Isaac Ridgeway Trimble was born in 1802 in Culpepper County, VA. His family soon moved to the Ohio frontier near Chillicothe, where his parents died in a cholera epidemic. After spending a few years with sisters and aunts in Ohio, Trimble was sent to Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, to live with his uncle David. David Trimble was an attorney and a U.S. Congressman. While young Isaac had received a rudimentary education in Ohio, David redirected the young man to a more classical education for a 19th-century gentleman. He read the classics and studied mathematics, sciences, and languages. At age 16, Isaac received an appointment to study at the United States Military Academy at West Point. After a long journey via horseback, steam packet, and train, the young gentleman entered the Academy in 1818. West Point had the year before come under the supervision of Col. Sylvanus Thayer, and was on the cusp of entering its first truly “golden age.” Isaac Trimble at first enjoyed too much the social life he found with other cadets. By the end of his second year he had fallen into the last section of the class and his plans to graduate into the engineers or the artillery were fading fast. About this time Senator Robert Trimble, another uncle, visited him and strongly chided Isaac for wasting his opportunity. The uncle’s talk apparently got through to the young man. Isaac reapplied himself to his studies and graduated 17th in his class in 1822, with a commission in the artillery. Trimble spent the next twenty-eight years building and operating railroads. He was for a time the Chief Engineer of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore RR, and later spent two years in Cuba supervising construction of a railroad from Havana to Santiago for the Spanish government. Trimble returned from this project in 1860 to find his nation nearly at war.
Predictably, a secessionist mob and a regiment of Massachusetts troops confronted one another. In a scene ironically reminiscent of the colonial “Boston Massacre” the civilians threw a few rocks and dirt clods at the soldiers, who returned fire, killing and wounding several. Later that day, Isaac Trimble was enlisted by the Governor of Maryland to take charge of the “defenses” of the City of Baltimore, and to enforce his edict to Mr. Lincoln that no Federal troops pass through Maryland. Trimble assembled a group of local militia, attempted to arm them with the meager weapons available, and started drills. Although he never admitted it, evidence suggests that Trimble also lead a raiding party that burned two major railroad bridges in lines leading to Baltimore – bridges in which he had participated in building some years before. Federal arrest warrants soon issued, and Isaac Trimble was forced to flee South to avoid arrest and certain imprisonment, if not execution for treason and sedition.
Trimble’s agitations in Richmond soon got him his desire. He was promoted to Brigadier General, and appointed to command the Seventh Brigade (21st North Carolina, 21st Georgia, 15th Alabama, and 17th Mississippi regiments) in the division of Gen. Richard Ewell. This command was soon transferred to the Shenandoah Valley and under the direction of Gen. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson.
The Seventh Brigade next was sent east and served with the Army of Northern Virginia in the Seven Days’ battles, most conspicuously at Gaines’ Mill where they combined with Hood’s Texas Brigade to drive FitzJohn Porter’s Federals from a commanding position. Once McClellan was driven from Richmond’s doors, the Seventh Brigade again marched west with Gen. Jackson, this time tasked to “suppress that miscreant” John Pope and the Federal Army of Virginia. After many days of skirmishing with Pope along the Rappahannock Trimble took his “21’s”, with whom he claimed to be able to “capture hell itself,” and marched them up the line of the railroad five miles to the Junction. With only a few shots fired and no casualties to the Confederates, by dawn the massive supply depot was taken. Huge quantities of cannon, rifles, ammunition, horses, saddles, and food of all descriptions fell into Confederate hands. Within a short time Pope’s army had turned and confronted Jackson near the old battleground at Manassas. Trimble’s Seventh Brigade found itself toe-to-toe with the Wisconsin Iron Brigade under John Gibbon at a place called Brawner’s Farm; one soldier remarked that if he had an iron hat he could have caught it full of minie balls in minutes, so hot was the exchange of fire. On the second day of fighting at Manassas, Isaac Trimble was scouting an unfinished railroad cut near his position to assure that he was not being flanked. He was sighted by a Yankee sharpshooter, who put a bullet in the old man’s left leg. Trimble’s fighting at Manassas was done. Although he did not lose the leg from this wound, Trimble endured a long and painful recuperation that kept him out of action and away from the army until early 1863. Upon Trimble’s return, he was promoted to Major General and assigned command of the Valley District. Continuing complications from his wound delayed his arrival in Winchester until June, where he found that Gen. Lee had taken all of his troops for an excursion into Pennsylvania. Gen. Trimble was loathe to miss a fight, and rode into Maryland to find the Army of Northern Virginia.
