Dayhoff Westminster Soundtrack: The death of Waller Tazewell Patton at Gettysburg

Monday, July 06, 2020

The death of Waller Tazewell Patton at Gettysburg

Picture caption: “The Death of General Mercer at the Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777” by John Trumbull

I was following the death of Waller Tazewell Patton, the sixth son of John Mercer Patton, at the Battle of Gettysburg on the third day of the conflict in July 1863; when I came upon Patton’s ancestor - General Hugh Mercer.

The Presbyterian Scots (and the Irish,) were the back bone of the American military for many generations.

According to an article in the Washington Post. Patton was, “Elected to command the 7th Virginia Infantry, in July 1863 he met his destiny at Gettysburg, in the debacle on the third day of the battle that has been immortalized as Pickett's Charge. It has been aptly described as ‘a magnificent mile-wide spectacle, a picture-book view of war that participants on both sides remembered with awe until their dying moment--which for many came within the next hour.’

“Of the more than fourteen thousand men who began the attack, less than half would return to the safety of their own lines. Among the first to perish were the officers who led their men into the cauldron of fire. The men of Pickett's division suffered the worst losses, nearly two-thirds, including all three brigade commanders. Of the thirteen regimental commanders, every single one was either killed outright or wounded.

“One of those commanders, lying mortally wounded near a stone wall that afternoon, was twenty-nine-year-old Col. Waller Tazewell Patton, whose 7th Virginia had advanced the farthest before it was repulsed. Terribly wounded in the mouth, he was eventually removed from the battlefield and taken to a nearby Union hospital in Gettysburg. He was treated with kindness by a nurse who ministered to him during the final days of his life. Before the battle he had been troubled by a premonition that he would die that day.

“The incident in which Tazewell was wounded was witnessed by an enemy artillery officer, Lt. Henry T. Lee, whose battery had been positioned just behind the stone wall. During the attack, he saw the two officers jump on the wall holding hands and instantly fall. The act so impressed him that when the charge was repulsed he went to look for them. One, a boy of nineteen, was dead, the other had his jaw shattered and was dying from a ghastly wound.

“The wounded officer motioned to Lee for a pencil and paper and wrote as follows: "As we approached the wall my cousin and regimental adjutant, Captain (name forgotten) pressed to my side and said: `Its our turn next, Tazewell.' We grasped hands and jumped on the wall. Send this to my mother so that she may know that her son has lived up to and died according to her ideals."

“Fortunately a close relative was present to offer consolation, and he noted that Tazewell's only method of communication was to write, painfully, on a slate board. Foremost in his mind were his God, his mother, and his country. Shortly before his death, in a poignant letter to his beloved mother, he reaffirmed devotion to God and asked for her prayers. The young colonel ended by scribbling on his slate board: ‘Tell my mother that I am about to die in a foreign land; but I cherish the same intense affection for her as ever.’ When Waller Tazewell Patton died, on July 23, 1863, he was the first--but not the last--member of his family to perish in the service of the Confederacy.”

A fascinating history of General Hugh Mercer may be found on History.com – here: https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hugh-mercer-dies-from-wounds-received-in-battle-of-princeton “Hugh Mercer dies from wounds received in Battle of Princeton.”

On January 12, 1777, American Brigadier General Hugh Mercer dies from the seven bayonet wounds he received during the Battle of Princeton.

Mercer’s military service ranged over two continents and three armies. Born in Rosehearty, Scotland, Mercer studied medicine at the University of Aberdeen and first served as an assistant surgeon in Bonnie Prince Charlie’s army of 1745. After the Scots uprising against the British met its devastatingly bloody end at Culloden on April 16, 1746, Mercer returned to Aberdeenshire, where he spent a year in hiding before moving to Pennsylvania in March 1747.

Cites: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/patton.htm Patton

A Genius for War, by Carlo D'Este. Chapter One: The Pattons of Virginia

We ne'er shall look upon his like again.--TRIBUTE TO COL. GEORGE S. PATTON, VMI, CLASS OF 1852

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/hugh-mercer-dies-from-wounds-received-in-battle-of-princeton “Hugh Mercer dies from wounds received in Battle of Princeton.”

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Kevin Dayhoff for Westminster Authority Caroline Babylon, Treasurer.