Ewell, Richard Stoddart

Ewell, Richard Stoddart (1817–72) soldier; born in Georgetown, Wash., D.C. An 1840 West Point graduate, he saw action in the Mexican War. He resigned his U.S. commission in 1861 to serve the Confederacy. In command of an army corps during the Gettysburg campaign, he defeated Union forces north of the town on July 1, 1863, but failed to press his advantage. Able and aggressive, the bald, high-domed Ewell bore, according to one of his biographers, "a striking resemblance to a woodcock."