Joseph T. Derry , A. M. , Author of School History of the United States; Story of the Confederate War, etc., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 6, Georgia
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

Chapter 5:

• Battle of Shiloh
-- Andrews' raid -- the Third infantry at South Mills -- the conscript act and State troops -- Georgians under Bragg and Kirby Smith -- naval affairs -- depredations in the coast region -- war Legislation -- Chickasaw Bayou and Murfreesboro.

Subsequent to the battle of Shiloh, the Fifth Georgia [95] infantry, Gen. J. K. Jackson's old regiment, was attached to his brigade, which was otherwise composed of Alabama regiments. The Thirty-sixth, Thirty-ninth and Forty-third were attached to the command of Gen. Danville Lead-better in east Tennessee, and brought to Chattanooga when that point was threatened. Toward the latter part of April, 450 men of these Georgia regiments under Lead-better opposed the advance of the Federals at Bridgeport. The Forty-first, in the brigade of S. B. Maxey, was at Corinth during the siege by Halleck.

The proximity of the Federal forces to the northern part of the State in the spring of 1862, was made manifest by the famous exploit of the ‘Andrews raiders.’ This expedition was set on foot early in April at the suggestion of James J. Andrews, who had been for some time in the service of General Buell as a spy.

Twenty-four men were detailed from Ohio regiments for Andrews' expedition, the place of one of whom was taken by a civilian, William Campbell. The men were informed by Andrews at the outset simply that they were wanted for secret and very dangerous service, without being fully informed as to its nature. They were required, however, to exchange their uniforms for ordinary civilian dress, and were armed with revolvers only. They traveled in parties of three or four by rail from Chattanooga to Marietta. When questioned, they were instructed to profess themselves Kentuckians going to join the Southern army. Thus Andrews and his men subjected themselves to being treated as spies. The object of the foolhardy scheme was to break up railroad communication south of Chattanooga, so that Buell might capture that point from the west and north. Andrews with nineteen of the men reached the rendezvous in time. Buying their tickets to various points as regular passengers, they boarded the northward bound mail train. At Big Shanty, now known as Kenesaw, while the train stopped for breakfast, Andrews and his men hurried forward and [96] uncoupled a section of the train, consisting of three empty box cars connected with the engine, which they at once managed by two experienced men detailed for that purpose. The engine pulled off rapidly and was gone before the sentinels standing near suspected the movement. William A. Fuller, conductor of the train, and Anthony Murphy, foreman of the Atlanta machine shops, who happened to be on the train, at once comprehended that the section had been stolen, and starting on foot, ran until they found a handcar, with which they pushed forward more rapidly. After a chase of many vicissitudes, the pursuing Confederates secured an engine, with which they pressed Andrews so closely that he ordered his party to abandon the road and take to the woods, but all of them were captured in a few days. Andrews and seven men who had volunteered for the expedition with knowledge of its character were tried as spies, convicted on evidence and ordered to be executed. The others who had become implicated through the orders of their superior officers were held in confinement at Atlanta. Finally some escaped and others were exchanged.

Some very absurd conjectures as to what would have been the result of the success of Andrews' scheme were indulged in by sensational writers on both sides, but a Federal officer has recorded the opinion that ‘if the raiders had succeeded in destroying every bridge on their proposed route, it would have produced no important effect upon Mitchel's military operations, and that he would not have taken, certainly would not have held, Chattanooga. . . . Hence,’ concludes the officer, ‘it is my opinion that Mitchel's bridge burners took desperate chances to accomplish objects of no substantial advantage.’

In the same month of April, the Third Georgia infantry, Col. A. R. Wright, was distinguished in the fight at South Mills, N. C., on the 19th. The regiment had been withdrawn from Roanoke island in time to escape inevitable capture, and now met the Federals as they [97] advanced northward along the Pasquotank river. With three companies of his regiment and a battery, Wright selected an advantageous position, and finding a deep, wide ditch in his front, adopted the novel expedient of filling it with fence rails and burning them to make the ditch impassable, or at least not available as an intrenchment. Before the enemy arrived Wright was reinforced by seven companies, and he made a gallant fight, inspiring his men by his personal heroism. Though he finally withdrew from the field, he so effectually crippled the enemy that the latter also abandoned his advance and retreated to his boats. The numbers engaged of the enemy were far in excess of those under command of the Georgia colonel, and there afterward arose an interesting dispute among the Federal commanders as to who was most responsible for the lively scramble to the rear.

