A VMI Graduate

View from Oak Hill

On 1 July 1863 coming down from the north, fate put a division of Confederate soldiers on the far right of the Union line, and on highest point of Oak Hill.  This Division was led by the capable VIM graduate Major General Robert Rhodes.

Robert Emmett Rhodes was born in Lynchburg, VA, 29 March 1829.  After graduating from the Virginia Military Institute in 1848, he stayed at the school as a professor until 1851.  Leaving it is believed because the promotion he expected went to Thomas J Jackson.  He went to work for the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad.

Rhodes became the Colonel of the 5th Alabama, leading the men at the First Battle of Manassas.  He continued to raise in rank, and to the command of larger parts of the army, until landing in Divisional command in Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson's Corps just before the Battle of Chancellorsville. Jackson himself recommended Rhode be promoted to Major General, which was done with the effective date of 2 May 1863.  He was the first Divisional Commander in the Army of Northern Virginia, who was not a graduate of West Point.

Rhodes' division was a part of Lieutenant General Richard Ewell's newly formed Corps at Gettysburg.  Arriving on the field from the north they took possession of Oak Hill, an excellent artillery platform.  Although there were a number of bad command decisions made by his division, they held their ground and eventually joined in routing of the Union forces on 1 July, driving them back to Cemetery Hill.

A little over a year letter, during the Battle of Third Winchester/ Battle of Opequon, Rhodes was leading his men in an attack, into a gap between the 6th and 19th Union Corps.  On 19 September 1864 an exploding shell killed Robert Rhodes instantly.  He left behind a wife, Virgina (Woodruff) and two children, Robert E and Bell Yancey Rhodes.