On the third day of the battle, during Pickett's Charge, his brigade served as support on the right flank of the division of his West Point classmate, Maj. Gen. George Pickett. Heavy Union artillery fire, particularly from the guns on Cemetery Ridge under the command of Lt. Col. Freeman McGilvery, readily broke up Wilcox's assault, who ordered the brigade to withdraw. With the death of Dorsey Pender at Gettysburg, Wilcox was promoted to major general on August 3, 1863, and assigned command of Pender's division in Hill's Third Corps. Wilcox's new command consisted of Lane's North Carolina brigade, Thomas's Georgia brigade, McGowan's South Carolina brigade, and Scales's North Carolina brigade. For the rest of the war, Wilcox's Division saw heavy fighting, from the Overland Campaign through Appomattox Court House. During the final days of the Siege of Petersburg in 1865, Wilcox's last-ditch stand on April 2 at Fort Gregg helped delay the Union forces long enough for Longstreet to maneuver into position to cover the army's retreat to the west. Postbellum career After the close of the American Civil War, Wilcox was offered a command as a brigadier general in the Egyptian Army, but he declined it. In 1886 U.S. President Grover Cleveland appointed Wilcox as chief of the railroad division for the government at Washington, D.C. and he served in that capacity until his death. A lifelong bachelor, Wilcox cared for his brother's widow and small children following John Wilcox's sudden death in February 1865. Wilcox died at the age of sixty-six in Washington, D.C., and was buried there in Oak Hill Cemetery. His pallbearers included four former Confederate generals and four former Union generals, a token of his esteem. See also List of American Civil War generals (Confederate) Notes References Eicher, John H., and David J. Eicher, Civil War High Commands. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. . Evans, Clement A., ed. Confederate Military History: A Library of Confederate States History. 12 vols. Atlanta: Confederate Publishing Company, 1899. . Jones, Kenneth W., accessed September 6, 2010. Sifakis, Stewart. Who Was Who in the Civil War. New York: Facts On File, 1988. . Warner, Ezra J. Generals in Gray: Lives of the Confederate Commanders. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959. . Further reading Patterson, Gerard A. From Blue to Gray: The Life of Confederate General Cadmus M. Wilcox. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001. . External links Biography of General