Edward Porter Alexander Edward Porter Alexander ( May 26 , 1835 – April 28 , 1910 ) was a military engineer , railroad executive , planter , and author . He served first as an officer in the United States Army and later , during the American Civil War ( 1861 - 1865 ) , in the Confederate Army , in which he rose to the rank of brigadier general . Alexander was the officer in charge of the massive artillery bombardment preceding Pickett ' s Charge , on the third day of the Battle of Gettysburg , and is also noted for his early use of signals and observation balloons during combat . After the Civil War , he wrote extensive memoirs and analyses of the conflict , which have received much praise for their insight and objectivity . His " Military Memoirs of a Confederate " were published in 1907 . An extensive personal account of his military training and his participation in the Civil War was rediscovered long after his death and published in 1989 as " Fighting for the Confederacy " . Early life and career . Alexander , known to his friends as " Porter " , was born in Washington , Georgia into a wealthy and distinguished family of the planters of the Old South . He was the sixth of eight children of Adam Leopold Alexander and Sarah Hillhouse Gilbert Alexander . He became the brother - in - law of Alexander R . Lawton and Jeremy F . Gilmer . He graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1857 , third in his class of 38 cadets , and was brevetted a second lieutenant of Engineers . He briefly taught engineering and fencing at the academy before he was ordered to report to Brig . Gen . Albert Sidney Johnston for the Utah War expedition . That mission ended before he could reach Johnston and Alexander returned to West Point , where he participated in a number of weapon experiments and worked as an assistant to Major Albert J . Myer , the first U . S . Army Signal Officer and the inventor of the code for " wig - wag " signal flags , or " aerial telegraphy . " Alexander was promoted to second lieutenant on October 10 , 1858 . Alexander met Bettie Mason of Virginia in 1859 and married her on April 3 , 1860 . They would eventually have six children : Bessie Mason ( born 1861 ) , Edward Porter II and Lucy Roy ( twins , born 1863 ) , an unnamed girl ( 1865 , died in infancy prior to naming ) , Adam Leopold ( 1867 ) , and William Mason ( 1868 ) . Lt . Alexander ' s final assignments for the U . S . Army were at Fort Steilacoom , in the Washington Territory , and at Alcatraz Island , near San Francisco , California . Civil War service . After learning of the secession of his home state of Georgia , Alexander resigned his U . S . Army commission on May 1 , 1861 , to join the Confederate Army as a captain of engineers . While organizing and training new recruits to form a Confederate signal service , he was ordered to report to Brig . Gen . P . G . T . Beauregard at Manassas Junction , Virginia . He became the Chief Engineer and Signal Officer of the Army of the Potomac on June 3 . At the First Battle of Bull Run , Alexander made history by being the first to use signal flags to transmit a message during combat over a long distance . Stationed atop " Signal Hill " , in Manassas , Capt . Alexander saw Union troop movements and signaled to the brigade under Col . Nathan " Shanks " Evans , " Look out for your left , your position is turned " , which meant that they were in danger of being attacked on their left flank . Upon receiving a similar message , Gens . Beauregard and Joseph E . Johnston sent timely reinforcements that turned the tide of battle in the Confederates ' favor . Alexander was promoted to major on July 1 and lieutenant colonel on December 31 , 1861 . During much of this period he was chief of ordnance , under Johnston ' s command , in what later became the Army of Northern Virginia . He was also active in signal work and intelligence gathering , dealing extensively with spies operating around Washington , D . C . During the early days of the Peninsula Campaign of 1862 , Alexander continued as chief of ordnance under Johnston , but he also participated in the combat at the Battle of Williamsburg , under Maj . Gen . James Longstreet . When Gen . Robert E . Lee assumed command of the army , Alexander was in charge of pre - positioned ordnance for Lee ' s offensive in the Seven Days Battles . Col . Alexander continued his intelligence gathering by volunteering to go up in a hot air balloon at Gaines ' Mill on June 27 , ascending several times and returning with valuable intelligence regarding the position of the Union Army . Alexander continued in charge of ordnance for the Northern Virginia Campaign ( Second Bull Run ) and the Maryland Campaign ( Antietam ) . He barely missed capture by Federal cavalry , under Col . Benjamin F . " Grimes " Davis , that had escaped from Harpers Ferry during the Maryland Campaign ; over 40 of Longstreet ' s 80 ammunition wagons were captured . Porter Alexander is best known as an artilleryman who played a prominent role in many of the important battles of the war . He served in different artillery capacities for Longstreet ' s First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia , starting that role on November 7 , 1862 , after leaving Lee ' s staff to command the battalion that was the corps ' artillery reserve . He was promoted to colonel on December 5 . He was instrumental in arranging the artillery in defense of Marye ' s Heights at the Battle of Fredericksburg in December 1862 , which proved to be the decisive factor in the Confederate victory . While the rest of Longstreet ' s corps was located around Suffolk , Virginia , Alexander accompanied Stonewall Jackson on his flanking march at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 , and his artillery placements in Hazel Grove at Chancellorsville proved decisive . Gettysburg cannonade . Alexander ' s most famous engagement was on July 3 , 1863 , at the Battle of Gettysburg , during which he was in command of the artillery for Longstreet ' s corps . On that day , he was effectively in control of the artillery for the full army ( despite Brig . Gen . William N . Pendleton ' s formal role as chief of artillery under Lee ) . He conducted a massive two - hour bombardment , arguably the largest in the war , using between 150 and 170 guns against the Union position on Cemetery Ridge . Unfortunately , the poor quality of the Confederate fuses delayed the planned