Cadmus M . Wilcox Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox ( May 20 , 1824 – December 2 , 1890 ) was a career United States Army officer who served in the Mexican – American War and also was a Confederate general during the American Civil War . Early life and career . Wilcox was born in Wayne County , North Carolina . One of his brothers , John Allen Wilcox , would later serve in the First Confederate Congress as a representative from Texas . The family moved to Tipton County , Tennessee , when Cadmus was only two years old . He was raised and educated in Tennessee , studying at Cumberland College before being nominated to the United States Military Academy at West Point from the Memphis district . He graduated in 1846 , standing 54th out of 59 cadets , and was brevetted a second lieutenant in the 4th U . S . Infantry on July 1 . Among his West Point classmates were future Civil War generals George B . McClellan and Thomas J . Jackson . With the Mexican – American War already underway , Wilcox joined the 4th Infantry in the Mexican city of Monterrey in 1847 . He was appointed as an aide to Maj . Gen . John A . Quitman , acting as his adjutant at the Battle of Veracruz and the Battle of Cerro Gordo . For gallant conduct at the Battle of Chapultepec , in action at the Belén Gate , and the Battle for Mexico City , Wilcox was appointed a brevet first lieutenant on September 13 . After the war with Mexico ended , Wilcox was promoted to first lieutenant on August 24 , 1851 . In the autumn of 1852 , Wilcox was ordered back to West Point to serve as assistant instructor of military tactics , a position he held until the summer of 1857 , when , on account of failing health , he was sent to Europe on a twelve - month furlough . On his return to West Point , he published a manual on rifles and rifle firing , which became the standard textbook on the subject . Wilcox also translated and published a work on infantry evolution as practiced in the Austrian Army . He was ordered to New Mexico Territory in 1860 , and was promoted to the rank of captain in the 4th Infantry on December 20 . Civil War service . While serving in the New Mexico Territory in June 1861 , Wilcox learned of the secession of Tennessee . After tendering his resignation from the U . S . Army ( accepted on June 8 ) he traveled to Richmond , Virginia , where he was commissioned a captain of artillery in the Confederate Army on March 16 . He was later promoted to colonel and given command of the 9th Alabama Infantry Regiment on July 9 . Wilcox joined Brig . Gen . Joseph E . Johnston ' s Army of the Shenandoah with his regiment on July 16 , and marched to Manassas to reinforce Brig . Gen . P . G . T . Beauregard ' s Army of the Potomac just before the First Battle of Bull Run on July 21 . On October 21 , he was promoted to brigadier general and placed in command of a brigade comprising the 3rd Alabama , 1st Mississippi , and 1st Virginia infantry regiments along with and an artillery battery . The brigade was assigned to Maj . Gen . James Longstreet ' s division of the First Corps , Army of Northern Virginia . During the 1862 Peninsula Campaign , Wilcox played a prominent role at the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5 . At the 1862 Battle of Seven Pines , Wilcox commanded two brigades , and at Battle of Gaines ' Mill on June 27 he led three — his own , Featherston ' s , and Pryor ' s . On June 30 at the Battle of Glendale during the Seven Days Battles , nearly every regimental officer in Wilcox ' s command was killed , and Wilcox himself had his clothing pierced by six bullets , but he somehow escaped injury . The loss in Wilcox ' s brigade was heavier in the Seven Days Battles than of any other brigade in Longstreet ' s division . After Longstreet was elevated to corps command , Wilcox got half of his division . He led it to Second Bull Run , but was held in reserve and saw no serious action . In the Maryland Campaign , Wilcox was returned to brigade command and his division merged with Richard H . Anderson ' s . He fell ill and spent the Battle of Antietam resting in Martinsburg , Virginia , leaving a colonel to command his brigade during that battle . As a part of the division of Maj . Gen . Richard H . Anderson at the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863 , Wilcox ' s brigade was instrumental in delaying the Union VI Corps in its drive west from Fredericksburg , Virginia , slowing them at the Battle of Salem Church . Shortly after the battle , Wilcox and his brigade moved with Anderson ' s division to the newly created Third Corps , under Lt . Gen . A . P . Hill on May 30 . Gettysburg . Wilcox and his command participated in the Battle of Gettysburg in the summer of 1863 . On the battle ' s second day , July 2 , his charge against a weakened Union line was met ( and held off ) by a suicidally brave countercharge from the 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry . On the third day of the battle , during Pickett ' s Charge , his brigade served as support on the right flank of the division of his West Point classmate , Maj . Gen . George Pickett . Heavy Union artillery fire , particularly from those guns on Cemetery Ridge under the command of Lt . Col . Freeman McGilvery , readily broke up Wilcox ' s assault , who ordered the brigade to withdraw . With the death of Dorsey Pender at Gettysburg , Wilcox was promoted to major general on August 3 , 1863 , and assigned command of Pender ' s division in Hill ' s Third Corps . Wilcox ' s new command consisted of Lane ' s North Carolina brigade , Thomas ' s Georgia brigade , McGowan ' s South Carolina brigade , and Scales ' s North Carolina brigade . For the rest of the war , Wilcox ' s Division saw heavy fighting , from the Overland Campaign through Appomattox Court House . During the final days of the Siege of Petersburg in 1865 , Wilcox ' s last - ditch stand on April 2 at Fort Gregg helped delay the Union forces long enough for Longstreet to maneuver into position to cover the army ' s retreat to the west . Postbellum career . After the close of the American Civil War , Wilcox was offered a command as a brigadier general in the Egyptian Army , but he declined it . In 1886 U . S . President Grover Cleveland appointed Wilcox as chief of the railroad division for the government at Washington , D . C . and served in that capacity until retirement . A lifelong bachelor , Wilcox cared for his brother ' s widow and small children following John Wilcox ' s sudden death in February 1865 . Wilcox died at the age of sixty - six in Washington , D . C . , and was buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery . His pallbearers included four former Confederate generals and four former Union generals , a token of his esteem .