Heth, Henry
(December 16, 1825–September 27, 1899)
Confederate General
HETH, HENRY
H
eth was a solid, capable divisional
commander and reputedly the only
Confederate officer whom Robert E.
Leeaddressed by his first name. He is best re-
membered for an impetuous meeting engage-
ment in Pennsylvania that precipitated the
Battle of Gettysburg.
Henry Heth was born in Blackheath,
Chesterfield County, Virginia, on December
16, 1825, the son of a former naval officer.
Heth was accepted into the U.S. Military
Academy at West Point in 1843 and graduated
at the very bottom of his class four years later.
Commissioned a second lieutenant in the
First U.S. Infantry, Heth journeyed south to
participate in the final phases of the war
against Mexico but saw little action. Over the
next 12 years he fulfilled wide-ranging mili-
tary service along the Western frontier. Heth
rose to captain in 1855 with the 10th U.S. In-
fantry and that year finally experienced com-
bat in the destruction of a Brule Sioux Indian
village at Blue Water, Nebraska. Two years
later he penned a manual entitled A System of
Target Practicethat was officially adopted by
the army, and in 1858 Heth accompanied Col.
Albert Sidney Johnston on the Mormon Expe-
dition. In his career thus far, he had acquired
the reputation as a dependable soldier who
was brave in battle and attentive toward the
needs of his men. Heth was also not particu-
larly active politically, but when Virginia se-
ceded from the Union in April 1861, he fol-
lowed suit and tendered his services to the
Confederacy.
In August 1861, Heth became a lieutenant
colonel in the quartermaster service and was
initially stationed in western Virginia under
Gen. John Buchanan Floyd. There he rose to
colonel of the 45th Virginia Infantry and fought
in the minor action at Carnifex Ferry on Sep-
tember 10, 1861. President Jefferson Davis
initially wanted to post him as commander of
Confederate forces in Missouri, but several po-
litically appointed generals, resenting his West
Point background, blocked the transfer.
Nonetheless, Heth rose to brigadier general in
January 1862 and took control of the Lewis-
burg Military District. In this capacity he
fought several successful skirmishes against
Union forces, but on May 9, 1862, he was
beaten by Col. George Crook at Lewisburg. He
then transferred to Chattanooga to serve in the
division of Gen. Edmund Kirby-Smith and ac-
companied the invasion of Kentucky. Shortly
after, he received command of the Department
of Eastern Tennessee, where he suppressed
Unionist activities until February 1863. Heth,
however, resentful of being detained in what
he considered to be a military backwater, re-
quested and received a transfer to the Army of
Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee.
This minor administrative adjustment proved a
fateful decision for the South.
In the spring of 1863 Heth assumed com-
mand of a brigade in Gen. Ambrose P. Hill’s di-
vision, itself part of the I Corps under Gen.
Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. On May 2,
1863, Heth accompanied Jackson’s famous
flank march around the Union right at Chan-
cellorsville. The Confederates were victori-
ous, but Jackson was shot by his own troops
and mortally wounded. Heth himself was also
slightly wounded in the fighting but refused to
quit the field. Later that month he was ac-
corded the rank of major general and granted
a division of his own. Unquestionably brave
but with a tendency toward rashness, Heth
was now singularly positioned to decisively
influence upcoming military events.
Victory at Chancellorsville induced Gen-
eral Lee to invade Pennsylvania to seek a de-
cisive victory on Union soil that would make
the North sue for peace. However, Union
forces under Gen. George G. Meade were still
full of fight and pursued him closely. At length