A Brother’s Death, A Poet’s Muse: The Oates Brothers at Gettysburg

This article featured on Emerging Civil War in January 2026 explores how the tragic story of the Oates brothers at Gettysburg inspired my poem "My Brother Jacob."

The poem My Brother Jacob describes two brothers who joined the Confederacy at the onset of the Civil War and fought at the battle of Gettysburg. The poem follows the journey of Caleb and his younger brother, Jacob. They fought battle after battle together and somehow survived until their shared journey ended for one of them after Pickett’s charge on July 3, 1863. One brother lived, and the other died.

The inspiration for the poem comes from Col. William C. Oates and his younger brother, Lt. John A. Oates, both of the 15th Alabama. Both brothers fought at Gettysburg’s Little Round Top on July 2, 1863. One brother lived, and the other died. John died a few days later in a Union field hospital from mortal wounds sustained in the battle and was buried on the farm of Michael Fissel, about four to five miles south of Gettysburg.

Colonel Oates, the surviving brother, led a prosperous life both before and after the Civil War. Before the war, both William and his younger brother John became lawyers in Alabama. In 1861, William joined the Confederate Army as a captain, eventually rising to command the 15th Alabama Infantry in numerous battles before Gettysburg in 1863.

Throughout the remainder of his life, William lamented the loss of his brother John, whom he left mortally wounded in the aftermath of the failed attack on Little Round Top on July 2, 1863. William’s grief at the loss of his brother John remains haunting even today.

Colonel William C. Oates, of the 15th Alabama Infantry. Courtesy Alabama Department of Archives and History.

In a letter dated December 24, 1900, William wrote to his son, William Jr., about his ongoing grief. John was sick at the time of the battle at Little Round Top, and William urged his brother not to join the attack. John insisted on going into battle even though he had a premonition it would cost him his life. “These were the last words he ever spoke to me, and every 24th of December [John’s birthday] and every 2nd day of July [the date of his mortal wounding], these brave words recur to us, and I feel sad over his fate.”[1]

After many years of trying to locate the remains of his brother John, on March 3, 1909, William received a letter from Rufus B. Weaver, a Gettysburg native and practicing physician whose specialty was human anatomy. In 1871, the Hollywood Memorial Association of Virginia contacted Weaver to identify and retrieve the remains of Confederate dead from Gettysburg. In a letter to William, Weaver stated, “The remains of Lt. J.A. Oats [sic], together with the remains of eleven others (8 unknown), were shipped in a box labeled ‘A’ because his grave could not be identified separately from the others.”[2]

According to Hollywood Cemetery, “the location of Box A, like the rest, is unknown. There are no records … that depict the exact location of any of the boxes.”[3]

Gettysburg Section of Confederate dead, Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Photo by Lisa Samia.

William passed away on September 9, 1910, still regretting the loss of his younger brother and his unsuccessful quest to find him. It leads us to wonder then about all those unknown brothers who, to this day, remain nameless and faceless in our Civil War cemeteries.

My Brother Jacob

I will tell you a story right here and now

Of my brother Jacob, I do avow

You see, it was the spring of sixty-one

When we first knew secession had rung

And my younger brother Jacob, you see

Sprang to enlist to defend Virginny if ever be

I will never forget his fervor and such

That asked me to join him, it was too much

For you see it was me and him and my ma at home

My pa up and died, it was just us alone

My poor ma she took me aside

And told me with all of her pride

See here Caleb as the oldest of my sons

I don’t want you to go either, God’s will, Thy will be done

But go you must, but for the reason I give

Watch out for your brother, help him live

For ‘tis you we have always relied

And this too I’m afraid we must abide

Not to worry about me my son, she said with a smile

I’ll be waiting for you both, I’ll be here a while

And so you must go you must defend

Our little farm here to the very end

With that said, Jacob and I took our leave

The last sight of my ma caused me to grieve

And in battles that we stayed true

Manassas, Antietam, Fredericksburg to name a few

Jacob and I, well we stayed together every time

Shoulder to shoulder it would us find

And after two years’ time in the battles that bled

Comrades killed so much bloodshed

That Jacob and I did survive you see

But it was Gettysburg that would consume me

It was day three on this impossibly hot day

I was with Jacob in the tree line with all of Virginny, I say

Waiting for our commander General Pickett to order us men

Into the battle and out into the glen

To march in the open field about a mile or so they say

To face the Union artillery along the way

I turned to Jacob as we waited to go

And told him stay close, brother for I know

This day’s battle I believe will bring much sorrow I fear

For all of us men and our loved ones’ tears

Jacob smiled at me with his usual grin

Said Come on brother, we will win

Then the silence was sliced with the battle din and roar

As General Pickett did state it was for

“Remember men you are from Old Virginia,” I heard him say

And so the drums of battle ordered us on our way

Not a sound from the ranks was heard

Only the beating drums that was stirred

And so we marched Jacob right by my side

I wanted to grab him to run and to hide

For in that moment great explosions were all around

The Union cannon was the most deafening sound

And great groans and cries from the men

As one by one they disappeared from the glen

And yet we kept marching, kept going you see

To the copse of trees where the Union they be

Then it seemed all my life stopped in this place

A great blast near me hot to my face

I must tell you I do not remember what happened then

I woke up and lay there, for what or how long, or when

And realized as I raised my head, the battle was over

Oh, so many dead in fields of sweet clover

I carefully inspected myself to be sure I was all right

Only knocked out in this horrific fight

I rose to my feet and panic struck my heart

Where was Jacob, I could not part

It was then I spied him very near a group of the dead

I went to roust him and to move away from the hotbed

I knelt beside him knocked out like me

I cried Jacob, come on, follow me!

Wake up, wake up, it’s time to go!

We will fight another battle, this I do know

I don’t know how long I tried to revive my brother on that field

Only when the ambulance came and told me to yield

My brother’s body to be buried post haste

No time to mourn, no time to waste

My blood froze even through the blazing heat

My brother’s body at my feet

There would be no going home, not for him

I cried and cried in the haze and the din

And thought of my ma and the promise I could not keep

I tried ma to keep him safe, I said, and did weep

But God Almighty had other plans for him; this we prayed not to see

For your sweet boy Jacob, ma… he was not meant to be[4]

Endnotes:

[1] William C. Oates to William C. Oates Jr., 24 December 1900, William C. Oates family papers, LPR234 (Box 4, Folder 2), Alabama Department of Archives and History (Q326765 – Q326768).

[2] Rufus Weaver to William C. Oates, 3 March 1909, William C. Oates family papers, LPR234 (Box 1, Folder 10), Alabama Department of Archives and History (Q326762 – Q326764).

[3] Correspondence with Cheryl Synder, for Hollywood Cemetery.

[4] Lisa G. Samia, “My Brother Jacob”, The Nameless and the Faceless of the Civil War Gettysburg, Manassas & More (Tucson, AZ, Destiny Whispers Publishing, LLC, 2023), 75.