Former Dep CoS & Policy Advisor @Rep Nehls, Retired Army Colonel & DEA Intel. Currently Sr Advisor for Patriot Group International. Opinions are my own.
Family lore, confirmed. Elizabeth Wyatt and James Oates link the Oates branch back to the Wyatts of Tudor England. Sometimes the old stories turn out to be true. #genealogy#familyhistory
@VividProwess I saw the same thing when I was deployed in Iraq in 2003. It was in the Abu Ghraib district and supplied weapons to insurgents in Fallujah. That ended quickly.โฆ
Colonel William Calvin Oates (1835โ1910)
Colonel William Calvin Oates commanded the 15th Alabama Infantry Regiment, part of Lawโs Brigade, during the Battle of Gettysburg.
On July 2, 1863, his regiment led repeated assaults against Little Round Top, the rocky hill anchoring the Union Armyโs left flank. Control of the hill was critical. Had Confederate forces captured it, they could have positioned artillery on the high ground and threatened the Baltimore Pike and Taneytown Road, the Union Armyโs primary supply routes, reserve movement corridors, and lines of communication.
Defending Little Round Top
Was 20th Maine.
After hours of intense fighting and with ammunition nearly exhausted, the 20th Maine launched its famous bayonet charge, forcing Oates and the 15th Alabama to withdraw. Oates later wrote that if Little Round Top had fallen, the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg might have been different.
While attending the U.S. Army War College, I participated in a staff ride at Gettysburg, walking the same ground where these events unfolded. At the time, I had no idea that later genealogical research would connect my Oates family line to Colonel William Calvin Oates, making that experience especially meaningful.