Alfred Iverson, Jr.
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Alfred Iverson, Jr. (February 14, 1829 – March 31, 1911) was a lawyer and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He is best known for a disastrous infantry assault at the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg.
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[edit] Early years
Iverson was born in Clinton, Jones County, Georgia. He was the son of Alfred Iverson, Sr., United States Senator for Georgia and a fierce proponent of secession, and Caroline Goode Holt. The senator decided on a military career for his son and enrolled him in the Tuskegee Military Institute.
Iverson's career as a soldier began at the age of 17, when the Mexican-American War began. His father raised and equipped a regiment of Georgia volunteers and young Iverson left Tuskegee to become a second lieutenant in the regiment. He left the service, in July 1848, to become a lawyer and contractor. In 1855, his Mexican War experience gained him a commission as a first lieutenant in the 1st U.S. Cavalry regiment.
[edit] Civil War
At the start of the Civil War, Iverson resigned from the U.S. Army and received a commission from his father's old friend, Confederate President Jefferson Davis, as Colonel of the 20th North Carolina Infantry, a unit he played a strong role in recruiting. His regiment was initially stationed in North Carolina, but was called to the Virginia Peninsula, in June 1862, for the Seven Days Battles. He distinguished himself at the Battle of Gaines' Mill, in the division commanded by Maj. Gen. D.H. Hill, by leading the only successful regiment of the five that were assigned to capture a Union artillery battery. Iverson was severely wounded in the charge and his regiment took heavy casualties. Unfortunately for Iverson and the Confederacy, this battle would turn out to be the high point of his military career.
Iverson recovered in time to rejoin the Army of Northern Virginia in the Maryland Campaign. In the Battle of South Mountain, his entire brigade retreated after their brigade commander, Brig. Gen. Samuel Garland, was mortally wounded. Iverson's regiment also ran away at the Battle of Antietam a few days later, although he was able to rally them to return to the battle. After the battle, Iverson was promoted to brigadier general on November 1, 1862, and given command of the brigade, causing the more senior colonel who had been in temporary command to resign from the Army in disgust. His first assignment commanding his new brigade was at the Battle of Fredericksburg, but he was assigned to the reserve and saw no action. Conflict soon resulted, however. When he attempted to name a new colonel for the 20th North Carolina, a personal friend from outside of the regiment, 26 of his field officers signed a letter of protest against the action. Iverson attempted to arrest all 26 officers, but eventually cooled off. His friend was not placed as the new colonel, but Iverson petulantly refused all winter to promote any of the other candidates for the position.
At Chancellorsville, Iverson's brigade participated in Lt. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's famous flanking march, suffering heavy casualties (including Iverson himself, wounded in the groin by a spent shell), but managed to get less credit and notice than two other brigades in the line. He also continued his poor relations with his subordinates. Returning to the rear to get support for his flank, many of his officers concluded that he was shirking. His reasonable performance at Gaines' Mill the previous year forgotten, rumors swirled that he had achieved his command only by family political influence.
The nadir of his career was at the Battle of Gettysburg. On July 1, 1863, while leading his brigade in the division of Maj. Gen. Robert E. Rodes, he launched an ill-considered assault without reconnaissance into a Union Army position concealed and protected by a stone wall. His brigade suffered heavy casualties, with many of the men dropping dead in a straight line from a surprise volley of rifle fire. Iverson's actions were considered galling because he did not accompany his brigade on the assault and, when the helpless survivors raised white handkerchiefs to hold off further Union fire, he raged in anger that they were cowards. His conduct became so irrational that he was removed from brigade command for the rest of the battle; in fact, he had not much of a brigade left, having suffered 458 casualties within seconds. (The men were later buried in shallow graves on this spot on Oak Ridge, which is known to locals as Iverson's Pits, and is a favorite site for believers in the supernatural.) Gen. Robert E. Lee assigned Iverson as a temporary provost marshal, which removed him from combat command, and, in October 1863, removed him altogether from the Army of Northern Virginia, ordering him back to Georgia to organize cavalry.
In 1864, Iverson commanded a cavalry division, under Maj. Gen. Joseph Wheeler, during Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign. A minor action near Macon in August culminated in the defeat and capture of U.S. Maj. Gen. George Stoneman (the highest ranking Union prisoner of the war) and 500 of his cavalrymen.
[edit] Postbellum
After the war, Iverson engaged in business at Macon, moving to Florida in 1877 to farm oranges. He died in Atlanta, Georgia, and is buried there in Oakland Cemetery.
[edit] References
- Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
- Tagg, Larry, The Generals of Gettysburg, Savas Publishing, 1998, ISBN 1-882810-30-9.
- Warner, Ezra J., Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders, Louisiana State University Press, 1959, ISBN 0-8071-0823-5.
