John Sedgwick: Antietam's West Woods to a Sharpshooter at Spotsylvania

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Major General John Sedgwick, born in 1813 in Cornwall, Connecticut, taught school before graduating 24th of 50 from West Point in 1837. He fought in the Seminole Wars, earned brevet promotions at Contreras, Churubusco and Chapultepec in Mexico, and in 1860 kept his men alive on the Colorado frontier by having them quarry stone and build shelters when supplies never arrived. His troops called him Uncle John.

At Antietam, Edwin Sumner sent Sedgwick's division into the West Woods without reconnaissance, where Stonewall Jackson's hidden troops caught it in a three-sided ambush; nearly half the division fell and Sedgwick was hit in the wrist, leg and shoulder. Later criticized for caution, nearly removed by Edwin Stanton, and longing to go home to New England, he led the Sixth Corps at Spotsylvania. On May 9, 1864, he told flinching men the enemy could not hit an elephant at that distance, seconds before a sharpshooter's bullet struck him below the left eye.

He missed First Bull Run while recovering from cholera and was wounded at Glendale.
His open admiration for George McClellan and criticism of Benjamin Butler made him enemies in Washington.
The sharpshooters fired from about 1,000 yards, using Whitworth rifles with hexagonal barrels and bullets.
Chief of staff Martin McMahon tried to catch him as he fell, and Grant said the loss was worse than losing a division.
West Point cadets spin the rowels on the spurs of his statue for luck on final exams.

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