William Barksdale

U.S. Congress After the war, Barksdale became active in politics, advocating for the Compromise of 1850. His political visibility and recent military service gave him a strong profile as a political candidate. In 1852, he successfully ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. Barksdale would win re-election, serving four terms from 1853 to 1861.

Personal wealth Barksdale was a slave owner. His legal and newspaper work and marriage to a wealthy family made Barksdale relatively wealthy. Contemporary reports indicate that by 1860, he owned 36 slaves and a large plantation. Although Barksdale ordered subordinate commanders to walk during the charge, he rode on horseback "in front, leading the way, hat off, his wispy hair shining so that it reminded [a Confederate staff officer] of 'the white plume of Navarre'."

Death On July 2, 1863, the Confederates attacked the U.S. Army brigade defending the Peach Orchard line, wounding and capturing the brigade commander himself. Some of Barksdale's regiments turned to the north and shattered Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys's division. Others of Barksdale's regiments went straight ahead. By the time the Confederates had gone as far as Plum Run, a mile into the assault, a brigade under U.S. Colonel George L. Willard counterattacked. Barksdale was wounded in his left knee, followed by a cannonball to his left foot, and finally was hit by another bullet to his chest, knocking him off his horse. Surprisingly, the two bullet wounds he suffered were from members of a New York brigade which his brigade had captured at Harpers Ferry in 1862. Barksdale told an aide, W.R. Boyd, "I am killed! Tell my wife and children that I died fighting at my post." Barksdale's troops left him for dead on the field, and he died the next morning, on July 3, in a U.S. field hospital (the Joseph Hummelbaugh farmhouse). He was initially buried under a tree in the yard of the farmhouse. His wooden headstone had the words “Brigadier General Barksdale of Mississippi McLaw’s Division, Longstreet’s Corps Died on the morning of 3rd July, 1863 Eight years a representative in United States Congress. Shot through the left breast, and leg broken below the knee.”

In popular media Barksdale is portrayed in the film Gettysburg and in the prequel, Gods and Generals, by Lester Kinsolving, who is a relative of Barksdale.

Barksdale is also featured in the 2011 History Channel film Gettysburg.

The streets in the Potomac Crossing subdivision in Leesburg, Virginia, are named (in part) after the regimental commanders of the Battle of Ball's Bluff (October 21, 1861). Barksdale Drive, named for Barksdale, is the primary east-west conduit in the development, running just short of a mile to either end of the neighborhood.