Isaac R . Trimble Isaac Ridgeway Trimble ( May 15 , 1802 – January 2 , 1888 ) was a United States Army officer , a civil engineer , a prominent railroad construction superintendent and executive , and a Confederate general in the American Civil War , most famous for his leadership role in the assault known as Pickett ' s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg . Youth , education , building railroads . Trimble was born in Culpeper County , Virginia , to John and Rachel Ridgeway Trimble . His family moved to Kentucky shortly thereafter and he was nominated by his uncle , David Trimble , a Kentucky congressman , to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point , New York , from which he graduated in 1822 , 17th in a class of 42 . Although he excelled academically in engineering , he was commissioned as a brevet second lieutenant of artillery . He served for ten years as a lieutenant in the 3rd and 1st U . S . Artillery regiments , but left the U . S . Army in May 1832 , along with five of his West Point classmates , to pursue the emerging business of railroad construction . Trimble was married twice : first , in 1831 to Maria Cattell Presstman of Charleston , South Carolina , who died in 1855 ; second , to her sister , Ann Ferguson Presstman . By his first marriage he had two sons , David Churchill Trimble and William Presstman Trimble , who survived him . Soon after leaving the Army , Trimble relocated permanently to Maryland at the urging of his wife , and he subsequently considered it his home state . He helped survey the route of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad . He was a construction engineer for the Boston and Providence Railroad ; chief engineer for Pennsylvania Railroad predecessors Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad , Philadelphia , Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad , and Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad ; and superintendent ( 1859 – 61 ) for the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad . Civil War . At the start of the Civil War , Trimble participated in efforts to restrict the movement of Union troops to Washington , D . C . , by burning bridges north of Baltimore . When he realized that Maryland would not secede from the Union , he returned to Virginia and joined the Provisional Army of the state of Virginia as a colonel of engineers in May 1861 . He was appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army on August 9 , 1861 , and was assigned to construct artillery batteries along the Potomac River and later the defenses of Norfolk , Virginia . He was given command in the Army of the Potomac ( the predecessor of the Army of Northern Virginia ) , of a brigade that consisted of regiments from four different states , effectively merging them into a single fighting unit . Trimble first saw combat as part of Thomas J . " Stonewall " Jackson ' s spring 1862 campaign in the Shenandoah Valley . He distinguished himself in the Battle of Cross Keys by fighting off an attack from Union troops under Maj . Gen . John C . Frémont , and then seizing the initiative to counterattack and rout them . During the Seven Days Battles under Jackson outside of Richmond , Virginia , his brigade had few engagements , but they fought hard at Gaines ' Mill and he sought to follow up the unsuccessful Confederate assault on Malvern Hill by making a night attack , but his request was refused . In the Northern Virginia Campaign , Trimble ' s brigade performed well at the Battle of Cedar Mountain and defeated a Union brigade at Freeman ' s Ford in mid - August . The brigade marched with Jackson around Maj . Gen . John Pope ' s main force and Trimble played a major role in the Battle of Manassas Station Operations , seizing a critical supply depot in Pope ' s rear . Trimble ' s forced march and action at Manassas Station received praise from Jackson , who said it was " the most brilliant that has come under my observation during the present war . " Pope was forced by this maneuver into attacking Jackson ' s strong defensive positions and suffered a severe defeat in the Second Battle of Bull Run . Trimble was wounded in the leg during the battle on August 29 , resulting in an injury so severe that there was speculation that he was hit with an explosive bullet . Although Trimble avoided the amputation of his wounded leg , his rehabilitation proceeded slowly . For months after , doctors periodically found bone fragments that had to be extracted . By November , he developed camp erysipelas and a probable case of osteomyelitis , and his ambitions for elevation to division command were on hold until he was well enough to return to active duty . He made his desire for promotion abundantly clear to his colleagues , and in one instance before the army moved north to Manassas , he was quoted as saying ( probably humorously ) , " General Jackson , before this war is over , I intend to be a Major General or a corpse ! " Jackson wrote a strong letter of recommendation , although he tempered it by including the sentence " I do not regard him