Henry Heth was a Confederate general in the American Civil War. Heth also served as the first Commander of the Centennial Legion of Historic Military Commands when it was founded in 1876.
Background
Henry Heth was born on December 16, 1825, at Black Heath Estate, Virginia, United States, the son of John and Margaret (Pickett) Heth, and a cousin of Gen. George E. Pickett. His paternal grandfather, Henry Heth, and three brothers were officers in the Revolution, and his father was an officer in the navy in the War of 1812 and later served as a colonel of Virginia volunteers.
Education
Henry Heth was educated in private schools of Virginia until he was twelve, when he entered Georgetown College where he remained for one year. He afterwards attended schools in New York. Refusing an appointment to the Naval Academy in 1842, he accepted from President Tyler, the following year, an appointment as cadet in the United States Military Academy.
Career
Upon his graduation in 1847 Henry Heth was appointed brevet second lieutenant. Until the outbreak of the Civil War Heth served in various Western posts, becoming a first lieutenant in 1853 and captain in 1855. During the Sioux expedition of 1855 he saw action, September 3, at Blue Water, Nebraska.
Heth resigned from the army April 25, 1861, and joined the Confederacy, serving in various staff capacities from captain to colonel during that year. In the fall he organized Floyd’s command for the West Virginia campaign, taking part in the battle of Carnifax Ferry and conducting Floyd’s retreat. On January 6, 1862, he became a brigadier-general and assumed command of a military district in the vicinity of Lewisburg, Virginia. In engagements during May 1862, against Fremont and Crook, he came off second best, but in June President Davis recommended him highly to Kirby-Smith and assigned him to that officer for duty. He served as a post and division commander in Bragg’s army during the expedition into Kentucky, in Kirby-Smith’s corps and later he commanded the Department of East Tennessee.
General Lee, on November 25, 1862, asked for Heth’s transfer to the Army of Northern Virginia, and in January 1863, he was so transferred. At first commanding a brigade in A. P. Hill’s division, he took command of the division when Hill was wounded at Chancellors- ville, and was commended by both Lee and Stuart. Following a personal recommendation of Lee to President Davis, he became a major general on May 24, and was given four brigades with which to form a division for Lee’s northward thrust which ended at Gettysburg.
His most conspicuous action was at the battle of Gettysburg, when, as part of Hill’s III Corps his outposts unexpectedly engaged a superior force of the enemy and precipitated the general battle on July 1. In twenty-five minutes his division lost more than a third of its strength, and Heth was wounded. Two days later, under Pettigrew, will meet with a favorable reception. In 1864, he commanded his division in the Overland Campaign, the Siege of Petersburg and the retreat to Appomattox Court House, where he surrendered with General Lee on April 9, 1865. After the war he worked in the insurance business, served the government as a surveyor and in the Office of Indian Affairs.