(Every so often a writer of substantive talent appears thr...)
Every so often a writer of substantive talent appears through the smokey background to perk up our interest in firefighters and firefighting. George Pickett is just such a man....In The Brave you will come to know him and a valiant group of men as they speed from alarm to alarm in downtown New York, where the buildings are tall and for the most part old, where bums and drug addicts populate the streets, and where the fire companies hardly ever rest.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/188328337X/?tag=2022091-20
(Book by George Edward Pickett)
Book by George Edward Pickett
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1879664240/?tag=2022091-20
General Marshal Soldier colonel
George Edward Pickett was born in his grandfather's shop in Richmond, Virginia on January 16, 1825. He was the first of the eight children of Robert and Mary Pickett, a prominent family of Old Virginia of English origins, and one of the "first families" of Virginia. He was the cousin of future Confederate general Henry Heth.
He went to Springfield, Illinois, to study law, but at the age of 17 he was appointed to the United States Military Academy.
He was commissioned in the 8th Infantry and served with Scott's army of invasion in the Mexican War. In 1861, when he learned of the secession of Virginia, he resigned his commission in the United States Army, went to Richmond, and was commissioned a colonel in the Confederate Army. In February 1862 he became a brigadier general, commanded a brigade in General Longstreet's division, and served with distinction in the Seven Days' battles. He was wounded at Gaines' Mill, June 27, 1862, but upon returning in time to take part in the Maryland campaign of 1862 he was made a major-general. He is known in history as the leader of Pickett's charge at Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, in which he led 15, 000 men in an assault against the entrenched Federal lines, a charge which has been called the high-water mark of the Confederacy. Less than one fourth of his command returned unhurt. Pickett later commanded in southern Virginia and North Carolina, and his troops participated in the assault on Grant's line at Cold Harbor. At Five Forks on Apr. 1, 1865, he attempted unsuccessfully to halt Grant's encircling movement, and a week later, on April 9, he surrendered at the Appomattox Court House. Pickett declined a commission in the Turkish army and the position of marshal of Virginia offered by President Grant, and he engaged in the insurance business until his death in Norfolk, Va. , July 30, 1875.
Decades after Pickett's death, his widow LaSalle (also known as "Sallie" and "Mother") became a well-known writer and speaker on "her Soldier, " eventually leading to the creation of an idealized Pickett who was the perfect Southern gentleman and soldier. Much controversy attends LaSalle Pickett's lionizing of her husband. LaSalle was the author of Pickett and His Men, a history of her husband's military campaigns, which was published in 1899. She published two other books in her deceased husband's name, The Heart of a Soldier, As Revealed in the Intimate Letters of Gen'l George E. Pickett (published in 1913) and Soldier of the South: General Pickett's War Letters to His Wife (1928). These two writings have been described as "unreliable works that were fictionalized by Pickett's wife. " As a result, General Pickett has become a figure partially obscured by "Lost Cause" mythology.
Pickett's grave is marked by a memorial in Hollywood Cemetery, which was placed there in 1888. A monument to Pickett also stands in the American Camp on San Juan Island, Washington, erected by the Washington University Historical Society on October 21, 1904.
Fort Pickett in Blackstone, Virginia, is named in his honor. It was completed in 1942 and served as an active U. S. Army training facility in World War II and is currently occupied by the Virginia National Guard.
(Every so often a writer of substantive talent appears thr...)
(Book by George Edward Pickett)
Quotations:
"I always thought the Yankees had something to do with it. "
"Well, it is all over now. The battle is lost, and many of us are prisoners, many are dead, many wounded, bleeding and dying. Your Soldier lives and mourns and but for you, my darling, he would rather, a million times rather, be back there with his dead, to sleep for all time in an unknown grave. "
"That old man. .. had my division massacred at Gettysburg!"
"Up men to your posts! Don't forget today that you are from old Virginia. "
"We'll make a bunker hill of it. "
Quotes from others about the person
Historian John C. Waugh wrote of Pickett, "An excellent brigade commander, he never proved he could handle a division. "
In January 1851, Pickett married Sally Harrison Minge, the daughter of Dr. John Minge of Virginia, the great-great-grandniece of President William Henry Harrison, and the great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence. Sally died during childbirth that November, at Fort Gates, Texas.
While posted to Fort Bellingham, Pickett married a Native American woman of the Haida tribe, Morning Mist, who gave birth to a son, James Tilton Pickett; Morning Mist died a few months later. "Jimmy" Pickett made a name for himself as a newspaper artist, before dying of tuberculosis at the age of 32 near Portland, Oregon.
Pickett fell in love with a Virginia teenager, LaSalle "Sallie" Corbell, commuting back and forth from his duties in Suffolk to be with her. Although Sallie would later insist that she met him in 1852 (at age 9), she did not marry the 38-year-old widower until November 13, 1863. The couple had two children, George Edward Pickett, Jr. (born July 17, 1864) and David Corbell Pickett (born 1865 or 1866). David died in late 1873 or January 1874 of measles.
He was born in 1799 and died in 1856.
She was born in 1805 and died in 1860.
She was born in 1833 and died in 1884.
She was born in 1829 and died in 1830.
She was born in 1826 and died in 1827.
She was born in 1835 and died in 1836.
She was born in 1831 and died in 1832.
She was a Native American woman of the Haida tribe.
He was born in 1866 and died in 1874.
He was born in 1864 and died in 1911.
He was born in 1857 and died in 1889.
He was a career United States Army officer who became a Confederate general in the American Civil War.
He was born in 1840 and died in 1899.
He was born in 1838 and died in 1838.
She was the daughter of Dr. John Minge of Virginia, the great-great-grandniece of President William Henry Harrison, and the great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Harrison V, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence.
She was born in 1843 and died in 1931.
