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William C. Oates, 1894–1896 PAul McWHorter Pruitt Jr. William Calvin oates held none of the contradictory philosophies that marked his predecessor, Thomas G. Jones. neither did he enjoy Jones’s comfortable childhood or excellent preparatory education. The eldest child of William and sarah sellers oates,William was born on november 30, 1835, in Pike County. his father, who had migrated to the Wiregrass region from south Carolina, was a poor farmer who had little to offer his wife and children but a life of isolation and endless toil.young William was ambitious, but his father had no money with which to educate him.in the end he attended a few school sessions after scraping together tuition by working on neighboring farms. As a child,oates developed a penchant for getting into trouble,and in 1851,believing that he had killed a man whom he had struck over the head with a shovel, he decided to leave home and see more of the world. oates embarked on a three-year picaresque adventure.earning his keep as a cigar seller,house painter,deckhand,shingle maker,and,above all,a gambler, oates made brief stays in northern Florida,louisiana,and variousTexas towns. in an autobiography written in his later years, he remembered himself as a lover of women and a brawler who specialized in gouging eyes.Few men have risen so far from such a rough beginning. early in 1854 oates returned to Alabama. Cured of wanderlust though not of restlessness, the teenaged oates traveled deeper into the Wiregrass to henry County, where he found a job teaching school. beginning in 1855 144 / William C. oates 1894–1896 oates began alternating teaching with study at lawrenceville Academy, where schoolmaster William A. Clark and his staff schooled the young man in english composition,mathematics,latin,and debate.he worked hard and excelled, becoming a fair classical scholar and graduating in just two years. As a debater oates became interested in public affairs and not surprisingly turned to the study of law as a ladder upward. in 1858 he traveled to eufaula to read law with the firm of James l. Pugh, edward C. bullock, and Jefferson buford, lawyers who strongly supported secession and were associated with the “eufaula regency.” in october he earned his license and two months later opened an office in the nearby town of Abbeville. by 1860 oates was supplementing his income by editing a Democratic newspaper. Although not an enthusiastic secessionist, he supported the action of Alabama’s January 1861 convention.When the Civil War began, he understood that future rank and social position would follow military glory. Accordingly, he raised an infantry company, the henry (County) Pioneers, and worked hard to provide them uniforms and equipment. The company left Abbeville in July 1861 and was soon invirginia as Company G of the Fifteenth Alabama. in may and June of 1862, oates and his men were with stonewall Jackson in his valley campaign and other significant battles. by January 1863,twenty-eight-year-old oates was in command of the regiment, a reward he gained not only for bravery but also for the intelligent care with which he led his troops. At Gettysburg on July 2, 1863, oates and the Fifteenth Alabama fought themselves into legend by repeatedly assaulting little round Top, defended by the men of the Twentieth maine. in a homeric duel, the 400 Alabamians suffered 138 casualties in a long day’s struggle that ended in defeat for the southern forces. Following Gettysburg, oates’s regiment was one of several transferred to Tennessee that performed well at the battle of Chickamauga , where oates was shot in the thigh. by march 1864 he had returned to his command and was ordered north for the battles of Wilderness and Cold harbor. in August oates was the victim of an intrigue when his subordinate, major Alexander lowther, secured a colonel’s commission and supplanted him. oates’s most recent biographer suggests that he may have damaged his career by advocating, as early as February 1863, that the Confederacy enlist slaves to offset the Union edge in manpower.years later,oates was still angry that Confederate leaders had, in effect, preserved slavery at the cost of victory . he was given command of the Forty-eighth Alabama as a consolation prize, but on August 16, 1864, near Petersburg, virginia, he was wounded seriously in his right arm and an amputation was necessary.When lee sur- [18.188.44.223] Project MUSE...

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