Gettysburg. At six o'clock on the evening of July 2nd. 1863, after waiting impatiently for hours, Confederate General William Barksdale and his Mississippi Brigade were given permission to attack. Taking his position at the head of the Brigade, Barksdale led the charge, capturing a Federal battery in the process, and nearly breaking through the main Federal line. Barksdale was mortally wounded, and died in a Federal field hospital the next morning.