Lewis Armistead Lewis Addison Armistead ( February 18 , 1817 – July 5 , 1863 ) was a Confederate brigadier general in the American Civil War , who was wounded , captured , and died after Pickett ' s Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg . Early life . Armistead , known to friends as " Lo " ( for " Lothario " ) , was born in the home of his great - grandfather , John Wright Stanly , in New Bern , North Carolina . The son of Walker Keith Armistead and Elizabeth Stanly Armistead , Armistead was of German descent , Armistead ’ s ancestors , originally named Armstädt , came from Hessen - Darmstadt , now a part of Germany . The Armistead name early became prominent in U . S . military circles and his family had been in Virginia since the early colonial period . Armistead ' s grandfather , John Stanly , was a U . S . Congressman and his uncle Edward Stanly served as military governor of eastern North Carolina during the Civil War . Lewis ' uncle was Major George Armistead , the commander of Fort McHenry in Baltimore , Maryland . Under his command the fort successfully withstood a British naval bombardment during the War of 1812 , which inspired the words to the Star Spangled Banner . Lewis ' father , Walker Armistead , and his five brothers all served during the War of 1812 . Lewis attended the United States Military Academy , but resigned following an incident in which he broke a plate over the head of fellow cadet Jubal Early . He was also having academic difficulties , however , particularly in French ( a subject of difficulty for many West Point cadets of that era ) , and some historians cite academic failure as his true reason for leaving the academy . His influential father managed to obtain for his son a second lieutenant ' s commission in the 6th U . S . Infantry on July 10 , 1839 , at roughly the time his classmates graduated . He was promoted to first lieutenant on March 30 , 1844 . Armistead ' s first marriage was to Cecelia Lee Love , a distant cousin of Robert E . Lee , in 1844 . They had two children : Walker Keith Armistead and Flora Lee Armistead . Armistead then served in Fort Towson , Arkansas , Fort Washita near the Oklahoma border . Serving in the Mexican - American War , he was appointed brevet captain for Contreras and Churubusco , wounded at Chapultepec , and was appointed a brevet major for Molino del Rey and Chapultepec . Armistead continued in the Army after the Mexican War , assigned in 1849 to recruiting duty in Kentucky , where he was diagnosed with a severe case of erysipelas , but he later recovered . In April 1850 , the Armisteads lost their little girl , Flora Love , at Jefferson Barracks . Armistead was posted to Fort Dodge , but in the winter he had to take his wife Cecelia to Mobile , Alabama , where she died December 12 , 1850 , from an unknown cause . He returned to Fort Dodge . In 1852 the Armistead family home in Virginia burned , destroying nearly everything . Armistead took leave in October 1852 to go home and help his family . While on leave Armistead married his second wife , the widow Cornelia Taliaferro Jamison , in Alexandria , Virginia , on March 17 , 1853 . They both went west when Armistead returned to duty shortly thereafter . The new Armistead family traveled from post to post in Nebraska , Missouri , and Kansas . The couple had one child , Lewis B . Armistead , who died on December 6 , 1854 , and was also buried at Jefferson Barracks next to Flora Lee Armistead . He was promoted to captain on March 3 , 1855 . His second wife , Cornelia Taliaferro Jamison , died on August 3 , 1855 , at Fort Riley , Kansas , during a cholera epidemic . Between 1855 and 1858 Armistead served at posts on the Smokey Hill River in Kansas Territory , Bent ' s Fort , Pole Creek , Laramie River , and Republican Fork of the Kansas River in Nebraska Territory . In 1858 , his 6th Infantry Regiment was sent as part of the reinforcements sent to Utah in the aftermath of the Utah War . Not being required there , they were sent to California with the intention of sending them on to Washington Territory . However , a Mohave attack on civilians on the Beale Wagon Road diverted his regiment to the southern deserts along the Colorado River to participate in the The Mojave Expedition of 1858 - 59 . Lt . Col . William Hoffman , at the head of a column of six companies of infantry , two of dragoons , and some artillery , struggled up the Colorado River from Fort Yuma . On April 23 , 1859 , Colonel Hoffman dictated a peace to the overawed Mohave chiefs , threatening annihilation to the tribe if they did not cease hostilities , make no opposition to the establishment of posts and roads through their country , and allow travel free from their harassment . Hoffman also took some of their leading men or family members hostage . Afterward he left for San Bernardino , taking most of his force with him ; others went down