Trimble mounted his horse and rode to Culp’s Hill to confirm its status, and found that it was not only unoccupied but that it commanded the hills and ridges upon which the Federal army was gathering itself. He returned hurriedly to Ewell and again requested to take Culp’s Hill; Trimble asked in turn for a Division, a Brigade, or a Regiment, only to be rebuffed by Ewell. Trimble ultimately stormed off, determined to seek reassignment.
By July 3, Trimble found himself appointed to command the Division of wounded Gen. Dorsey Pender in a massive charge to be directed at the Federal center on Cemetery Ridge. Trimble’s division was to support the division of Gen. Pettigrew on the left flank of the charge. In what later became known as Pickett’s Charge, Trimble observed that the Confederate infantry appeared to “melt into the ground” as they reached the Emmittsburg Pike, cut to pieces by the Federals firing from Cemetery Ridge. Trimble was again wounded in his left leg and his faithful mare “Jinny” died from her wounds, only after getting the wounded general off the field. This time, his wounds lead to amputation; Trimble later complained that had the doctors at Manassas taken his leg off from his first wound, the bullet at Gettysburg “would have missed.” Trimble was too ill to travel and was left for capture by the Federals in the belief that he would soon be exchanged. Unfortunately, after an exchange of telegrams including messages from Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and Lincoln himself, the 1861 arrest warrants raised their ugly heads, and Trimble was imprisoned for nearly the remainder of the War, mostly in the horrific conditions at Johnson’s Island, Ohio. Only when Ulysses S. Grant himself heard that a 63-year old general was in captivity did the order come for Isaac Trimble’s release. Isaac Trimble eventually returned to his engineering practice in Baltimore, living to the ripe old age of 86 before his death in 1888. He was active in formation of the Southern Historical Society, and spoke on several occasions to meetings of the West Point Alumni Association. David Trimble may be contacted at stillonpatrol@hotmail.com or by telephone at 502-863-5676. |
As a railroader Trimble had made his home in Baltimore. On his return, his home state was awash in conflicting sentiments due to its “border state” location between the North and the South. After Abraham Lincoln took office, and Ft. Sumter was fired upon, Mr. Lincoln called for volunteers from the North to put down the southern “rebellion.” These troops necessarily would move through Maryland, despite requests from the Governor and Mayor of Baltimore that they not do so.
Isaac Trimble, now age 59, offered his services to the Confederacy and was soon commissioned a Colonel in the Confederate army. Although he openly desired a combat command, General Robert E. Lee instead put the experienced engineer to work building artillery batteries and fortifications in Norfolk and along the James River. He thus missed the fighting at Manassas and further chafed for the opportunity to command troops in the field.
Ewell’s division was tasked to oppose the Federal army on John C. Fremont approaching from the west, while Jackson awaited another army, under Nathaniel Banks, at Port Republic. The Seventh Brigade awaited Fremont on a ridge, with the 15th Alabama deployed as skirmishers to draw the Federals into the position. Trimble’s tactics worked flawlessly; when the entire brigade counter-charged, Fremont’s army was driven back over one mile, and the Battle of Cross Keys was won for the Confederacy.
River, Trimble’s Seventh Brigade was part of the Second Corps under Jackson that marched over 50 miles in 32 hours to come around in Pope’s rear near Manassas Junction. After stopping at midnight, Trimble approached Gen. Jackson with a plan to capture Pope’s supply depot at the Junction. Jackson at first thought Trimble was crazy but assented at last to the plan.
Trimble was first assigned to Gen. Ewell as a staff officer and was with the Second Corps on July 1 when it rolled in from the north and collapsed he right flank of the Federal troops in and around Gettysburg. By about 3:00 p.m., the fighting had slackened and Trimble began to take account of their position. He espied a high prominence known as Culp’s Hill which appeared to be unoccupied, and urged Gen. Ewell to immediately move for its occupation. Ewell ignored him.
