Existing comment:
Henry Heth is one of several Confederate generals buried at Hollywood Cemetery. His reputation was mediocre. He graduated last in his class at West Point in 1847. Jefferson Davis liked him and made him a brigadier general in January 1862. His actions in the battle of Chancellorsville (1862) got him promoted to command a division. In Gettysburg, it was Heth's men who made the initial contact with the Union armies on July 1 1863, something that Lee had specifically ordered him to not do. Without bothering to do any reconnaissance, he committed his troops and his division was severely bloodied. Later battles at Bristoe Station, the Wilderness, and around Petersburg gave him a reputation for personal bravery but maintained a reputation for acting brashly. |