Sketches from the Shenandoah: The Death of Robert Rodes
One of James Taylor’s sketches was that of the death of Robert Rodes at the Battle of Third Winchester on September 19, 1864. Rodes was a native of Virginia and graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. He would fight at First Manassas as Colonel of the 5th Alabama Infantry. Over the course of the next three years, Rodes would compile an impressive combat record, fighting at Seven Pines, Gaines’ Mill, South Mountain, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, rising to the rank of Major General. He was killed early in the fighting at Third Winchester, as he ordered his men to launch an assault into a gap in the Union lines.
I love Taylor’s sketches, but by the time the route would take place (depicted), Rodes would already have been dead for some time and doubtless rigid. This looks like he is being aided into an ambulance.