LEONIDAS IRVIN GEE, a native of Mecklenburg County, Virginia, attended Randolph-Macon College from 1858 to 1859. When the conflict erupted in 1861, Gee enlisted as a Sergeant in Company B of the 56th Virginia Infantry. He saw action during the Seven Days’ fighting around Richmond during which time he was shot in the hand at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill on July 27, 1862. As a result, he was taken to Chimborazo Hospital overlooking Rockett’s Landing in Richmond. Gee would again see combat, this time outside the small Pennsylvania town of Gettysburg. On July 3, 1863, his regiment would, quite literally, be in the center of the front line of one of the most infamous infantry assaults in military history: Pickett’s Charge. Gee, with wounds in his arm and leg, was left on the field and taken by the Federals to the II Corps’ field hospital. Days later, a result of his wounds, Leonidas Gee’s leg would be amputated by Federal Surgeons. Leonidas Gee died of his wounds in Gettysburg on July 17, 1863 (the date on his burial record), where he was buried in a Pennsylvania cornfield. His body was disinterred on June 13, 1872 to Richmond where it rests today in Hollywood Cemetery.
Contributed by Matthew Guillen, R-MC Class of 2014