This period in the history of the Confederacy, signalized by almost unalleviated disaster, both inland and on the coast, is also memorable as the date when the conscription act was put in effect, in accordance with the recommendation of President Davis. The constitutionality of this act was discussed in a correspondence between Governor Brown and President Davis, including seven letters, in which the measure was defended by the president and assailed by the governor. In his second letter President Davis said to Governor Brown:

I take great pleasure in recognizing that the history of the past year affords the amplest justification for your assertion that if the question had been whether the conscription law was necessary to raise men in Georgia, the answer must have been in the negative. Your noble State has promptly responded to every call that it has been my duty to make on her; and to you personally, as her executive, I acknowledge my indebtedness for the prompt, cordial and effective co-operation you have afforded me in the effort to defend our common country against the common enemy.

In December, 1861, the general assembly had authorized [98] and instructed the governor to tender to the Confederate government the volunteer forces called into service under the law of 1860, in companies, battalions, regiments, brigades or divisions, as might be acceptable to the Confederate war department, provided the tender was made before the 15th of January following, and should be consented to by the troops. The question of transfer was submitted to the troops and decided in the negative almost unanimously. This was previous to the conscript act. When that became a law, Governor Brown immediately tendered the State army to Brigadier-General Lawton, commanding the military district of Georgia, Maj.-Gen. Henry R. Jackson, commander of the State army, having retired in order to prevent any embarrassment. Both the governor and General Jackson in addresses to the troops expressed their appreciation of the high character of this distinctively Georgian organization, and the governor in his message in the following November, spoke in the following terms of the excellent spirit, discipline and patriotism prevailing among this body:

They had performed without a murmur, an almost incredible amount of labor in erecting fortifications and field works necessary to the protection of the city, and had made their position so strong as to deter the enemy, with a force of vastly superior numbers, from making an attack. While they regretted that an opportunity did not offer to show their courage and efficiency upon the battlefield, they stood, like a bulwark of stout hearts and strong arms, between the city and the enemy, and by their chivalrous bearing and energetic preparation, in connection with the smaller number of Confederate troops near, saved the city from attack and capture, without bloodshed and carnage.

In the campaign under Bragg through Kentucky and Tennessee, undertaken to protect Chattanooga and Atlanta by carrying the war into the enemy's country, or in that direction, some of the Georgia troops acted a gallant and conspicuous part. The First regiment of partisan rangers, Col. A. A. Hunt, participated in the first Kentucky [99] raid of that famous cavalry leader, John H. Morgan, then colonel of the Second Kentucky cavalry. At Tompkinsville, on the night of July 8th, a considerable body of the enemy's cavalry was charged and stampeded; but Colonel Hunt, while leading gallantly in the assault, received a severe wound in the leg, which prevented his going on with the command. Morgan and his men pushed on to Georgetown, and on the 17th captured Cynthiana, with 420 prisoners. The Georgia troopers, under command of Lieut.-Col. F. M. Nix, acted a prominent part in this brilliant affair; Captain Jones, of Company A, and Maj. Samuel J. Winn being especially distinguished among the officers.

At the same time the First and Second Georgia cavalry regiments were earning their spurs with Forrest in Tennessee. Part of the First, under Col. J. J. Morrison, and the Second, under Col. W. J. Lawton, with Colonel Wharton's Texas rangers, formed the main part of the cavalry brigade of about 1,400, with which Forrest attacked an equal force at Murfreesboro on July 13th and captured the entire Federal command. To Colonel Morrison, with a portion of his regiment, was given the duty of storming the courthouse, and after two or three hours of brisk fighting he compelled its surrender. Lieut.-Col. Arthur Hood, with a portion of the First, stormed the jail with equal success. Colonel Lawton, with the Second regiment and the Tennessee and Kentucky companies, assailed the second camp of the enemy. Said Forrest:

The Georgians, under Colonel Dunlop and Major Harper, made a gallant charge almost to the mouth of the cannon. After fighting them in front two or three hours I took immediate command of this force and charged the rear of the enemy into their camps and burned their camps and stores, demoralizing their force and weakening their strength.

In the following month Colonel Morrison was sent with his troops into Kentucky to occupy Mount Vernon, and at Big Hill he defeated an attack of Federal cavalry, [100] August 23d. At Bridgeport, Ala., August 27th, the Jackson artillery, under Capt. G. A. Dure, did brilliant work, Lieutenant Holtzclaw, as well as the captain, winning the commendatory notice of General Maxey, the officer in command. The Third Georgia cavalry, Col. Martin J. Crawford, accompanied Gen. Joseph Wheeler in Bragg's Kentucky campaign, and fought gallantly and suffered severely at Munfordville; but at New Haven, Ky., September 29th, Colonel Crawford and about 250 of his command were surprised and captured by a detachment of Col. E. M. McCook's cavalry brigade.

