Brigadier General James Johnston Pettigrew

In 1847, James Johnston Pettigrew graduated from the university at the top of his class. An esteemed student known for his intellect, he published a widely praised book about Spanish culture. When the war began, he joined the 22nd North Carolina Regiment as colonel. In July 1863, Pettigrew led the charge up the left side of Cemetery Ridge at Gettysburg. The losses in Pettigrews division were staggering, leaving only eighty men standing out of the eight hundred who began the battle. A week later, Pettigrew died from wounds received during the Confederate retreat. In 1912, the university named a building for him. Brigadier General James Johnston Pettigrew (1828-1863) Description Posed portrait of a man with medium-to-long brown hair, brown mustache and long brown goatee, wearing a blue jacket with two columns of large brass buttons on the chest and gold filigree designs on the sleeves, hoding a gold sheath in his left hand and the handle of the sword protruding from it in his right hand, facing slightly to the left and looking to the right. James Johnston Pettigrew (July 4, 1828 - July 17, 1863) was an author, lawyer, linguist, diplomat, and a Confederate general in the American Civil War. He was a major leader in the disastrous Pickett’s Charge and was killed a few days after the Battle of Gettysburg during the Confederate retreat to Virginia. A portrait of General James Johnston Pettigrew, painted by William Garl Brown in 1866, hangs on an interior wall at the Southern Historical Collection.