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Isaac R. Trimble
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{{Short description|Confederate Army general}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}} {{Infobox military person |name= Isaac R. Trimble |birth_date= {{birth date|1802|5|15}} |death_date= {{death date and age|1888|1|2|1802|5|15}} |birth_place= [[Frederick County, Virginia]] |death_place= [[Baltimore, Maryland]] |placeofburial= [[Green Mount Cemetery]] |placeofburial_label= Place of burial |image= Portrait of Confederate general Isaac Ridgeway Trimble (cropped).jpg |caption= Gen. Isaac R. Trimble |nickname= |allegiance= {{flag|United States}}<br />{{flag|Confederate States}} |branch= [[File:Seal of the United States Department of War.png|23px]] [[United States Army]]<br />{{army|Confederate States}} |serviceyears=1822 β 1832 (USA)<br />1861 β 1865 (CSA) |rank=[[File:Union army 2nd lt rank insignia.jpg|35px]] [[Second Lieutenant#United States|2nd Lieutenant]] (USA) <br/> [[File:Union Army colonel rank insignia.png|35px]] {{nowrap|Colonel (Maryland Militia)}} <br/> [[File:Confederate States of America General-collar.svg|35px]] [[Major General (CSA)]] |commands=Trimble's Brigade<br>Jackson's (Old) Division |unit= 3rd U.S. Artillery<br>1st U.S. Artillery |battles= {{tree list}} * [[American Civil War]] ** [[Valley Campaign]] ** [[Seven Days Battles]] ** [[Second Battle of Bull Run]] ** [[Battle of Gettysburg]]{{WIA}} {{POW}} {{tree list/end}} |awards= |laterwork=Railroad executive }} '''Isaac Ridgeway Trimble''' (May 15, 1802 β January 2, 1888) was a [[United States Army]] officer, a [[civil engineer]], a prominent railroad construction superintendent and executive, and a [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] [[General officer|general]] in the [[American Civil War]]. He was born in Virginia, lived in Maryland for much of his adult life, and returned to Virginia in 1861 after Maryland did not secede. Trimble is most famous for his role as a division commander in the assault known as [[Pickett's Charge]] at the [[Battle of Gettysburg]]. He was wounded severely in the leg during that battle, and was left on the field. He spent most of the remainder of the war as a prisoner, and was finally paroled on April 16, 1865, one week after [[Robert E. Lee]] surrendered the [[Army of Northern Virginia]] following the [[Battle of Appomattox Court House]]. ==Youth, education, building railroads== Trimble was born in [[Frederick County, Virginia]], to John and Rachel Ridgeway Trimble, and his family moved to [[Culpeper County, Virginia]] shortly thereafter. As a young boy, Trimble's mother and father both died of fever within a short period of time, and he was sent to live with his half-brother in [[Kentucky]]. He was nominated by U.S. Representative [[Henry Clay]] to attend the [[United States Military Academy]] at [[West Point, New York]], from which he graduated in 1822, 17th in a class of 42. Although he excelled academically in engineering, he was commissioned as a [[brevet (military)|brevet]] [[Second Lieutenant#United States|second lieutenant]] of [[artillery]]. He served for ten years as a lieutenant in the 3rd and 1st U.S. Artillery regiments, and left the U.S. Army in May 1832, along with five of his West Point classmates, to pursue the emerging business of railroad construction.<ref>[http://www.pennock.ws/surnames/fam/fam16331.html The Pennocks of Primitive Hall website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817193343/http://www.pennock.ws/surnames/fam/fam16331.html |date=August 17, 2018 }}; Fiebeger, ''Dictionary of American Biography''; Eicher, p. 536; Krick, p. 60. Krick states that there were 42 cadets graduating in 1822, Eicher states 40.