The Feisty General

Feistiness is a trait that I like in people. Why? Not sure. But when I look back at the Civil War or any time period in history, the feisty people are the ones that I am drawn to. Gettysburg had its share. But there is one Confederate general who just embodies feistiness....right or wrong, you can't say that he wasn't....and that general is Isaac Trimble. Now there is that famous scene in the movie "Gettysburg" where he goes in and tells General Lee how he offered Ewell to take a division and "Take that hill", etc. Did that really happen? Not sure....but there may or may not have been a witness to the situation. This is just full of suggestions....but no one really seems to know just what really happened. I've added a bit from a book about him.

Trimble accompanied Ewell during the whole of July 1, giving unsolicited advice with the receipt of every order from Lee and at every turn in the road. Trimble's close association with Ewell ended at a stormy meeting in the late afternoon, after the retreat of the Union Eleventh Corps and after Ewell had received Lee's order to take Cemetery Hill "if practicable" but avoid a general engagement. Trimble then buzzed excitedly, "General, don't you intend to pursue our sweep and push the enemy vigorously?" According to Trimble's later recollection, Ewell only paced about, cited Lee's order not to bring on a general engagement, and looked confused. Trimble urgently advised taking Culp's Hill, which he saw as the key to the whole Union position. "Give me a division," he said, according to one witness, "ans I will engage to take that hill." When this was declines, he said, "Give me a brigade and I will do it." When this was declined, Trimble said, "Give me a good regiment and I will engage to take that hill." Ewell snapped back, "When I need advice from a junior officer I generally ask for it." Trimble warned that Ewell would regret following his suggestions for as long as he lived, threw down his sword, and stormed off, saying he would no longer serve under such an officer.
On July 2, Trimble stood by in his status as major-general-at-large.
On July 3, two of Hill's division which Lee had earmarked for the climactic charge on the enemy center were without commanding generals. For the attack, Lee assigned Trimble to command Pender's division, where senior Brig. Gen. "Little Jim" Lane had been in charge since Maj. Gen. Dorsey Pender had been wounded the previous afternoon. Trimble probably saw his two attacking brigades for the first time when he and Lee rode along their lines that morning. Trimble's men were put in the third line behind the two lines of Heth's division (now commanded by Brig. Gen. Johnston Pettigrew). Pettigrew's and Trimble's brigades were on the left of Pickett's division, jumping off from a line between McMillan's Woods and Spangler's Woods on the west slope of Seminary Ridge.
During the grand assault in mid-afternoon, which became famous as Pickett's Charge, Trimble rode on his mare Jinny. As he crossed the Emitsburg Road, a bullet smashed his ankle, also wounding his horse. Trimble sent a message to Lane to take charge of the division, which was by then a jumbled mass of men, each following a flag and fighting on his own hook.
This would be Trimble's last moment of active rebellion. He was carried away, and the lower third of his leg was amputated at a farmhouse in the rear. Surgeons warned that infection would set in if he were moved in an ambulance, so Trimble chose to stay and be taken prisoner. He spent the next year and a half in Northern hands, then was exchanged in February 1865. Lee surrendered before he could return to the field. Taken from Larry Tagg's book, "Generals of Gettysburg"

Trimble was 61 years old when he arrived at Gettysburg and he didn't have a command, but it says a lot (or maybe Lee was just sick of him) that General Lee gave him a command later in the battle. Again, questions abound....just no answers. This is just one of those things that makes you wonder.