UNLIKE Fredericksburg Confederate Cemetery, Spotsylvania Confederate Cemetery is arranged in sections. Each Confederate state has a section, plus a section for burials of unknowns.
In the unknown section, strangely enough, is a row of nine known soldiers. Especially interesting is the fact that the highest-ranking officer in the entire cemetery is in this row. The first stone from the left in this row bears the name "John C. Higginbotham," without rank or unit.
John Carlton Higginbotham was born Nov. 11, 1842. He lived in what is now Upshur County, W.Va., near the center of the state. He attended school at Lynchburg College in the Class of 1862, but left in 1861 to raise a company of soldiers. He enlisted as captain of Company A, 25th Virginia Infantry Regiment, on May 27. He fought in one of the first battles of the war--at Rich Mountain on July 7, 1861--and sustained a wound.
Higginbotham wrote of the event, "I got my pants and boot-legs riddled with bullets, but without serious injury in fact 'no meat hurt.'" He would not be so lucky in future battles.
Higginbotham served on a court-martial trial in January 1862, and several times served as acting commander of the regiment. In May he was promoted to major.
A week later, he sustained a flesh wound in the leg during Maj. Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's victory at McDowell. He was wounded in the shoulder during Jackson victory's at Cedar Mountain on Aug. 9, 1862. Twenty days later, he was more severely wounded at the Battle of Second Manassas. He was hit three times in the thigh and once in the groin.
That October, Higginbotham was promoted to lieutenant colonel for his gallantry.
In January 1863 he served on a court of inquiry. Higginbotham was promoted to colonel on June 13, 1863, to rank retroactively from Jan. 28 of that year. In the Battle of Gettysburg, he was again wounded, this time a slight flesh wound.
Higginbotham's last letter home was written on May 3, 1864, just before the regiment moved into the Wilderness. He told his mother that the army was in excellent fighting shape and he had armed his regiment with splendid new guns. He added: "I hope soon to be able to write to you and Pa. a long account of a great battle and victory to be achieved by us. I am weary of remaining idle and long for the active campaign."
He would not get a chance to write that letter.
The next day, the men of the 25th Virginia left their winter camp and moved toward the thickets of young trees, noxious vegetation and misbehaving vines called the Wilderness.
On May 5, the 25th Virginia of Brig. Gen. John M. Jones' brigade formed on the western edge of Saunders Field south of the Orange Turnpike (modern-day State Route 20). During the afternoon fighting, the Federals had a brief success, forcing Jones' Virginians back.
Jones rode up to rally his troops. One of his men heard him say he "would rather die before he would go back another inch." Moments later, he was shot and killed. Higginbotham tried to rally the Virginians, but without success. With defenses in depth, the Confederates counterattacked to stabilize the situation.
As senior colonel, William Witcher took command of the brigade. Both the 25th Virginia's regimental history and the Higginbotham family's genealogy Web site claim that Higginbotham took command of the brigade and that he was promoted to brigadier general.
However, there is no evidence of this in the military records, and promotions are almost always based upon seniority. Maybe if Higginbotham had lived longer, he would have gained the promotion over Witcher. But that is strictly speculation about something that never happened.
On the night of May 7, the armies departed the depressing thickets of the Wilderness and moved to Spotsylvania. Three days later, the skirmishers of the Georgia brigade of Brig. Gen. George Doles were chased in. Division commander Robert Rodes ordered Doles to have the skirmishers retake their position. Doles did not comply, a decision that cost the life of, among others, Col. John Carlton Higginbotham.
The Union took advantage of the mistake at 6 that evening with a fast, hard-hitting attack by Col. Emory Upton that cracked Doles' main line. Doles threw himself on the ground to feign death.
The 25th Virginia held the tip of a giant salient in the Confederate lines known as the Mule Shoe. In reaction to Upton's breakthrough on the west side of the Mule Shoe, Higginbotham's men were among those who hurried over to assist the Georgians.
The Confederate counterattack repulsed Upton's attack. But Higginbotham did not live to see it. As his regiment approached the breakthrough, Higginbotham was hit in the heart.
A letter the next day to Higginbotham's father said the colonel died as the sun was setting. The letter-writer added that the body would be sent home for burial. It never was.
MAC WYCKOFF of Spotsylvania County is a historian.
| Historian Mac Wyckoff will give a tour of Spotsylvania Confederate Cemetery on Friday, June 30, at 7 p.m. and will discuss the life and death of Col. John Higginbotham and other Confederates buried there. Participants should meet at the Spotsylvania County Visitor Center at State Routes 208 and 613. Parking is available next door at the Holbert building. |