</ref> Trimble was married twice: first, in 1831 to Maria Cattell Presstman of [[Charleston, South Carolina]], who died in 1855; second, to her sister, Ann Ferguson Presstman. By his first marriage he had two sons, David Churchill Trimble and William Presstman Trimble, who survived him. Soon after leaving the Army, Trimble moved to [[Maryland]] at the urging of his wife, and he subsequently considered it his home state. He helped survey the route of the [[Baltimore and Ohio Railroad]]. He was a construction engineer for the [[Boston and Providence Railroad]]. He was chief engineer for [[Pennsylvania Railroad]] predecessors [[Baltimore and Susquehanna Railroad]]; [[Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad]] (serving under famous [[American Civil War]] era president [[Samuel Morse Felton Sr.]]), where he was responsible for constructing the [[President Street Station]], the line's southern terminal in east downtown waterfront [[Baltimore]] in 1849β1850, now the oldest big city train depot left in America. Later then Trimble went to the [[Philadelphia and Baltimore Central Railroad]]. From 1859 to 1861, he was superintendent of the [[Baltimore and Potomac Railroad]]. Following the firing on the Federal installation of [[Fort Sumter]] in [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston harbor]] in [[South Carolina]] in early April 1861, he led a contingent of [[Maryland National Guard|Maryland state militia]] to burn the railroad bridges around Baltimore to prevent the entry of any more Federal regular army or Northern state militia from passing through the divided riotous city following the bloodshed conflict of the [[Baltimore riot of 1861|Pratt Street Riots]] on April 19, 1861, on the orders of the [[Mayor of Baltimore]] [[George William Brown (mayor)|George William Brown]] and [[Governor of Maryland]] [[Hicks]].<ref>Fiebeger, ''Dictionary of American Biography''; [http://www.pennock.ws/surnames/fam/fam16331.html The Pennocks of Primitive Hall website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180817193343/http://www.pennock.ws/surnames/fam/fam16331.html |date=August 17, 2018 }}; Eicher, p. 536; Krick, p. 60; Tagg, p. 328.</ref> ==Civil War== At the start of the Civil War, Trimble participated in efforts to restrict the movement of [[Union Army|Union]] troops to Washington, D.C., by burning bridges north of Baltimore. When he realized that Maryland would not [[secession|secede]] from the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]], he returned to Virginia and joined the Provisional Army of the state of Virginia as a [[Colonel (United States)|colonel]] of engineers in May 1861. He was appointed a [[Brigadier General (CSA)|brigadier general]] in the [[Confederate States Army]] on August 9, 1861, and was assigned to construct artillery batteries along the Potomac River and later the defenses of [[Norfolk, Virginia]]. He was given command in the [[Confederate Army of the Potomac|Army of the Potomac]] (the predecessor of the [[Army of Northern Virginia]]), of a brigade that consisted of regiments from four different states, effectively merging them into a single fighting unit.<ref>Eicher, p. 536; Krick, p. 60; Tagg, p. 328.</ref> Trimble first saw combat as part of [[Stonewall Jackson|Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson]]'s [[Jackson's Valley Campaign|spring 1862 campaign]] in the [[Shenandoah Valley]]. He distinguished himself in the [[Battle of Cross Keys]] by fighting off an attack from Union troops under Maj. Gen. [[John C. FrΓ©mont]], and then seizing the initiative to counterattack and rout them. During the [[Seven Days Battles]] under Jackson outside of [[Richmond, Virginia]], his brigade had few engagements, but they fought hard at [[Battle of Gaines' Mill|Gaines' Mill]] and he sought to follow up the unsuccessful Confederate assault on [[Battle of Malvern Hill|Malvern Hill]] by making a night attack, but his request was refused.<ref>Krick, pp. 60β61; Tagg, pp. 328β29.</ref> In the [[Northern Virginia Campaign]], Trimble's brigade performed well at the [[Battle of Cedar Mountain]] and defeated a Union brigade at [[First Battle of Rappahannock Station|Freeman's Ford]] in mid-August. The brigade marched with Jackson around Maj. Gen. [[John Pope (general)|John Pope]]'s main force and Trimble played a major role in the [[Battle of Manassas Station Operations]], seizing a critical supply depot in Pope's rear. Trimble's forced march and action at Manassas Station received praise from Jackson, who said it was "the most brilliant that has come under my observation during the present war." Pope was forced by this maneuver into attacking Jackson's strong defensive positions and suffered a severe defeat in the [[Second Battle of Bull Run]]. Trimble was wounded in the leg during the battle on August 29, resulting in an injury so severe that there was speculation that he was hit with an explosive bullet.