Lewis Addison "Lo" Armistead^[1]

1817 - 1863  (46 years)

• Name	Lewis Addison "Lo" Armistead
  Birth	18 Feb 1817	New Bern, Craven, North Carolina, USA   [2, 3]
  Gender	Male
  Residence	1850	Fort Snelling, Hennepin, Minnesota, USA   [4]
  	Occupation: Officer in Us Army
  Residence	1860	Upperville, Fauquier, Virginia, USA   [5]
  	Occupation: May Usa
  Death	5 Jul 1863	Gettysburg, Adams, Pennsylvania, USA   [2, 3]
  Burial	Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA   [2]
  Person ID	I44458	Master
  Last Modified	22 Mar 2025

  
  

  Father	Gail Walker Keith Armistead,   b. 25 Mar 1783, New Market, Shenandoah, Virginia, USA d. 13 Oct 1845, New Market, Shenandoah, Virginia, USA (Age 62 years)
  Mother	Elizabeth Franck Stanly,   b. 1 Nov 1797, New Bern, Craven, North Carolina, USA d. 30 Sep 1861, Upperville, Fauquier, Virginia, USA (Age 63 years)
  Marriage	1814	, , Virginia, USA
  Family ID	F10196	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Matilda Cecelia Lee Love,   b. 29 Oct 1823, , Culpeper, Virginia, USA d. 12 Dec 1850, Fort Snelling, Hennepin, Minnesota, USA (Age 27 years)
  Marriage	13 Feb 1844	, Lowndes, Alabama, USA   [6]
  Children	1. Walker Keith Armistead, Sr,   b. 11 Dec 1844, , Dallas, Alabama, USA d. 28 Mar 1896, Newport, Newport, Rhode Island, USA (Age 51 years)   2. Flora Love Armistead,   b. 26 Jun 1846, Upperville, Fauquier, Virginia, USA d. 29 Apr 1850, Jefferson Barracks Military Post, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA (Age 3 years)
  Family ID	F10195	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	20 Mar 2025

  
  

  Family 2	Cornelia Lee Taliaferro,   b. 2 Aug 1828, , Fauquier, Virginia, USA d. 2 Aug 1855, Fort Riley, Geary, Kansas, USA (Age 27 years)
  Marriage	17 Mar 1853	Arlington, Arlington, Virginia, USA   [7, 8]
  Children	1. Lewis B Armistead,   b. 1854, , , , USA d. 6 Dec 1854, , , Missouri, USA (Age 0 years)
  Family ID	F10194	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	20 Mar 2025

  
  

• Event Map		Birth - 18 Feb 1817 - New Bern, Craven, North Carolina, USA Marriage - 13 Feb 1844 - , Lowndes, Alabama, USA Residence - 1850 - Fort Snelling, Hennepin, Minnesota, USA Marriage - 17 Mar 1853 - Arlington, Arlington, Virginia, USA Residence - 1860 - Upperville, Fauquier, Virginia, USA Death - 5 Jul 1863 - Gettysburg, Adams, Pennsylvania, USA Burial - - Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA  = Link to Google Earth
  Pin Legend	: Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

  
  

• Photos		Armistead Sword Sword and scabbard carried by General Lewis Armistead at the battle of Gettysburg. Object Name Sword Catalog Number 0985.13.00078a Description Model 1850 U.S. Foot Officer's Sword: slightly curved, single-edged blade with two fullers, blade etched with floral sprays and military trophies, eagle and "US"; gilded brass hilt with guard decorated with pierced design of floral sprays, knuckle bow pierced for sword knot near pommel which is decorated on forward edge with oak leaves; wood grip covered with shagreen and twisted wire. Leather scabbard (.78b) with brass mounts. Dimensions W-5.5 L-33.5 D-3 inches Owned Lewis A. Armistead; Michael Specht; Thomas D. Jeffress Owner Regiment Specht: 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry, Co. K Event Battle of Gettysburg Provenance Brig. Gen. Lewis Addison Armistead carried this sword and scabbard during the war. He used it when he was leading his brigade as part of Pickett's Charge. Upon leaping the stone wall near the colors of the 72nd Pennsylvania, Armistead fell mortally wounded. Sgt. Michael Specht, of Co. K, 72nd Pennsylvania Infantry, picked up the sword with scabbard and kept them until he, with the 72nd Pennsyvlania Infantry, gave them to the 56th Virginia Infantry (Capt. Thomas D. Jeffress as commander) at the "Reunion of the Blue and Gray" at Gettysburg on September 15, 1906 on the spot where Armistead fell. The 56th Virginia gave the sword and scabbard to the Museum with the statement that Armistead's heirs had claim to the items. Armistead's grandsons laid claim but donated the sword and scabbard fully in 1907. https://acwm.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/98E8EDD6-3A5D-40EE-B0F1-115157246450
  		Lewis Addison "Lo" Armistead (1817-1863)

