LITTLE-KNOWN FACTS

• George Edward Pickett was the oldest of eight children born to Robert and Mary Pickett and one of only three to survive to adulthood. Following the General's birth in 1825, the next 15 years saw the arrival of. . .

  Elizabeth Johnston Pickett (b. 1826 - d. 1827)

  Mary Seldon Pickett (b. 1829 - d. 1830)

  Olivia Pickett (b. 1831 - d. 1832)

  Virginia Pickett (b. 1833 ~ survived to adulthood)

  Mary Pickett (b.1835 - d. 1836 )

  Robert Johnston Pickett (b. 1837 - d. 1838 )

  Charles Pickett (b. 1840 ~ survived to adulthood)

• George E. Pickett was born in Richmond on the north side of Main Street, between 10th and 11th Streets, at the home and business location of his maternal grandfather Robert Johnston.
  
  
• Mary Johnston Pickett, the General's mother, was the daughter of Robert Johnston and Elizabeth McCaw. Robert Johnston, the General's grandfather, was the son of James Johnston and his wife, Mary Bryson, of Byselaw, Scotland. Mary McCaw, the General's grandmother, was the daughter of Dr. James McCaw and Elizabeth Brough of Heighten, Galloway, Scotland.
  
  
• Pickett's formal education took place at three schools: Lancastrian School, Richmond Academy, and West Point Military Academy.
  
  
• Among the many demerits earned by Cadet George Pickett at West Point were ordinary 1's and 2's for dust in his room or not keeping eyes front during meal roll call or late at Tattoo call. But he occasionally hit the big time with . . . "profane language - 8 demerits" (August 21, 1842), "highly unmilitary conduct, attempting to trip up a file marching to supper - 8 demerits" (January 31, 1843), and "highly unsoldierly conduct, walking out on parade grounds, smoking tobacco and improperly dressed - 6 demerits" (December 25, 1843). One of the more unusual demerits was for his failure to wear leather stocks (worn outside shirt collars to stiffen them) during military exercises. The United States Army had abandoned the requirement years before, but West Point still considered the leather stock to be part of their dress code.
  
  
• Lt. George E. Pickett married Sally Harrison Steward Minge in January 1851. Miss Minge was the daughter of Dr. John Minge of Virginia, the great-great-grandniece of U.S. President William Henry Harrison, and the great-great-granddaughter of Benjamin Harrison, who signed the Declaration of Independence.
  
  
• George Pickett's father Robert died in December 1856. The following obituary appeared in the December 20 edition of the Richmond Dispatch: "On Friday morning about 1 AM Col. Robert Pickett in the 56th year of his age. [NOTE: Colonel was a term of respect, not of rank.] His funeral will take place from St. James church on Sunday 21st at 2 PM. His friends and acquaintances are invited to attend without further notice." In another column on the same day "Sudden death- Col. Robert Pickett of this city died suddenly at his residence on Thursday night. At the time of his death Col. Pickett was an honorary member of the Light Infantry Blues, and many years ago, filled the post of Orderly Sergeant of that company. He will be buried with military honors tomorrow."
  
  
• George Pickett was the twentieth officer to attain the rank of General in the Confederate States Army.
  
  
• Sallie Ann Corbell and George E. Pickett did not meet at Old Point Comfort when she was a child, as she wrote in her books. In a letter written by General Pickett August 28, 1863, he refers to John D. Corbell, Sallie's father, as "never having seen me." In a letter written during 1864, when the Bermuda Hundred Campaign was coming to an end, Pickett wrote to Sallie, ". . . since we met first within two miles of this place (in a half mile of Chester)." Chester is about a hundred miles from Old Point Comfort.
  
  
• General Pickett's warhorse was named Old Black. She was steady, strong, and sure footed but would allow no one but General Pickett to mount her. The horse Pickett used for social occasions was named Lucy, a beautiful little thoroughbred mare.
  
  
• Neither General Pickett nor anyone else arranged for the burial of General and Mrs. James Longstreet's three children following their deaths in 1862. The three Longstreet children were placed in the John W. Davies family vault, along with 26 other "unclaimed bodies," until 1870 when Hollywood Cemetery President Thomas H. Ellis ordered all 29 bodies buried and told Superintendant O'Keefe "to record their graves carefully in case relatives ever appear to claim the remains."
  
  
• After the War Between the States, General Pickett declined to accept political positions from old army friends and chose, instead, to oversee insurance agencies in Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia. [View an advertisement for Washington Life (the company for which General Pickett worked) in a new window]
  
  
• When General Pickett accepted the General Agency of the Washington Life Insurance Company after the War, he and his wife and sons lived for a time at the Exchange Hotel located on the east side of 14th Street between Main and Franklin Streets in Richmond. [View an image of the Exchange Hotel in a new window]
  
  
• General Pickett's widow, Sallie Corbell Pickett, was only the second woman to be buried in the Soldiers' Section of Hollywood Cemetery. The first was Catherine Hodges of Louisiana, who had joined the 5th Regiment, Company K, Louisiana Volunteers as a vivandiere and was in Richmond nursing wounded soldiers when she died in 1862.
  

• In February 1943, the Todd-Houston Shipbuilding Corporation in Houston, Texas, built a liberty ship named the SS George E. Pickett. It was an EC2-S-C1 type and was officially launched on March 31, 1943 with hull marking 841. As all liberty ships that survived World War II, the George E. Pickett served well transporting supplies wherever needed. The majority of liberty ships were scrapped after the war; the SS George E. Pickett was disposed of during 1969.
  

• The resignation of Captain G. E. Pickett, ninth infantry, United States Army, of the date 25th of June, 1861, will be found accepted in General Order No. 64, series of 1861. Source: House of Representatives, 39th Congress June 1, 1866