Henry Heth | |
|---|---|
 General Heth | |
| Nickname(s) | "Harry", "Jack" (in youth & at West Point) |
| Born | (1825-12-16)December 16, 1825 Black Heath,Virginia |
| Died | September 27, 1899(1899-09-27) (aged 73) Washington, D.C. |
| Resting place | |
| Allegiance |  United States Confederate States |
| Service |  United States Army Confederate States Army |
| Years of service | 1847–1861 (USA) 1861–1865 (CSA) |
| Rank |  Captain (USA) Major-General (CSA) |
| Battles / wars | |
| Relations | George Pickett (cousin) |
Henry Heth (/ˈhiːθ/ not/ˈhɛθ/) (December 16, 1825 – September 27, 1899) was a careerUnited States Army officer who became aConfederategeneral in theAmerican Civil War.
He came to the notice ofRobert E. Lee while serving briefly as his quartermaster, and was given a brigade in theThird Corps of theArmy of Northern Virginia commanded byA. P. Hill, whose division he commanded when the latter was wounded atChancellorsville. He is generally blamed for accidentally starting theBattle of Gettysburg by sending half his division into the town before the rest of the army was fully prepared. Later in the day, Confederate troops succeeded in routing two Union corps, but at a heavy cost in casualties. Heth continued to command his division during the remainder of the war and briefly took command of the Third Corps in April 1865 after the death of General Hill. Heth surrendered with the rest of Lee's army on April 9.
Henry Heth was born atBlack Heath inChesterfield County, Virginia, son ofUnited States Navy CaptainJohn Heth, and Margaret L. Pickett, sister of Robert Pickett, who was the father of Confederate general,George Pickett. He usually went by "Harry", the name also preferred by his grandfather,American Revolutionary War ColonelHenry Heth, who had established the Heth family in thecoal business in theVirginia Colony after serving in theAmerican Revolution. (The name Heth is pronounced like "Heath".) Henry Heth was born and raised in Virginia, as were both of his parents, all four of his grandparents and all eight of his great-grandparents. All sixteen of his great-great-grandparents came to Virginia from England, specifically from the rural areas ofHertfordshire,Hampshire,Buckinghamshire,Berkshire andSurrey.[1]
Heth was wounded at West Point in 1846 with abayonet stab to his leg. He graduated from theUnited States Military Academy at the bottom of his class in 1847 (like his cousin George the year before). He was commissioned abrevetsecond lieutenant and assigned to the1st Infantry Regiment. His antebellum career was served primarily inwestern posts, some as aquartermaster. He was serving as afirst lieutenant in the6th Infantry when John C. Symmes III refused acaptaincy in the new10th Infantry on March 3, 1855, and Heth was appointed in his place. He played a prominent role in the 1855Battle of Ash Hollow (also known as the Harney Massacre due to the large number of Lakota women and children killed), leading a company of mounted infantry against theLakota. In 1858, he created the first marksmanship manual for the Army.
Heth served atCamp Floyd during theUtah War. Camp Floyd had the largest concentration of US Troops at any post prior to the Civil War. While stationed in the desolate Utah Territory, he and others petitioned[2] theFreemason'sGrand Lodge of Missouri to establish aMasonic Lodge in the Utah Territory. It was granted on March 6, 1859, for Rocky Mountain #205 under dispensation from Missouri; Heth served as the last Senior Warden of the first Masonic Lodge in Utah,[3] after which the Army was called away from Utah Territory to fight the American Civil War.
After the war began atFort Sumter, Heth resigned from the U.S. Army and joined theConfederate States Army, where he was promoted to lieutenant colonel. His initial assignment was to muster and drill regiments of state militia in southwestern Virginia. In June, he was promoted to colonel. Born in Virginia's Tidewater region, Heth was unpopular with the mountain farmers and was known as a strict disciplinarian. In turn, Heth was frustrated by the illiteracy and lack of discipline of his men, as well as GeneralJohn B. Floyd's actions as commanding officer in the region. Heth wrote of Floyd, "I soon discovered that my chief was as incapacitated for the work he had undertaken as I would have been to lead an Italian opera." Under Floyd, Heth led his regiment in the battles ofKessler's Cross Lanes andCarnifex Ferry. His brief service as GeneralRobert E. Lee's quartermaster in the Virginia Provisional Army led to a close friendship between the two officers, Heth being one of the few generals whom Lee called by his first name. He spent the remainder of 1861 in theKanawha Valley in western Virginia in the 5th and45th Virginia Infantry regiments. He was promoted tobrigadier general on January 6, 1862.
