regiment. He served on the Pacific coast. Archer has never been married.
Civil War
When the civil war broke out, Archer served at Fort Walla, Washington State. On May 14, 1861, he retired from the US Army, went south and joined the Confederate Army. He soon became a colonel in the 5th Texas Infantry Regiment and served in a brigade organized by former Texas Senator Lewis Wigfall. Soon, the brigade was transferred to John Bell Hood and took part in the battles of the Campaign on the peninsula . Archer showed himself well in the battle of Eltams-Landing and Seven Pines , but he never managed to earn the respect of the Texans.
June 3, 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general. After the death of General Robert Hutton at Seven Pines , Archer took his place and began to command three Tennessee regiments. In the same June, Archer’s brigade was merged with the other five and became part of the “ light division ” of General Ambrose Hill . The brigade was strengthened by two regiments and it took the following form:
- 5th Alabama Battalion: May. Albert Vandegraf
- 19th Georgian Infantry Regiment : Sub. Thomas Johnson
- 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment : Sub. James shackelford
- 7th Tennessee Infantry Regiment : Regiment. John Goodner
- 14th Tennessee Infantry Regiment : Regiment. William Forbes
In this composition, she took part in the Seven-Day Battle and in the Cedar Mountains . During the Second Battle of Bull Run near Archer, a horse was killed. Soldiers nicknamed him “The Little Gamecock” because of a frail physique and stamina in battle.
In September 1862, Archer suffered greatly from illness, and due to weakness he could not even ride. His team took part in the battle for the Hapers-Ferry and managed to make an accelerated march from Harpers Ferry to Sharpsberg to take part in the battle of Entity , where they attacked the left flank of the Federal IXth Corps . With a powerful attack, the brigade threw back the enemy and repulsed the artillery battery. Three days later, at the battle of Shepardstown , Archer and General Pender attacked the vanguards of the Potomac Army and threw them behind the Potomac, which allowed General Lee's army to successfully retreat to Virginia.
Still weakened by the disease, Archer participated in the battle of Frederiksberg . His brigade stood on the right flank, to the right of Gregg's brigade, which accounted for the main blow.
In the spring of 1863, the 13th Alabama Infantry Regiment, Colonel Fry from the brigade Alfred Kolkitt, was transferred to the Archer brigade .
During the Battle of Chancellorsville , the Archer brigade participated in an attack on the heights of Hazel Grove.
Gettysburg
During the Gettysburg Campaign , the Archer brigade consisted of five infantry regiments:
- 13th Alabama Infantry Regiment , Colonel Birkett Fry
- 5th Alabama Battalion , Major Albert van de Graaf
- 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment , Lt. Col. Newton George
- 7th Tennessee Infantry Regiment , Colonel John Fight
- 14th Tennessee Infantry Regiment , Cap. Bruce phillips
Archer's health continued to deteriorate due to long marches in heat and high humidity. His brigade was part of the Henry Heth division and one of the first to take part in the Battle of Gettysburg . The brigade arrived on the battlefield in the morning of July 1 and fought for two hours with the dismounted cavalrymen John Buford . Presumably, it was Archer’s brigade soldier who shot and killed Federal Major General John Reynolds , although the exact cause of Reynolds’s death is unknown. Then the Iron Brigade attacked the brigade. In the past melee, the Archer brigade was almost immediately dropped behind Willoughby Ran. Her commander was disarmed and captured by a soldier of the 2nd Wisconsin regiment, Patrick Maloney (who died in battle a little later), he took Archer to the rear, where he managed to meet his old friend, General Ebner Doubleday.
Archer became the first captured General of the North Virginia Army since the command of General Lee. Archer’s team was handed over to Birkett Fry , who commanded it during Pickett’s attack . The brigade was badly damaged on the first day of the battle, so it could not last long under fire and retreated along with the entire division of General Pettigrew . At this time, Archer and his younger brother Robert Harris Archer (1820–1878) were sent to Fort Delaware.
Archer and other captured officers were eventually sent to the Johnsons Island Prisoner of War camp on Lake Erie. There, in the harsh climate of Ohio , his health deteriorated dramatically. He wrote a letter to the military department of the Confederation, where he proposed a plan to escape from the camp and asked for assistance in returning home.
After about a year of imprisonment, he and another 600 officers were transferred to Fort Delaware, planning to send them to Morris Island in South Carolina. This place was often fired upon with the guns of the Confederate army and Archer was supposed to be kept alive in order to prevent shelling. But this plan was never implemented.
At the end of the summer of 1864, Archer was released on the exchange of prisoners of war and returned to duty. On August 9, he was ordered to go to the location of the Tennessee Army , but after 10 days the order was canceled - possibly due to the general’s poor health. He went to Petersburg, where he took command of his former brigade. For some time he participated in the defense of Petersburg , but after the Battle of Peebles Farm, the disease finally overwhelmed him. He died in Richmond on October 24 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Find a Grave - 1995. - ed. size: 165000000
Literature
- Heidler, David S., and Jeanne T. Heidler. "James Jay Archer." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2000. ISBN 0-393-04758-X .
- Tagg, Larry. The Generals of Gettysburg. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. ISBN 1-882810-30-9 .
- Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. ISBN 0-8071-0823-5 .