Alexander, Edward Porter

Life Span
to
    Full name
    Edward Porter Alexander
    Place of Birth
    Burial Place
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    South
    Origins
    Slave State
    No. of Spouses
    2
    No. of Children
    6
    Family
    Adam Leopold Alexander (father), Sarah Hillhouse Gilbert (mother), Bettie Mason (first wife, 1860), Mary Mason (second wife, 1901)
    Education
    West Point (US Military Academy)
    Occupation
    Military
    Businessman
    Educator
    Writer or Artist
    Military
    Union Army
    Confederate Army

    Edward Porter Alexander (American National Biography)

    Scholarship
    Alexander's most enduring postwar legacy was a body of writings about his Confederate service. He published important essays in the popular Battles and Leaders of the Civil War series (4 vols., 1887-1888), the Southern Historical Society Papers ("The Seven Days Battle" [Jan. 1876]; "Causes of Lee's Defeat at Gettysburg" [Sept. 1877]; "Sketch of Longstreet's Division" [Oct., Nov., and Dec. 1881 and Jan.-Feb. 1882]; "The Battle of Fredericksburg" [Aug.-Sept. 1882 and Oct.-Nov. 1882]; and "Confederate Artillery Service" [Feb.-Mar. 1883]), and the 1908 Annual Report of the American Historical Association. While in Nicaragua, he wrote a long memoir intended for his family (published in 1989 as Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander, ed. Gary W. Gallagher), which he revised heavily to produce Military Memoirs of a Confederate: A Critical Narrative (1907). Unmatched among the writings of ex-Confederates for their impartiality and brilliant analysis, Alexander's two reminiscences also offer splendid anecdotes about prominent individuals and famous events.
    Gary W. Gallagher, "Alexander, Edward Porter," American National Biography Online, February 2000, http://www.anb.org/articles/05/05-00011.html.
    Chicago Style Entry Link
    Alexander, Edward Porter. Military Memoirs of a Confederate: A Critical Narrative. New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1907. view record
    Gallagher, Gary W., ed. Fighting for the Confederacy: The Personal Recollections of General Edward Porter Alexander. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989. view record
    Klein, Maury. Edward Porter Alexander. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1971. view record
    How to Cite This Page: "Alexander, Edward Porter," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/4967.