detonation of many of the shells , and a number of the guns were not properly ranged , so that the rear areas sustained more damage than the front lines . General Longstreet effectively put Alexander in charge of launching Maj . Gen . George Pickett on his famous charge , putting the young colonel under enormous pressure to determine whether the Union artillery defenses had been effectively suppressed . Alexander would blame Lee for the defeat at Gettysburg , writing in 1901 : " Never , never , never did Gen . Lee himself bollox a fight as he did this . " Longstreet ' s Chief of Artillery . Alexander accompanied the First Corps to northern Georgia in the fall of 1863 to reinforce Gen . Braxton Bragg for the Battle of Chickamauga . He personally arrived too late to participate in the battle , but served as Longstreet ' s chief of artillery in the subsequent Knoxville Campaign and in the Department of East Tennessee in early 1864 . He returned with the corps to Virginia for the remainder of the war , now with the rank of brigadier general ( as of February 26 , 1864 ) . He served in all the battles of the Overland Campaign and when Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant slipped around Lee ' s army to cross the James River and assault Petersburg , Alexander was able to move his guns quickly through the lines and had them in place to repel the main attack . During the Siege of Petersburg , Alexander had to adapt his artillery tactics to trench warfare , including experimentation with various types of mortars . He became convinced that the Union forces were attempting to tunnel under the Confederate lines , but before he was able to act on this , he was wounded in the shoulder by a sharpshooter . As he departed on medical leave to Georgia , he informed Gen . Lee of his suspicion and unsuccessful attempts were made to locate the tunneling activity . The resulting Battle of the Crater caught the Confederates by surprise , although it ended in a significant Union defeat . Alexander returned to the Army in February 1865 and supervised the defenses of Richmond along the James River . He retreated along with Lee ' s army in the Appomattox Campaign . At Appomattox Court House , it was Alexander who made the famous proposal to Robert E . Lee that the army disperse , rather than surrendering . Lee rebuked him , and Alexander later wrote about regretting his suggestion . Although this incident is sometimes described as a proposal for " guerrilla war , " Alexander describes in his memoir , " Fighting for the Confederacy " , the proposed alternative to surrender as " the army may be ordered to scatter in the woods & bushes & either to rally upon Gen . Johnston in North Carolina , or to make their way , each man to his own state , with his arms , & to report to his governor . " Later life . After the surrender , Alexander briefly toyed with joining the Brazilian Army . Finding that he no longer desired the Georgia plantation life of his youth , he taught mathematics at the University of South Carolina in Columbia , and then served in executive positions with the Charlotte , Columbia , and Augusta Railroad ( executive superintendent ) , the Savannah and Memphis Railroad ( president ) , and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad ( president ) . Alexander became friends with Grover Cleveland and the two spent many hours hunting for ducks in Alexander ' s estate . In May 1897 , President Cleveland appointed Alexander as the arbiter of the commission tasked with fixing and demarcating the boundary between the Republics of Nicaragua and Costa Rica , with a view towards the possible construction of an interoceanic canal to be dug across Central America ( see Nicaragua Canal ) . Alexander spent two years at the head of that commission , headquartered in the coastal village of Greytown ( now San Juan de Nicaragua ) . He completed the work to the satisfaction of the two governments and returned to the U . S . in October 1899 . His wife Bettie became ill while he was in Nicaragua and she died shortly after his return , on November 20 , 1899 . In October 1901 , Alexander married Mary Mason , his first wife ' s niece . After the war , Alexander became a well - respected author . He wrote many magazine articles and published his " Military Memoirs of a Confederate : A Critical Narrative " ( 1907 ) , praised by Douglas Southall Freeman as " altogether the best critique of the operations of the Army of Northern Virginia . " Long after his death , it was realized that Alexander had produced the " Military Memoirs " , which sought to be a professional work of military history and analysis , after a long effort of editing a collection of much more personal memoirs that he had starting compiling during his time in Greytown , Nicaragua , at the behest of his family . Those earlier memoirs were edited and published posthumously in 1989 as " Fighting for the Confederacy : The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander " . Unlike such Confederate officers as Jubal Early and William Pendleton , Alexander eschewed the bitter Lost Cause theories of why the South was doomed to fail , given the overwhelming superiority of the North . He was willing to express in writing his criticisms of prominent Confederate officers , including General Lee himself . Many historians regard Alexander ' s memoirs as one of the most objective and sharpest sources produced by a Civil War combatant . David Eicher called " Fighting for the Confederacy " " a superb personal narrative with a good deal of analysis of Lee ' s operations . . . Dramatic and revealing , an important source on the general , his fellow officers , and the Army of Northern Virginia . " Alexander ' s other books include " Railway Practice " ( 1887 ) and " Catterel , Ratterel ( Doggerel ) " ( 1888 ) . Alexander died in Savannah , Georgia and is buried in Magnolia Cemetery , Augusta , Georgia . In popular media . Alexander plays an important role in the description of Pickett ' s Charge in Michael Shaara ' s 1974 Pulitzer Prize – winning novel , " The Killer Angels " . In the 1993 film adaptation of the novel , " Gettysburg " , he is portrayed by actor James Patrick Stuart , who reprised the role in the prequel " Gods and Generals " . Alexander also appears in Harry Turtledove ' s alternate history novel " How Few Remain " and is portrayed in Ann Rinaldi ' s 1993 book " In My Father ' s House " as " Alex . "