29 Facts About Henry Heth

Henry Heth was a senior officer of the Confederate States Army who commanded infantry in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War.

Henry Heth was born at Black Heath in Chesterfield County, Virginia, son of United States Navy Captain John Heth, and Margaret L Pickett, sister of Robert Pickett, who was the father of Confederate general, George Pickett.

Henry Heth usually went by "Harry", the name preferred by his grandfather, American Revolutionary War Colonel Henry Heth, who had established the Heth family in the coal business in the Virginia Colony after serving in the American Revolution.

Henry Heth was wounded at West Point in 1846 with a bayonet stab to his leg.

Henry Heth graduated from the United States Military Academy at the bottom of his class in 1847.

Henry Heth was commissioned a brevet second lieutenant and assigned to the 1st Infantry Regiment.

Henry Heth was serving as a first lieutenant in the 6th Infantry when John C Symmes III refused a captaincy in the new 10th Infantry on March 3,1855, and Heth was appointed in his place.

Henry Heth played a prominent role in the 1855 Battle of Ash Hollow, leading a company of mounted infantry against the Lakota.

In turn, Heth was frustrated by the illiteracy and lack of discipline of his men, as well as General John B Floyd's actions as commanding officer in the region.

Henry Heth spent the remainder of 1861 in the Kanawha Valley in western Virginia in the 5th and 45th Virginia Infantry regiments.

Henry Heth was promoted to brigadier general on January 6,1862.

Heth's diminutive force held off the forces of General Jacob D Cox at Giles Courthouse and pursued the enemy to Lewisburg, where Heth was forced to withdraw.

Henry Heth was then sent west to the Department of East Tennessee, to serve under Edmund Kirby Smith.

Henry Heth fought in the Battle of Chancellorsville, showing aggressive, but misguided, qualities in his first large-scale combat, attacking without reserves against a Union force emerging from the Wilderness.

Henry Heth assumed command of Hill's division after Hill assumed corps command after Stonewall Jackson's wounding.

Henry Heth retained his division command and was promoted to major general on May 24,1863.

Hill to avoid a general engagement with the enemy before he could assemble his full army, but Henry Heth's actions had now rendered that order moot.

Henry Heth's decision to deploy his two brigades before the arrival of the rest of his division was an error as well; they were repulsed in hard fighting against an elite division of the Army of the Potomac's I Corps, including the famously tenacious Iron Brigade.

Finally, Henry Heth attacked again in conjunction with the division of Maj.

Henry Heth should have better coordinated his attack with the division of Maj.

Henry Heth was wounded during the attack when a bullet struck him in the head.

The papers probably deflected the bullet to avoid a fatal wound, but Henry Heth was knocked unconscious and effectively out of the battle.

Johnston Pettigrew, saw more action two days later in Pickett's Charge, and Henry Heth recovered enough to command during the retreat back to Virginia and the minor engagements of the fall of 1863.

Harry Henry Heth commanded his division through the 1864 Overland Campaign.

Henry Heth participated in the Siege of Petersburg, playing direct roles in the battles of Globe Tavern; Second Ream's Station; Peebles' Farm; Boydton Plank Road; and Hatcher's Run.

Hill on April 2,1865, Henry Heth briefly took over command of the Third Corps.

Henry Heth led the remainder of his troops in the Appomattox Campaign, fighting at Cumberland Church and retreating to Appomattox Court House, where he surrendered with Lee on April 9,1865.

Henry Heth died in Washington, DC, and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia.

Henry Heth served as the first Commander of the Centennial Legion of Historic Military Commands when it was founded in 1876.