<ref>Krick, p. 61; Tagg, p. 329; Freeman, vol. II, p. 118, states that it was a "Belgian explosive bullet". Although Krick implies that Trimble resisted having his leg amputated, Long reports that the general insisted on it, but the doctor resisted.</ref> Although Trimble avoided the amputation of his wounded leg, his rehabilitation proceeded slowly. For months after, doctors periodically found bone fragments that had to be extracted. By November, he developed camp [[erysipelas]] and a probable case of [[osteomyelitis]], and his ambitions for elevation to division command were on hold until he was well enough to return to active duty. He made his desire for promotion abundantly clear to his colleagues, and in one instance before the army moved north to Manassas, he was quoted as saying (probably humorously), "General Jackson, before this war is over, I intend to be a Major General or a corpse!"<ref>Freeman, vol. II, pp. 273β74, 256β57; Long, p. 125.</ref> Jackson wrote a strong letter of recommendation, although he tempered it by including the sentence "I do not regard him as a good disciplinarian." Trimble engaged in a letterwriting campaign from his sick bed to obtain his promotion and to challenge Jackson's claim. He wrote to Adjutant General [[Samuel Cooper (general)|Samuel Cooper]], "If I am to have promotion I want it ''at once'' and I particularly request, that my date may be from 26 August, the date of the capture of Manassas." (During this period Trimble also feuded with Maj. Gen. [[J. E. B. Stuart]] about their conflicting reports of the battle and who bore primary responsibility for the seizure of the Union supply depot.)<ref>Freeman, vol. II, p. 416, 502β03.</ref> Trimble was eventually promoted to [[Major General (CSA)|major general]] on January 17, 1863, and assigned to the command of Jackson's old division, but he continued to be unable to command in the field due to his health. At the [[Battle of Chancellorsville]] Brig. Gen. [[Raleigh E. Colston]], as the senior brigadier general, commanded Trimble's division. A recurrence of illness forced him to turn over his division command in the Second Corps to Maj. Gen. [[Edward Johnson (general)|Edward "Allegheny" Johnson]] and he was assigned to light duty as commander of the [[Valley District]] in the Shenandoah Valley on May 28, 1863.<ref>Krick, p. 61; Eicher, 536; Tagg, p. 329; Freeman, vol. II, pp. 416, 701; Long, p. 125. Eicher and Krick list his promotion date as January 17, Freeman and Tagg as January 19.</ref> By June 1863, Gen. [[Robert E. Lee]]'s Army of Northern Virginia had crossed the [[Potomac River]] in the [[Gettysburg Campaign]]. Trimble was desperate to get back into action, particularly because he was familiar with the area from his railroad days. He joined Lee's headquarters unsolicited, and wore out his welcome hanging around without formal assignment. Riding north, he caught up with [[Lieutenant General (CSA)|Lt. Gen.]] [[Richard S. Ewell]] on the way to [[Harrisburg, Pennsylvania]], and joined his staff as a supernumerary, or senior officer without a command. He and Ewell quarreled frequently due to this clumsy arrangement and Trimble's lack of tact.<ref name=Tagg329>Tagg, p. 329.</ref> At the [[Battle of Gettysburg]], Ewell's Second Corps reached the battlefield in the early afternoon of the first day, July 1, 1863, smashing into the Union [[XI Corps (Union Army)|XI Corps]] and driving it south through the town to [[Cemetery Hill]]. Trimble wrote the following about his encounter with Ewell: {{Quotation|The battle was over and we had won it handsomely. General Ewell moved about uneasily, a good deal excited, and seemed to me to be undecided what to do next. I approached him and said: "Well, General, we have had a grand success; are you not going to follow it up and push our advantage?" He replied that General Lee had instructed