Rodes started his Confederate service as a
colonel in command of the 5th Alabama Infantry
regiment. Rodes went to
First Bull Run as part of Brigader General
Richard Ewell's brigade, but did not see any action. In October 1861, he was promoted to brigadier general and assigned as part of Major General
D.H. Hill's division. Rodes's first combat experience happened at the
Battle of Seven Pines, where he was badly wounded. A few weeks later, he returned to brigade command just prior to the start of the Seven Days Battles. He led his brigade at
Gaines Mill, but two days later had to step down due to fever and the lingering effects of his wound and was subsequently assigned to light duty in the defenses of
Richmond, Virginia while he recuperated. He recovered in time for General
Robert E. Lee's first invasion of the Union, in September 1862, fighting at
South Mountain and
Antietam. At Antietam, he commanded one of two brigades that held out so long against the
Union assault on the sunken road, or "Bloody Lane", at the center of the Confederate line, suffering heavy casualties. Rodes was lightly wounded by shell fragments. In the
Battle of Chancellorsville, Rodes was a division commander in Stonewall Jackson's corps. He was the first division-level commander in Lee's army who had not graduated from
West Point. Rodes led Jackson's devastating flank attack against the Union
XI Corps on May 2, 1863. He was temporarily placed in command of the corps that night when Jackson was mortally wounded and Maj. Gen.
A.P. Hill was also wounded. Hill immediately summoned the more senior officer Maj. Gen.
J.E.B. Stuart, and minutes later Rodes graciously ceded his battlefield command to him. Jackson on his deathbed recommended that Rodes be promoted to major general and this promotion be back-dated to be effective May 2. When Lee reorganized the
Army of Northern Virginia to compensate for the loss of Jackson, Rodes joined the Second Corps under Richard Ewell. In the
Battle of Gettysburg, on July 1, 1863, Rodes led the assault from Oak Hill against the right flank of the Union
I Corps. Although his initial attacks were poorly coordinated and casualties high, he eventually routed the division of Maj. Gen.
John C. Robinson and drove it back through the town. His division sat idle for the remaining two days of the battle. Rodes continued to fight with Ewell's corps through the 1864
Overland Campaign of
Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. Ewell was replaced by Lt. Gen.
Jubal Early, and the corps was sent by Lee to the
Shenandoah Valley to draw Union forces away from
Petersburg, in the
Valley Campaigns of 1864. Early conducted a long and successful raid down the Valley, into
Maryland, and reached the outskirts of
Washington, D.C., before turning back. Maj. Gen.
Philip Sheridan was sent by Grant to drive Early from the Valley once and for all. On September 19, 1864, Sheridan attacked the Confederates at the
Battle of Opequon, also known as the Third Battle of Winchester. Several wives of Confederate officers were chased from town during the attack and Rodes managed to save Maj. Gen.
John B. Gordon's wife from capture. Rodes and Gordon prepared to attack Sheridan's forces when Rodes was struck in the back of his head by a Union shell fragment. He died on the field outside
Winchester. Rodes was mourned by the Confederacy as a promising, brave, and aggressive officer killed before he could achieve greatness. Robert E. Lee and other high-ranking officers wrote sympathetic statements. Rodes is buried beside his brother, Virginius Hudson Rodes, who had been his adjutant throughout the War, in Presbyterian Cemetery,
Lynchburg, Virginia. He and his wife, Virginia Hortense Woodruff (1833–1907), had two children, Robert Emmet Rodes, Jr. (1863–1925) and Bell Yancey Rodes (1865–1931). ==See also==