Robert Emmett Rodes

From Dixiepedia: The PC-Free Encyclopedia

Robert Emmett Rodes (29 March 1829 – 19 September 1864) was a Virginia-born officer who got his start in an Alabama unit. Born in Lynchburg, Virginia, he graduated from Virginia Military Institute in 1848. He became a civil engineer and chief engineer of the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Rodes started his Confederate service as a colonel in command of the 5th Alabama Infantry regiment. Seeing action at First Manassas, he was promoted to Brigadier General and saw service in the Peninsula Campaign under Daniel Harvey Hill. Rodes served with distinction at South Mountain and at the Bloody Lane at Sharpsburg. He commanded what had been Hill's Division at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. He continued to serve in the Second Corps under Ewell and then Early, in the 1864 Valley Campaign. He was killed 19 September 1864 at the Battle of Opequon and is buried in Presbyterian Cemetery, Lynchburg, Virginia.