him not to bring on a general engagement without orders, and that he would wait for them. I said, "That hardly applies to the present state of things, as we have fought a hard battle already, and should secure the advantage gained". He made no rejoinder, but was far from composure. I was deeply impressed with the conviction that it was a critical moment for us and made a remark to that effect. As no movement seemed immediate, I rode off to our left, north of the town, to reconnoitre, and noticed conspicuously the wooded hill northeast of Gettysburg (Culp's), and a half mile distant, and of an elevation to command the country for miles each way, and overlooking Cemetery Hill above the town. Returning to see General Ewell, who was still under much embarrassment, I said, "General, ''There''," pointing to Culp's Hill, "is an eminence of commanding position, and not now occupied, as it ought to be by us or the enemy soon. I advise you to send a brigade and hold it if we are to remain here." He said: "Are you sure it commands the town?" [I replied,] "Certainly it does, as you can see, and it ought to be held by us at once." General Ewell made some impatient reply, and the conversation dropped.|Isaac R. Trimble|Southern Historical Society Papers<ref>Trimble, ''Southern Historical Society Papers''.</ref>}} Observers have reported that the "impatient reply" was, "When I need advice from a junior officer I generally ask for it." They also stated that Trimble threw down his sword in disgust and stormed off. A more colorful version of this account has been immortalized in [[Michael Shaara]]'s novel, ''[[The Killer Angels]]'' and in the film ''[[Gettysburg (1993 film)|Gettysburg]]'', where Trimble directly tells Robert E. Lee his feelings about Ewell not taking the hill. <ref>Tagg, p. 329. Freeman, vol. 3, p. 95, gives a detailed account of what was probably said, and not said, in the unrecorded confrontation between Trimble and Ewell.</ref> On July 3, 1863, Trimble was one of the three division commanders in [[Pickett's Charge]]. He stepped in to replace Maj. Gen. [[William Dorsey Pender|W. Dorsey Pender]], of Lt. Gen. [[A. P. Hill]]'s corps, who had been mortally wounded the previous day. Trimble was at a great disadvantage because he had never worked with these troops before. His division participated in the left section of the assault, advancing just behind the division led by Brig. Gen. [[J. Johnston Pettigrew]] (formerly by Maj. Gen. [[Henry Heth]]). Trimble rode his horse, Jinny, and was wounded in the left leg, the same leg hit at Second Bull Run. Despite feeling faint, the 61-year-old general was able to walk back to the Confederate line on Seminary ridge. His leg was amputated by [[Hunter McGuire|Dr. Hunter McGuire]], and Trimble could not be taken along with the retreating Confederates, because of fear of infection that would result from a long ambulance ride back to Virginia, so he was left under the care of a family in Gettysburg on July 6 as the army withdrew. Trimble complained bitterly that if his leg had been amputated at Second Bull Run, the bullet would have missed him on this occasion. He was treated in the Seminary Hospital at Gettysburg until August. Of the charge on the third day of Gettysburg, Trimble said: "If the men I had the honor to command that day could not take that position, all hell couldn't take it."<ref>Long, p. 125; Krick, p. 61; Tagg, pp. 329β30; Gottfried, p. 650.</ref> Gettysburg marked the end of Trimble's active military career. He spent the next year and a half in Federal hands at [[Johnson's Island]] and [[Fort Warren (Massachusetts)|Fort Warren]]. He was recommended for [[parole]] soon after capture, but former [[U.S. Secretary of War]] [[Simon Cameron]] recommended against it, citing Trimble's expert knowledge of northern railroads. In March 1865, Lt. Gen. [[Ulysses S. Grant]] ordered Trimble to be sent to [[City Point, Virginia]], for exchange, but by the time he reached there, Robert E. Lee's army was already retreating in the [[Appomattox Campaign]]. Trimble was finally paroled in [[Lynchburg, Virginia]], on April 16, 1865, just after Lee's surrender.<ref>Long, pp. 126β28; Eicher, p. 536; Krick, p. 61; Tagg, p. 330.