Joseph T. Derry , A. M. , Author of School History of the United States; Story of the Confederate War, etc., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 6, Georgia
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

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[457] regiment was being formed, he enlisted as a private, but was elected its colonel and received his commission on the 8th of May, 1861. This command was for awhile stationed upon Roanoke island, in which vicinity, in the early part of October, 1861, he attracted general attention by his co-operation with Flag Officer W. F. Lynch in the capture of the Federal steamer Fanny, and his defeat of Federal forces at Chicamacomico. In April, 1862, he commanded the Confederate forces in a spirited little battle at South Mills, in which the Union loss was 127 to a Confederate loss of 28. On June 3, 1862, he was commissioned a brigadier-general and assigned to the command of the Third, Twenty-second, Forty-sixth and Forty-eighth regiments of Georgia infantry, and the Second Georgia battalion. At first they were in Huger's division, but were afterward assigned to Anderson's division of A. P. Hill's corps of the army of Northern Virginia. At Malvern hill, Wright's brigade participated in the fierce attack of Magruder upon the Union position, of which Gen. D. H. Hill wrote: ‘I never saw anything more grandly heroic.’ At Second Manassas and in the battles of the Maryland campaign, Wright and his brigade continued to valorously illustrate Georgia. At Second Manassas General Wright's son, William, serving on his father's staff, was severely wounded, losing a leg, and at Sharpsburg the general himself was borne from the field wounded. He recovered in time to lead his brigade in the battle of Fredericksburg, and again at Chancellorsville in the attack upon Hooker and afterward upon Sedgwick. In the second day's fight at Gettysburg, Wright broke through and seized the Union batteries, but not being properly supported was obliged to fall back. During the Overland campaign of 1864 and in the fighting around Richmond and Petersburg, Wright and his noble brigade were ever at the post of duty. On November 26, 1864, he was commissioned major-general and sent to command in Georgia, his division being composed