  
  

• Notes

  When the Civil War began, Captain Armistead was in command of the small garrison at the New San Diego Depot[12] in San Diego, which was occupied in 1860. He was a close friend of Winfield Scott Hancock, serving with him as a quartermaster in Los Angeles, California, before the Civil War. Accounts say that in a farewell party before leaving to join the Confederate army, Armistead told Hancock, "Goodbye; you can never know what this has cost me. When the war started, Armistead departed from California to Texas with the Los Angeles Mounted Rifles, then traveled east and received a commission as a major, but was quickly promoted to colonel of the 57th Virginia Infantry regiment. He served in the western part of Virginia, but soon returned to the east and the Army of Northern Virginia. He fought as a brigade commander at Seven Pines, and then under General Robert E Lee in the Seven Days Battles (where he was chosen to spearhead the bloody assault on Malvern Hill), and Second Bull Run. At Antietam, he served as Lee's provost marshal, a frustrating job due to the high levels of desertion that plagued the army in that campaign. Then he was under command in the division of Maj. Gen. George Pickett at Fredericksburg. Because he was with Lt. Gen. James Longstreet's First Corps near Norfolk, Virginia, in the spring of 1863, he missed the Battle of Chancellorsville. In the Battle of Gettysburg, Armistead's brigade arrived the evening of July 2, 1863. Armistead was mortally wounded the next day while leading his brigade towards the center of the Union line in Pickett's Charge. Armistead led his brigade from the front, waving his hat from the tip of his saber, and reached the stone wall at the "Angle," which served as the charge's objective. The brigade got farther in the charge than any other, an event sometimes known as the High Water Mark of the Confederacy, but it was quickly overwhelmed by a Union counterattack. Armistead was shot three times just after crossing the wall. Union Captain Henry H Bingham received Armistead's personal effects and carried the news to Union Major General Winfield Hancock, Armistead's friend from before the war. Armistead's wounds were not believed to be mortal; he had been shot in the fleshy part of the arm and below the knee, and according to the surgeon who tended him, none of the wounds caused bone, artery, or nerve damage. He was then taken to a Union field hospital at the George Spangler Farm where he died two days later. Dr. Daniel Brinton, the chief surgeon at the Union hospital there, had expected Armistead to survive because he characterized the two bullet wounds as not of a "serious character." He wrote that the death "was not from his wounds directly, but from secondary bacterium, fever and prostration."

  
  

• Sources

  [S761] Yates Publishing, Ancestry Family Trees, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.), Ancestry Family Tree. [S751] Ancestry.com, U.S., Find a Grave® Index, 1600s-Current, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.). [S1067] Ancestry.com, Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography, 1600-1889, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), Appletons' Cyclopedia of American Biography; Volume: Vol. I. [S227] Ancestry.com, 1850 United States Federal Census, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009.), The National Archives in Washington, DC; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M432; Residence Date: 1850; Home in 1850: Fort Snelling and Vicinity, Dakota, Minnesota Territory; Roll: 367; Page: 10b. [S31] Ancestry.com, 1860 United States Federal Census, (Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch.), The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M653; Residence Date: 1860; Home in 1860: Upperville, Fauquier, Virginia; Roll: M653_1344; Page: 4; Family History Library . [S945] Ancestry.com, Alabama, U.S., Marriage Indexes, 1814-1935, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), Alabama Department of Archives and History; Montgomery, Alabama; WPA Indices to Marriage Records, by County, 1814-1935. [S302] FamilySearch, Virginia, U.S., Select Marriages, 1785-1940, (FamilySearch ([http://familysearch.org http://familysearch.org]/)). [S1405] Ancestry.com, Virginia, U.S., Marriage Registers, 1853-1935, (Ancestry.com Operations, Inc.), Library of Virginia; Richmond, VA; Virginia Marriages, 1853-1935.