</ref> ==Postbellum life and heritage== After the war, Trimble, equipped with an artificial leg, returned to [[Baltimore, Maryland]], to resume his engineering work. He died in Baltimore and is buried there in [[Green Mount Cemetery]], arguably the most famous Maryland resident who fought for the Confederacy. In 1997, Baltimore's [[President Street Station]], which Trimble had built in 1849, was restored to serve as the [[Baltimore Civil War Museum]].<ref name="Gunts">{{cite news|title=Train station is on track to preservation|last=Gunts|first=Edward|date=January 14, 2008|access-date=April 28, 2009|url=https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/baltsun/access/1412326381.html?dids=1412326381:1412326381&FMT=ABS&FMTS|publisher=[[Baltimore Sun]]|archive-date=October 20, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020101918/https://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/baltsun/access/1412326381.html?dids=1412326381:1412326381&FMT=ABS&FMTS|url-status=dead}}</ref> ==In popular media== Isaac Trimble was played by actor [[W. Morgan Sheppard]] in the movies ''[[Gettysburg (1993 film)|Gettysburg]]'' and ''[[Gods and Generals (film)|Gods and Generals]]''. ==See also== {{Portal|American Civil War|Biography}} * [[List of American Civil War generals (Confederate)]] ==Notes== {{Reflist|colwidth=30em}} ==References== * Eicher, John H., and [[David J. Eicher]], ''Civil War High Commands.'' Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. {{ISBN|978-0-8047-3641-1}}. * Fiebeger, Gustave Joseph. "Isaac Ridgeway Trimble." In ''Dictionary of American Biography'', American Council of Learned Societies, edited by Dumas Malone. Vol. 18. New York: Scribner's, 1936. {{OCLC|796804}}. * [[Douglas S. Freeman|Freeman, Douglas S.]] ''Lee's Lieutenants: A Study in Command''. 3 vols. New York: Scribner, 1946. {{ISBN|978-0-684-85979-8}}. * Gottfried, Bradley M. ''Brigades of Gettysburg''. New York: Da Capo Press, 2002. {{ISBN|0-306-81175-8}}. * Krick, Robert K. "Isaac Ridgeway Trimble." In ''The Confederate General'', vol. 6, edited by [[William C. Davis (historian)|William C. Davis]] and Julie Hoffman. Harrisburg, PA: National Historical Society, 1991. {{ISBN|0-918678-68-4}}. * Long, Roger. "Gen. Isaac R. Trimble in Captivity." ''The Gettysburg Magazine'', Issue One, July 1989. * Sifakis, Stewart. ''Who Was Who in the Civil War.'' New York: Facts On File, 1988. {{ISBN|978-0-8160-1055-4}}. * Tagg, Larry. [https://web.archive.org/web/20141022014655/http://www.rocemabra.com/~roger/tagg/generals/ ''The Generals of Gettysburg'']. Campbell, CA: Savas Publishing, 1998. {{ISBN|1-882810-30-9}}. * Trimble, Isaac R. [http://www.gdg.org/Research/People/Trimble/shtrimbl.html "The Battle and Campaign of Gettysburg."] ''Southern Historical Society Papers'' 26 (1898). * [[Ezra J. Warner (historian)|Warner, Ezra J.]] ''Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders.'' Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. {{ISBN|978-0-8071-0823-9}}. ==Further reading== * Trimble, David C. ''Furious, Insatiable Fighter: A Biography of Maj. Gen. Isaac Ridgeway Trimble, C.S.A.'' Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2005. {{ISBN|0-7618-3251-3}}. * Tucker, Leslie R. ''Major General Isaac Ridgeway Trimble: Biography of a Baltimore Confederate''. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-7864-2131-2}}. {{Gettysburg figures|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Trimble, Isaac R.}} [[Category:1802 births]] [[Category:1888 deaths]] [[Category:People from Culpeper County, Virginia]] [[Category:19th-century American railroad executives]] [[Category:American amputees]] [[Category:Confederate States Army major generals]] [[Category:United States Army officers]] [[Category:United States Military Academy alumni]] [[Category:People of Maryland in the American Civil War]] [[Category:People of Virginia in the American Civil War]] [[Category:American Civil War prisoners of war]] [[Category:Burials at Green Mount Cemetery]] [[Category:Military personnel from Baltimore]] [[Category:Southern Historical Society members]]
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