Brigadier General Gilbert Moxley Sorrel
Moxley Sorrel
Born	(1838-02-23)February 23, 1838 Savannah,Georgia
Died	August 10, 1901(1901-08-10) (aged 63) Roanoke,Virginia
Place of burial	Laurel Grove Cemetery Savannah, Georgia
Allegiance	Confederate States of America
Service/ branch	Confederate States Army
Years of service	1861–1865
Rank	Brigadier General
Commands	Sorrel's Brigade
Battles / wars	American Civil War First Manassas Peninsula Second Manassas Sharpsburg Fredericksburg Gettysburg Chickamauga Wilderness Spotsylvania Cold Harbor Petersburg
Other work	Businessman,writer

Gilbert Moxley Sorrel (February 23, 1838 – August 10, 1901) was astaffofficer andbrigadier general in theProvisional Army of the Confederate States.^[1][2]

Sorrel was born inSavannah, Georgia, the son of one of the wealthiest men in the city, Francis Sorrel. He was the brother-in-law ofWilliam W. Mackall, who was a Confederate general and chief of staff toBraxton Bragg.^[3]

In 1861, Moxley left his job as a Savannah bank clerk, taking part in the Confederate capture ofFort Pulaski as a private in the Georgia Hussars. With letters of introduction from Colonel Jordan, from Gen.P.G.T. Beauregard's staff, and a friend of his father's, he reported toBrig. Gen.James Longstreet atManassas, Virginia, on July 21, 1861, and began serving as a volunteeraide-de-camp. Longstreet wrote that his young aide "came into the battle as gaily as a beau, and seemed to receive orders which threw him into more exposed positions with particular delight."^[4]

On September 11, 1861, Sorrel received his commission ascaptain and was assigned as General Longstreet's adjutant-general. He was promoted tomajor on June 24, 1862, and tolieutenant colonel on June 18, 1863. He served under Longstreet until October 1864, when he was appointedbrigadier general. Sorrel then commanded Sorrel's Brigade ofMaj. Gen.William Mahone's division atPetersburg andHatcher's Run, and was wounded in both battles.

Richard L. DiNardo wrote: "Even Longstreet's most virulent critics have conceded that he put together the beststaff employed by any commander, and that hisde factochief of staff,Lieutenant Colonel Moxley Sorrel, was the best staff officer in the Confederacy."^[5]

After the Civil War, Sorrel returned to Savannah, worked as an executive for the Ocean Steamship Company, and served on the board of theGeorgia Historical Society.

On November 14, 1867, he married Kate Amelie DuBignon in Woodville, Baldwin County, Georgia. Ms. DuBignon, the daughter of Charles and Ann Virginia Grantland DuBignon, was born Jan., 1846 in Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Georgia and died December 26, 1919, in Warrenton, Fauquier County, Virginia.

WhenRobert E. Lee visited Savannah months before his death in 1870, Sorrel led the Savannah delegation, greeted General Lee at the train station, and escorted him around the city.

Sorrel died inRoanoke, Virginia, and is buried inLaurel Grove Cemetery, Savannah.

Sorrel's memoir,Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer, was published posthumously, in 1905.^[6] HistorianDouglas Southall Freeman deemed Sorrel's book one of the best accounts of the personalities of the major players in the Confederacy, characterized by "a hundred touches of humor and revealing strokes of swift characterization."^[7]

TheSorrel-Weed House in Savannah, where he grew up, is one of the finest examples ofGreek Revival architecture in the United States. Designed in 1836 byCharles Clusky, it was one of the first two houses in Georgia to be designated a state landmark. The house is open to the public for tours.

Sorrel appears inMichael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning novelThe Killer Angels (1974). In its film adaptation,Gettysburg (1993), Sorrel is portrayed byKieran Mulroney.

InHarry Turtledove'salternate-history novelHow Few Remain (1997), Sorrel serves as Chief-of-Staff forConfederate PresidentJames Longstreet.

• List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)
• Petersburg order of battle

• Blair, William Alan &Davis, William C. (ed.)& Hoffman, Julie (ed.) (1991)."Gilbert Moxley Sorrel".The Confederate General.5. National Historical Society.ISBN 0-918678-67-6.{{cite journal}}:|author= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• C.S. War Department (1863),Regulations for the Army of the Confederate States, Richmond: J. W. Randolph
• Eicher, John H.;Eicher, David J. (2001).Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press.ISBN 978-0-8047-3641-1.
• Sifakis, Stewart (1988).Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File.ISBN 978-0-8160-1055-4.
• Warner, Ezra J. (1959).Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.ISBN 978-0-8071-0823-9.

• Moxley Sorrel atFind a Grave

• 1838 births
• 1901 deaths
• American autobiographers
• American male non-fiction writers
• 19th-century American memoirists
• Burials at Laurel Grove Cemetery
• Confederate States Army brigadier generals
• Military personnel from Savannah, Georgia
• People of Georgia (U.S. state) in the American Civil War
• Writers from Savannah, Georgia
• 19th-century American male writers

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