river by steamboat or overland to Fort Tejon . Captain Armistead was left with two infantry companies and the column ' s artillery to garrison Hoffman ' s encampment at Beale ' s Crossing on the east bank of the Colorado River , Camp Colorado . Armistead renamed the post Fort Mojave . In late June 1859 the Mohave hostages escaped from Fort Yuma . Trouble broke out with the Mohave a few weeks later when they stole stock from a mail station that had been established two miles south of Fort Mojave , and attacked it . Mohaves tore up melons planted by the soldiers near the fort , and the soldiers shot a Mohave who was working in a garden . Eventually after a few weeks of aggressive patrolling and skirmishes , Armistead was able to fight the Mohave in a battle between about 50 soldiers and 200 Mohave , resulting in three soldiers wounded . Twenty - three Mohave bodies were found but more were killed and wounded and removed by the Mohave . Following this defeat , the Mohave made a peace , which they kept from then on . Civil War . When the Civil War began , Captain Armistead was in command of the small garrison at the New San Diego Depot in San Diego , which was occupied in 1860 . Armistead was friends with Winfield Scott Hancock , serving with him as a quartermaster in Los Angeles , California , before the Civil War . Accounts say that in a farewell party before leaving to join the Confederate army , Armistead told Hancock , " Goodbye ; you can never know what this has cost me . " When the war started , Armistead departed from California to Texas with the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles , then traveled east and received a commission as a major , but was quickly promoted to colonel of the 57th Virginia Infantry regiment . He served in the western part of Virginia , but soon returned to the east and the Army of Northern Virginia . He fought as a brigade commander at Seven Pines , and then under General Robert E . Lee in the Seven Days Battles ( where he was chosen to spearhead the bloody assault on Malvern Hill ) , and Second Bull Run . At Antietam , he served as Lee ' s provost marshal , a frustrating job due to the high levels of desertion that plagued the army in that campaign . Then he was under command in the division of Maj . Gen . George Pickett at Fredericksburg . Because he was with Lt . Gen . James Longstreet ' s First Corps near Norfolk , Virginia , in the spring of 1863 , he missed the Battle of Chancellorsville . In the Battle of Gettysburg , Armistead ' s brigade arrived the evening of July 2 , 1863 . Armistead was mortally wounded the next day while leading his brigade towards the center of the Union line in Pickett ' s Charge . Armistead led his brigade from the front , waving his hat from the tip of his saber , and reached the stone wall at the " Angle " , which served as the charge ' s objective . The brigade got farther in the charge than any other , an event sometimes known as the " High Water Mark of the Confederacy " , but it was quickly overwhelmed by a Union counterattack . Armistead was shot three times just after crossing the wall . Union Captain Henry H . Bingham received Armistead ' s personal effects and carried the news to Union Major General Winfield Scott Hancock , who was Armistead ' s friend from before the war . Armistead ' s wounds were not believed to be mortal ; he had been shot in the fleshy part of the arm and below the knee , and according to the surgeon who tended him , none of the wounds caused bone , artery , or nerve damage . He was then taken to a Union field hospital at the Henry Spangler Farm where he died two days later . Dr Daniel Brinton , the chief surgeon at the Union hospital there , had expected Armistead to survive because he characterized the two bullet wounds as not of a " serious character . " He wrote that the death " was not from his wounds directly , but from secondary fever and prostration . " Lewis Armistead is buried next to his uncle , Lieutenant Colonel George Armistead , commander of the garrison of Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore , at the Old Saint Paul ' s Cemetery in Baltimore , Maryland . In popular media . In " Gettysburg " , the film version of Michael Shaara ' s novel " The Killer Angels " , Armistead was portrayed by actor Richard Jordan who , like Armistead , died shortly thereafter . In the film , the meeting between Armistead and Bingham at the High Water Mark was altered with Lt . Thomas Chamberlain ( portrayed by C . Thomas Howell ) , brother of Col . Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain , taking Bingham ' s place , also , in the movie , Armistead was shot in the chest . Actor John Prosky depicted Armistead for a special appearance in " Gods and Generals " , accompanying Pickett at Fredericksburg . Armistead is a character in the alternate history novel " " by Newt Gingrich and William Forstchen .