Colonel James Gregory Hodges

Colonel James Gregory Hodges. , James Hodges was born on Christmas Day, 1828 in Portsmouth, schooled at the Portsmouth Literary, Scientific and Military Academy and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. He became a Physician. James had dark hair, bright dark eyes, a highly intellectual face and was gentle in manners. In 1856 and 1857 he was elected mayor of Portsmouth and colonel of the 3rd Virginia Volunteers. His sense of duty and his strict observance of it, was illustrated by his supreme conduct as colonel of his regiment., On April 20, 1861, the Federal Navy burned and abandoned the Gosport Navy Yard in Portsmouth. For his quick action taken to protect the navy yard and city from more harm, the Governor of Virginia gave Colonel Hodges a command in the 14th Virginia Infantry. Even though Portsmouth was occupied by Virginia and Confederate forces, Fort Monroe on the Hampton Roads side of the James River remained throughout the war in control of the Federals. During the summer of 1861, his officers and men were trained and drilled by cadets of the Virginia Military Institute at Camp Lee outside Richmond. The 14th Regiment quickly learned how hard a military life could be. Due to short food, supplies, primitive housing and exposure many soldiers came down with malaria dysentery, mumps, measles, tuberculosis, pneumonia and at one point typhoid fever caused some camps to be temporarily abandoned., In August 1861, when General John B. Magruder learned that the Federals intended to use abandoned homes near Fort Monroe to house troops and contraband, he ordered destruction of the town of Hampton. Colonel Hodges was saddened at the devastation, but it was a necessity of war., May 1862, the Regiment was ordered to Suffolk and made a part of General Armistead's brigade. At Malvern Hill in a memorable charge on July 1, Colonel Hodges lost, killed and wounded, about one-fourth of his command. The battle flag had 47-holes in it. The 14th Regiment was never in the presence of the enemy without his being there. His officers and men were devoted to him. He fully enjoyed their admiration, esteem and confidence He was ardently patriotic and his whole being, convictions and feelings were with the Confederate cause., The 14th Regiment was placed in the newly formed division of General Pickett. At Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, the division engaged the Federals at the stone wall. General Armistead was mortally wounded and six colonels of the 14th Regiment were killed outright. Among them, Doctor James Gregory Hodges, with only a sword in his hand, shot to death with a bullet to the head. He fell within a few feet of the Federal guns. He sleeps in a common burial trench on that field, with those who made the charge of Pickett's division immortal.