The Grave of Private Jefferson B Jessee at Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia

Private Jefferson Jessee served in the 37^th Virginia Infantry, Company E. During the Battle of Gettysburg, Private Jessee was engaged in the fighting around Culp’s Hill all three days. On July 3^rd, General Pickett ordered an assault to try to turn the Union flank at the same time that the famous “Pickett’s Charge” was in progress in the middle of the field. As the 37^th charged up the hill, fighting was furious and 7 flag bearers had fallen. Private Jessee picked up the company flag, and continued the charge up Culp’s Hill. It was not long after that he was shot in the leg and fell, but he picked himself and the flag up and continued the charge. While advancing with the flag he was shot in his other leg and it shattered the bone resulting in a compound fracture (where the bone is sticking through the skin). Soon a retreat was ordered and the Confederates poured back down over the ground that they had so hotly contested, but now it was littered with the broken bodies of so many men. Jefferson’s friend and comrade Henry Steele found him on the hillside and saw that he had gunshot wounds through both thighs.

Private Jessee is listed “On Roll of Prisoners of War at Union XII Corps hospital in and about Gettysburg, PA” and that is where he died on July 4, 1863. The official medical records list Private Jessee as “gun shot wound left leg compound fracture. Remarks: Amputation”. In 1870 he was re-interred at Hollywood Cemetery near the graves of many of his fellow Confederates that also fell at Gettysburg, and is located near the grave of General Pickett himself.

In the 1990’s Tina Honaker Williams provided this stone for Jefferson.