Category Archives: Edward Porter Alexander

Signal flags at Knoxville

Gen. Edward Porter Alexander was a colonel at Knoxville, in charge of Longstreet’s artillery, where he put to good use the signal flags he’d learned to use as a U.S. Army officer under Albert J. Myer, an army surgeon, before … Continue reading

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Reprise: The Unfortunate Friendship

Unfortunate, that is, for the boys age 14 to 17 who comprised the majority of Captain/Doctor William Watts Parker’s Sixth Virginia Light Artillery. Meaning his friendship with Colonel Edward Porter Alexander, Longstreet’s chief of artillery. For as Alexander put it … Continue reading

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General McLaws’ court martial

Although convened in February, 1864, McLaws’ court martial for dereliction of duty in the assault on Fort Sanders at Knoxville, was on-again, off-again, for the next several weeks. Finally, on March 11, the trial commenced at a private home in … Continue reading

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Ninth Georgia artillery emplacements

Site of the Morgan Hill archeological dig in the summer of 2009, where artifacts such as belt buckles and friction primers convinced University of Tennessee scientists they had found the 1863 emplacements of the Ninth Georgia Artillery Battalion. The Ninth … Continue reading

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Reprise: Signal flags at Knoxville

There’s no direct evidence that I know of that Longstreet’s artillery chief, Colonel Edward Porter Alexander, used signal flags at Knoxville to, for instance, alert the Boy Battery on Cherokee Heights when to cease fire. And also the other batteries … Continue reading

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Porter Alexander’s memoirs

Careful readers of the novel with some knowledge of the available history of the battle may wonder why my conclusions often differed from those of independent historian Digby Gordon Seymour in his seminal Divided Loyalties: Fort Sanders and the Civil … Continue reading

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“Every day of delay…”

One key officer in Longstreet’s command at Knoxville was Col. Edward Porter Alexander, his chief of artillery. It’s interesting that Alexander’s pre-attack artillery barrage at Knoxville was no more successful than the more famous and larger one which he orchestrated … Continue reading

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Signal flags at Knoxville

There’s no direct evidence that I know of that Longstreet’s artillery chief, Colonel Edward Porter Alexander, used signal flags at Knoxville to alert the Boy Battery on Cherokee Heights when to cease fire. And also the other batteries of his … Continue reading

Posted in "Knoxville 1863", Boy Battery, Edward Porter Alexander, Longstreet | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment