clared. “If I don’t come and bear my part, they
will believe me to be a coward.” He followed
his conscience and thereafter became a lead-
ing figure in all major campaigns of the east-
ern theater.
On March 16, 1861, Alexander was recom-
missioned a captain of Confederate engi-
neers. In this capacity he was appointed to
the staff of Gen. Pierre G.T. Beauregard as a
signals officer. From his observation tower
near the Van Pelt House, he provided critical
information about Union flanking move-
ments prior to First Bull Run (July 21, 1861)
and contributed to the Southern victory
there. He performed similar work in the
spring of 1862 during the Peninsula cam-
paign against the army of Gen. George B. Mc-
Clellan, and during the Battle of Gaines Mill
he became one of the first Confederate offi-
cers to man an observation balloon. Alexan-
der also displayed considerable expertise in
artillery affairs and penned several organiza-
tional plans for that arm. Command of the
Army of Northern Virginia had since passed
over to General Lee, who came to lament the
presence of Gen. William N. Pendleton, an
incompetent head of the Ordnance Depart-
ment. Unable to find a polite way of easing
Pendleton from his staff, Lee appointed
Alexander to serve as de facto head of ord-
nance in the field. Consequently, he gained
promotion to major of artillery in April 1862
and lieutenant colonel the following July. It
was from this point forward that Alexander
gained renown through his close association
with the “long arm of Lee.” He demonstrated
his talents aptly in December 1862 during the
Battle of Fredericksburg and proved critical
in the sighting of Confederate cannons on
Marye’s Heights. His artillery consequently
inflicted heavy losses upon the army of Gen.
Ambrose Burnside and contributed to a lop-
sided Confederate victory.
General Lee was so pleased with Alexan-
der’s performance that in March 1863 he re-
ceived promotion to colonel and command of
an artillery battalion in Gen. James
Longstreet’s I Corps. He was then detached
to accompany Gen. Thomas “Stonewall”
Jackson’s corps on its celebrated flanking
march during the Chancellorsville campaign
in May 1863. Alexander spent nearly an entire
night expertly sighting and massing 30 can-
nons for an attack upon Hazel Grove that
drove off Union forces in confusion. But his
most celebrated role occurred two months
later while directing Confederate counterbat-
tery fire during the climactic third day at Get-
tysburg, July 3, 1863. There he orchestrated a
prolonged, two-hour bombardment of Union
lines by 140 artillery pieces prior to a suicidal
assault by Gen. George E. Pickett. Owing to
the good defensive position of Union forces,
Alexander’s fire proved ineffectual in silenc-
ing the enemy artillery. Moreover, when
Northern cannons suddenly slackened their
fire to conserve ammunition, Alexander natu-
rally assumed they had been knocked out of
action. He then urged Pickett to advance im-
mediately where, at close range, Union gun-
ners recommenced their deadly bombard-
ment. Within 20 minutes Pickett’s charge had
ended in a bloody repulse. Later that sum-
mer, Alexander accompanied Longstreet’s I
Corps westward as part of the Army of Ten-
nessee under Gen. Braxton Bragg.He ar-
rived too late to participate in bloody fighting
at Chickamauga but did serve as artillery
chief during the ill-fated siege of Knoxville.
Bragg’s successor, Joseph E. Johnston,de-
sired Alexander to remain behind as his chief
artillery officer, but Confederate President
Jefferson Davis refused, citing General
Lee’s great partiality for him.
In the spring of 1864, Alexander was pro-
moted to brigadier general and resumed his
position as chief of artillery in Longstreet’s I
Corps back in Virginia. His guns had a full
measure of service in the bloody Battles of
the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, where the
Confederate Army of Northern Virginia was
inexorably maneuvered back into defensive
positions around Richmond. Alexander next
oversaw the placing of batteries throughout
the ensuing siege of Cold Harbor and Peters-
burg, which bloodily repulsed Union attacksALEXANDER, EDWARDPORTER