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Brigadier-General G. Moxley Sorrel, a native of
Georgia, when the war between the
Northern and Southern States of the
Union began, entered the
Confederate service as captain on the staff of
Gen. James Longstreet, and was present at the
first battle of Bull Run.
On September 1st he was appointed acting adjutant-general of
Longstreet's brigade.
In this capacity he acted throughout the winter of 1861 in
Virginia, and in the campaign of 1862, including the battles of
Williamsburg and
Seven Pines and the battles around
Richmond.
On July 24, 1861, he was commissioned major and was appointed acting adjutant-general of
Longstreet's division.
At the
battle of Sharpsburg, when the
Confederate center had been stripped of troops to help their hard-pressed left,
General Longstreet noticed that a strong column of the enemy was advancing against this very point, held by one small regiment,
Cooke's Twenty-seventh North Carolina, which was without cartridges.
Two pieces of the Washington artillery were there, but most of the gunners had been killed or wounded.
Longstreet and his staff dismounted, and, while the general held the horses, the staff officers,
Majors Fairfax and
Sorrel and
Captain Latrobe, served the guns, keeping the enemy in check until help came, when the
Federals were repulsed and the center saved from an attack which would have ruined
Lee's army.
Not long before the
battle of Gettysburg (June 23, 1863),
Major Sorrel was promoted to lieutenant-colonel.
As
acting adjutant-general of
Longstreet's corps he was in the
battle of Gettysburg, and in September followed his chief to
Georgia.
A thrilling incident and narrow escape during the
Chickamauga campaign are thus narrated by
General Longstreet: ‘As soon as our horses could be saddled we started,
Lieutenant-Colonels Sorrel and
Manning and myself, to find the headquarters of the
commanding general.
We were told to follow the main road, and did so, though there were many men coming into that road from our right bearing the wounded of the day's battle.
’
