Henry and David Wilkins - 11th Mississippi Volunteers

Submitted by: agff@mississippi.net

Taken from Essay by Steven H. Stubbs

A few minutes before 3:00p.m., the cannon fire ceased and the men of Pettigrew's and Pickett's divisions rose, formed rank, and advanced toward Cemetery Ridge. The leftmost brigade of Pettigrew's command were Virginians under the direction of Colonel John Brockenbrough. To their right was Joe Davis' Brigade, with the Eleventh on the far left, followed by the Forty-second Mississippi, the Second Mississippi and the Fifty-ninth Carolina. Davis later reported "Not a gun was fired at us until we reached a strong post and rail fence about three quarters of a mile from the enemy position when we were met by a heavy fire of grape, canister, and shell, which told sadly upon our ranks." The explosion of one shell alone killed Privates David and Henry Wilkins, brothers, and three other soldiers of Company E., the Prairie Guards.

Henry and David were the sons of Richard W. Wilkins.