In the spring of 1862 Heth was in command of the "Army of the New River," (in actuality the 22nd and 45th Virginia Infantry regiments, with attached cavalry and artillery). Heth's diminutive force held off the forces of General Jacob D. Cox at Giles (County) Courthouse (May 10, 1862) and pursued the enemy toLewisburg, where Heth was forced to withdraw (May 23, 1862). The actions were critical to keeping federal forces tied up and out of the southern Shenandoah Valley whileStonewall Jackson was conducting his own campaign 120 miles to the north. Despite the small size of his force, Heth submitted his reports as an army commander and had his regimental commanders write their own as "brigade" commanders, possibly assisting in the eventual promotion of Heth to major general.[4]
He was then sent west to the Department ofEast Tennessee, to serve underEdmund Kirby Smith. During theKentucky Campaign, he was sent by Smith to take adivision north fromLexington, Kentucky, to make ademonstration onCincinnati. Although this caused a great commotion in the city's defenses, only a few skirmishes occurred.[5] Smith's portion of the army was spread too far north in Kentucky to consolidate with Bragg's portion in time for theBattle of Perryville. Bragg ordered the withdrawal of Confederate forces back to Tennessee, and Smith was subsequently transferred to theTrans-Mississippi Department, his forces again missing a vital battle atStones River.
In March 1863, Lee, commanding theArmy of Northern Virginia, then positioned at Fredericksburg, recalled Heth to Virginia to serve as abrigade commander inMaj. Gen.A. P. Hill's division. He fought in theBattle of Chancellorsville, showing aggressive, but misguided, qualities in his first large-scale combat, attacking without reserves against aUnion force emerging from the Wilderness. Heth assumed command of Hill's division after Hill assumed corps command afterStonewall Jackson's wounding. Following the death of Jackson, Lee reorganized his army into threecorps, promoting Hill to the Third Corps. Heth retained his division command and was promoted tomajor general on May 24, 1863.
Heth's division made history by inadvertently starting theBattle of Gettysburg. Marching east fromCashtown on July 1, 1863, Heth sent two brigades ahead in a reconnaissance in force. His memoirs referred to sending them in a search of shoes in Gettysburg, but some historians[who?] consider this an apocryphal story; they[who?] say Heth knew thatJubal A. Early had been in Gettysburg a few days earlier and any available shoes would have been taken at that time. They[who?] also consider sending two brigades on such a mission would have been wasteful. The brigades made contact with Unioncavalry underBrig. Gen.John Buford and spread out into battle formation.
Lee had ordered A. P. Hill to avoid a general engagement with the enemy before he could assemble his full army, but Heth's actions had now rendered that order moot. They were engaged, and Union reinforcements started arriving quickly. Heth's decision to deploy his two brigades before the arrival of the rest of his division was an error as well; they were repulsed in hard fighting against an elite division of theArmy of the Potomac'sI Corps, including the famously tenaciousIron Brigade. After a lull in fighting, Heth brought two more brigades into the fray in the afternoon and the Union forces were driven back toSeminary Ridge, but principally because theXI Corps' right flank was crushed byRichard S. Ewell's corps coming in from the north. Finally, Heth attacked again in conjunction with the division ofMaj. Gen.Robert E. Rodes and the Union corps were routed, retreating back through town toCemetery Hill, but Confederate losses were severe. Heth should have better coordinated his attack with the division of Maj. Gen.Dorsey Pender. Heth was wounded during the attack when a bullet struck him in the head. However, he was wearing a hat that was too large and stuffed with papers to make it fit. The papers probably deflected the bullet to avoid a fatal wound, but Heth was knocked unconscious and effectively out of the battle. Parts of his division, under the command of Brig. Gen.Johnston Pettigrew, saw more action two days later inPickett's Charge, and Heth recovered enough to command during the retreat back to Virginia and the minor engagements of the fall of 1863.
Harry Heth commanded his division through the 1864Overland Campaign. At theBattle of the Wilderness, his men were on the front line of A.P. Hill's corps, which blunted Union attacks on the Orange Plank Road. In the subsequentBattle of Spotsylvania Court House, his division was held primarily in the rear, and was positioned on the Confederate left flank at the Battles ofNorth Anna andCold Harbor. Heth also participated in theSiege of Petersburg, playing direct roles in the battles ofGlobe Tavern;Second Ream's Station;Peebles' Farm;Boydton Plank Road; andHatcher's Run. Following the death of Gen.A.P. Hill on April 2, 1865, Heth briefly took over command of the Third Corps. Heth's troops, now led byGen. John R. Cooke, were pushed back at theBattle of Sutherland's Station. Heth led the remainder of his troops in theAppomattox Campaign, fighting atCumberland Church and retreating toAppomattox Court House, where he surrendered with Lee on April 9, 1865.
After the war, Heth worked in the insurance business and later served the government as a surveyor and in theOffice of Indian Affairs. He died inWashington, D.C., and is buried inHollywood Cemetery inRichmond, Virginia.[6] Heth served as the first Commander of the Centennial Legion of Historic Military Commands when it was founded in 1876.[7]
Heth was portrayed byWarren Burton in the 1993 filmGettysburg, based on Michael Shaara's novel,The Killer Angels.
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