You know, in the context of a conflict like the Civil War, one can't help but wonder how so many men actually survived. If you think about it for a while and realize the use of age-old tactics in combination with state-of-the-art weaponry, you might think that going into battle after battle like those brave Confederate and Union soldiers did would be suicide, and often it was. Over 600,000 men died during the Civil War, and over 1 million were wounded. And men of all ranks from the generals on down were casualties. But sometimes even those who weren't supposed to be on the front lines - the highest-ranking generals charged with maneuvering their men into battle rather than personally leading them - had the strong urge to risk their lives for the sake of leading their men to victory.
Between the battles of the Wilderness and Cold Harbor, May and June 1864, there were three Confederate generals who seemed to have the death wish described above, all of whom suffered different fate. The first of these was General James Longstreet. It was early morning on May 6, and the two armies, fresh from pulling out of winter quarters, were waging brutal warfare in a Virginia mess called The Wilderness. General Longstreet and his officers were riding along the Orange Plank Road toward the fighting, preparing for an attack. As he was reaching the Confederate line, troops opened fire on the small group of officers. These men were from Mahone's brigade of Virginians, mistaking Longstreet and his men for the enemy.
"Friends!" shouted General Joseph Kershaw. "We are friends!" (Jaynes, 1986, p. 78). The firing ceased, but it was too late. A courier, staff officer, and a bright young general named Micah Jenkins were killed by the "friendly" fire. And Longstreet himself was wounded. He wrote later that "I received a severe shock from a minie ball passing through my throat and right shoulder. The blow lifted me from the saddle, and my right arm dropped to my side, but I settled back to my seat and started to ride on, when in a minute the flow of blood admonished me that my work for the day was done" (Jaynes, 1986, p. 79). Longstreet was carried from the scene on a litter, and though he would fully recover to lead his corps again, it would be months until he could return to action.
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