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In the book The Gray Fox it said that Lee removed Pickett from command. Was this due to his abandoning his troops at Five Forks? In Civil War Blunders he and Fitz Lee went to a fish fry without telling anyone and lost most of their troops to the Union attackers.

Sincerely,

Terry Lee Rouhier

 ???

Dear Mr. Rouhier,

Burke Davis in The Gray Fox notwithstanding, Maj. Gen. George Pickett still had some of his division left after the debacle at Five Forks and it was still existent after the disaster at Sayler’s Creek on April 6, 1865. General Robert E. Lee’s chief of staff, Lt. Col. Walter H. Taylor, recalled after the war that Lee had relieved major generals Pickett, Richard H. Anderson and Bushrod R. Johnson of commands that no longer existed after Sayler’s Creek, but there are no documents to that effect and they certainly never reached Pickett, who was present at Appomattox for the surrender on the 9th. According to Pickett’s medical officer, Dr. M.G. Elzey, he still held his rank and was till referring to himself on April 11 as “Maj. Genl. Commanding.”

Sincerely,

 

Jon Guttman

Research Director

World History

www.historynet.com

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