as a good disciplinarian . " Trimble engaged in a letterwriting campaign from his sick bed to obtain his promotion and to challenge Jackson ' s claim . He wrote to Adjutant General Samuel Cooper , " If I am to have promotion I want it " at once " and I particularly request , that my date may be from 26th August , the date of the capture of Manassas . " ( During this period Trimble also feuded with Maj . Gen . J . E . B . Stuart about their conflicting reports of the battle and who bore primary responsibility for the seizure of the Union supply depot . ) Trimble was eventually promoted to major general on January 17 , 1863 , and assigned to the command of Jackson ' s old division , but he continued to be unable to command in the field due to his health . At the Battle of Chancellorsville Brig . Gen . Raleigh E . Colston , as the senior brigadier general , commanded Trimble ' s division . A recurrence of illness forced him to turn over his division command in the Second Corps to Maj . Gen . Edward " Allegheny " Johnson and he was assigned to light duty as commander of the Valley District in the Shenandoah Valley on May 28 , 1863 . By June 1863 , Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia had crossed the Potomac River in the Gettysburg Campaign . Trimble was desperate to get back into action , particularly because he was familiar with the area from his railroad days . He joined Lee ' s headquarters unsolicited , and wore out his welcome hanging around without formal assignment . Riding north , he caught up with Lt . Gen . Richard S . Ewell on the way to Harrisburg , Pennsylvania , and joined his staff as a supernumerary , or senior officer without a command . He and Ewell quarreled frequently due to this clumsy arrangement and Trimble ' s lack of tact . At the Battle of Gettysburg , Ewell ' s Second Corps reached the battlefield in the early afternoon of the first day , July 1 , 1863 , smashing into the Union XI Corps and driving it south through the town to Cemetery Hill . Trimble wrote the following about his encounter with Ewell : Observers have reported that the " impatient reply " was , " When I need advice from a junior officer I generally ask for it . " They also stated that Trimble threw down his sword in disgust and stormed off . A more colorful version of this account has been immortalized in Michael Shaara ' s novel , " The Killer Angels . " On July 3 , 1863 , Trimble was one of the three division commanders in Pickett ' s Charge . He stepped in to replace Maj . Gen . W . Dorsey Pender , of Lt . Gen . A . P . Hill ' s corps , who was mortally wounded the previous day . Trimble was at a great disadvantage because he had never worked with these troops before . His division participated in the left section of the assault , advancing just behind the division led by Brig . Gen . J . Johnston Pettigrew ( formerly by Maj . Gen . Henry Heth ) . Trimble rode his horse , Jinny , and was wounded in the left leg , the same leg hit at Second Bull Run . Despite feeling faint , the 61 - year - old general was able to walk back to the Confederate line on Seminary Hill . His leg was amputated by Dr . Hunter McGuire , and Trimble could not be taken along with the retreating Confederates , because of fear of infection that would result from a long ambulance ride back to Virginia , so he was left under the care of a family in Gettysburg on July 6 as the army withdrew . Trimble complained bitterly that if his leg had been amputated at Second Bull Run , the bullet would have missed him on this occasion . He was treated in the Seminary Hospital at Gettysburg until August . Of the charge on the third day of Gettysburg , Trimble said : " If the men I had the honor to command that day could not take that position , all hell couldn ' t take it . " Gettysburg marked the end of Trimble ' s military career . He spent the next year and a half in Federal hands at Johnson ' s Island and Fort Warren . He was recommended for parole soon after capture , but former U . S . Secretary of War Simon Cameron recommended against it , citing Trimble ' s expert knowledge of northern railroads . In March 1865 , Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant ordered Trimble to be sent to City Point , Virginia , for exchange , but by the time he reached there , Robert E . Lee ' s army was already retreating in the Appomattox Campaign . Trimble was finally paroled in Lynchburg , Virginia , on April 16 , 1865 , just after Lee ' s surrender . Postbellum life and heritage . After the war , Trimble , equipped with an artificial leg , returned to Baltimore , Maryland , to resume his engineering work . He died in Baltimore and is buried there in Green Mount Cemetery , arguably the most famous Maryland resident who fought for the Confederacy . In 1849 , Trimble built Baltimore ' s historic 1849 President Street Station . The oldest big city train station in America , it was restored in 1997 to serve as the Baltimore Civil War Museum . In popular media . Isaac Trimble was played by actor W . Morgan Sheppard in the movies " Gettysburg " and " Gods and Generals " .