Civil War
Immediately following Alabama's secession from the Union, Law joined the Alabama Militia as a captain. In April 1861 he transferred to the Confederate States Army as a captain in the 4th Alabama Infantry, a unit he helped recruit from students at his high school. The 4th Alabama was also known as under Maj. Gen. James Longstreet in the Army of Northern Virginia in May 1862.
Law led his brigade through the Peninsula Campaign and the Seven Days Battles. At Gaines' Mill, he and fellow brigade commander Brig. Gen. John Bell Hood achieved fame by breaking the center of the Union line. They attacked in tandem again at the Battle of Malvern Hill four days later, but were defeated decisively. In the Northern Virginia Campaign, at the Second Battle of Bull Run, Law and Hood were used again as the primary assaulting force in Longstreet's surprise attack against the Union left flank, almost destroying Maj. Gen. John Pope's Army of Virginia.
In the Maryland Campaign, at the Battle of Antietam, Law's Brigade defended against the Union attack through the Cornfield at high cost—454 killed and wounded. Law was promoted to brigadier general on October 3, 1862. At the Battle of Fredericksburg in December, he saw little action.
Read more about this topic: Evander M. Law
Famous quotes related to civil war:
“... there was the first Balkan war and the second Balkan war and then there was the first world war. It is extraordinary how having done a thing once you have to do it again, there is the pleasure of coincidence and there is the pleasure of repetition, and so there is the second world war, and in between there was the Abyssinian war and the Spanish civil war.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“Since the Civil War its six states have produced fewer political ideas, as political ideas run in the Republic, than any average county in Kansas or Nebraska.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“We have heard all of our lives how, after the Civil War was over, the South went back to straighten itself out and make a living again. It was for many years a voiceless part of the government. The balance of power moved away from it—to the north and the east. The problems of the north and the east became the big problem of the country and nobody paid much attention to the economic unbalance the South had left as its only choice.”
—Lyndon Baines Johnson (1908–1973)