William Calvin Oates (House Divided)

Sources
Important primary sources include Oates’ perspective on the Civil War in “Gettysburg: The Battle on the Right,” Southern Historical Society Papers 6 (1878) and The War Between the Union and the Confederacy (1905). Oates also published articles on a variety of other topics, such as “The Homestead Strike, A Congressional View,” North American Review 155 (1892) and “Industrial Development of the South,” North American Review 161 (1895). In addition, the Gettysburg National Military Park has the letters in which Union Col. Joshua Chamberlain and Oates discussed whether a monument for the Fifteenth Alabama should be built on Little Round Top. As for Oates’ “private papers,” his profile on American National Biography notes that a descendant owns them. Key secondary sources include Glenn LaFantasie, ed., Gettysburg: Colonel William C. Oates and Lieutenant Frank A. Haskell (1992) and Gettysburg Requiem: The Life and Lost Causes of Confederate Colonel William C. Oates (2006). You can also read LaFantasie’s article “The Inimitable William C. Oates” online at Gettysburg National Military Park’s website. Also see Mark Perry’s Conceived in Liberty: Joshua Chamberlain, William Oates, and the American Civil War (1997). As for information on the Fifteenth Alabama, see the Alabama Department of Archives & History’s Brief Historical Sketches of Military Organizations Raised In Alabama During the Civil War.

Places to Visit
You can visit Little Round Top at the Gettysburg National Military Park. While in Gettysburg you can also tour the David Wills’ house and see the bedroom where Lincoln stayed the night before he delivered the Gettysburg Address in November 1863.

Artifacts
The 15th Alabama Infantry flag is in the Alabama Civil War Period Flag Collection at the Alabama Department of Archives & History. In addition, the Gettysburg National Military Park has a number of artifacts related to the battle, including this haversack and a Confederate enlisted man’s uniform.

Images
Several images are on Oates’ House Divided profile. In addition, the Alabama Department of Archives and History posted several photographs of Oates on his profile at the Encyclopedia of Alabama.

The slideshow below includes images related to the Battle of Gettysburg.