Gettysburg Requiem: The Life and Lost Causes of Confederate Colonel William C. OatesWilliam C. Oates is best remembered as the Confederate officer defeated at Gettysburg's Little Round Top, losing a golden opportunity to turn the Union's flank and win the battle--and perhaps the war. Now, Glenn W. LaFantasie--bestselling author of Twilight at Little Round Top--has written a gripping biography of Oates. Oates was no moonlight-and-magnolias Southerner, as LaFantasie shows. Raised in the hard-scrabble Wiregrass Country of Alabama, he ran away from home as a teenager, roamed through Louisiana and Texas--where he took up card sharking--and finally returned to Alabama, to pull himself up by his bootstraps and become a respected attorney. During the war, he rose to the rank of colonel, served under Stonewall Jackson and Lee, was wounded six times and lost an arm. Returning home, he launched a successful political career, becoming a seven-term congressman and ultimately governor. LaFantasie shows how, for Oates, the war never really ended--he remained devoted to the Lost Cause, and spent the rest of his life waging the political battles of Reconstruction. Here then is a richly evocative story of Southern life before, during, and after the Civil War, based on first-time and exclusive access of family papers and never-before-seen archives. |
Contents
1 Rough and Tumble Days | 1 |
2 Baptism by Fire | 27 |
3 An Unchristian State of Mind | 49 |
4 Ragged Jacks | 69 |
5 Boulders Like Gravestones | 89 |
6 In the Purple Gloom | 111 |
7 Gone to Flickering | 137 |
8 The End of Chivalry | 155 |
11 Striking to Hurt | 223 |
12 A Soldier in His Heart | 245 |
13 Stumbling Toward Equality | 263 |
14 Requiem | 287 |
Abbreviations Used | 311 |
Notes | 315 |
Selected Bibliography | 367 |
397 | |
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15th Alabama 20th Maine Abbeville African Americans Alabamians Army of Northern Bachelder battle line battlefield became Big Round Top brother camp campaign Chamberlain Civil Cody Colonel command Company G Confederacy Congress Constitutional convention Court Dale County Democrats election enemy Eufaula Farnsworth’s father Federal fighting fire flank fought Gettysburg Gettysburg Battlefield Henry County hill honor Hood’s Jackson John Oates Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain July June LaFantasie Laine and Penny later Law’s Alabama Brigade Law’s brigade letter LEXIS Little Round Top lived Longstreet Lost Cause Lowther McClendon memories Montgomery monument never Nicholson night North Oates Family Oates wrote Oates’s officers one’s political racial Recollections Robbins Roseland secession seemed Sept slavery slaves soldiers South Southern Stonewall Jackson tion Toney took troops Union veterans violence Virginia WCO to WCOJR William Oates Willie wounded young