On August 10, 1862, Gen. E. Kirby Smith ordered Col. Archibald Gracie, of the Forty-third Alabama, to take a force of infantry and march against a band of east Tennessee Unionists, who had assembled under Col. William Clift near Huntsville, Scott county. He was to have the co-operation of 300 cavalry, under Capt. T. M. Nelson, of Georgia. Gracie's force included some companies that had belonged to Ramsey's First Georgia. After the expiration of the twelve months for which that regiment had enlisted, it had been mustered out at Augusta. Four of the companies re-enlisted and formed the Twelfth Georgia battalion under Maj. H. D. Capers. On the way to Tennessee most of the horses were killed in a railroad accident. Only one company, the Newnan artillery, under Capt. G. M. Hanvey, was supplied with cannon, and this went into Kentucky with Heth's division. The other three, serving as infantry, marched with Gracie to Scott county. On August 13th, Gracie's command stormed and captured Fort Clift, scattering the Tennessee Unionists in every direction. They had fired so wildly that no Confederates were seriously hurt. The scattering of this force gave unmolested passage for the wagon trains of Heth's division through Big Creek gap into Kentucky. The three companies of the Twelfth Georgia battalion were left in camp at Jacksboro, Tenn., to assist in picketing Big Creek gap. [101]

The following Georgia commands went into Kentucky in Heth's division: Smith's legion, Fifty-fifth Georgia and Newnan artillery (from the Twelfth battalion). In Stevenson's division, which recaptured Cumberland gap and then advanced into Kentucky, were the Thirty-fourth, Thirty-sixth, Thirty-ninth, Fortieth, Forty-second, Fifty-second and Fifty-seventh Georgia regiments, the Third and Ninth Georgia battalions, and the Cherokee artillery. In McCown's division was the Forty-third Georgia. The foregoing troops were all in Gen. Kirby Smith's army. In Polk's wing of Bragg's army in Kentucky there were other Georgia commands. In Withers' division the Fifth Georgia shared in what was to the infantry the bloodless victory at Munfordville, Ky.; while at Perryville the Forty-first Georgia was in Cheatham's division in the thickest of the fight, its gallant colonel, Charles A. Mc-Daniel, being mortally wounded, and Maj. John Knight leading it through the rest of the battle. The regiment lost in this engagement 6 color-bearers, 2 killed and 4 wounded. General Maney, commanding the brigade of four Tennessee regiments and the Forty-first Georgia, said in his report: ‘The Southern army lost neither a truer soldier nor more amiable and admirable a gentleman on that field (Perryville) than Col. Charles A. Mc-Daniel. . . . It would be a profound gratification to me to be allowed the privilege of inscribing the name of Colonel McDaniel on one of the guns captured by my brigade at the battle of Murfreesboro, the gun to be presented to some Georgia battery.’ The Southern Rights battery, from Perry, as well as the Southern Rights Guards (Company C) of Ramsey's First Georgia, was also at the battle of Perryville.

At Fort Pulaski throughout the summer, Brig.-Gen. A. H. Terry was in command, with a garrison consisting of the Forty-eighth New York, Col. W. B. Barton; a company of Rhode Island artillery, and a detachment of engineers. General Hunter had ordered in May that in [102] consequence of an alleged violation of flag of truce by a Confederate command, all parties coming to his lines on any pretense whatever should be held. On August 10th the Confederate steamer General Lee came down from Savannah under flag of truce, carrying a lady and her son who desired to go north. The Lee was ordered to anchor, and upon her failure to do so was fired upon by Fort Pulaski, but without effect. A small armed steamer was sent after her, and she was brought back to the fort. General Hunter ordered from Hilton Head, ‘Put the officers and crew of the rebel steamer in close confinement in the fort.’ On the following day the boat and crew were sent back to Savannah, with a message from Hunter that the presence of three officers on the Lee was a suspicious circumstance, and that hereafter only one officer should accompany a flag of truce.

In July, 1862, the armed cruiser Nashville ran the blockade into Savannah with a cargo of arms. This vessel was the first commissioned armed cruiser of the Confederate States, and had been purchased with the original intention of using her to convey abroad the commissioners, Mason and Slidell. After she entered the river in the summer of 1862, the rigor of the blockade kept her useless until her destruction, early in 1863. In August the steamer Emma, which had several times run the blockade, carrying cotton to Nassau, while trying to make the outward passage on a dark and stormy night, ran aground off the southeast extremity of Jones island. The crew got off in boats and made their escape up the river to Savannah, though pursued for some distance by boats from Fort Pulaski. Before leaving the vessel the crew set her on fire, and she was totally consumed. It was thought by the Federals that her intention was to go to sea by a route which was known to be practicable, namely, after running under the fire of the fort a short distance, to enter Wright river, and thence through Wall's cut and other narrow channels, or down Mud river and entering [103] Wright river entirely out of range of the fort. If the Emma had gone her length farther to the right at the fatal moment, she could have gone to sea without approaching nearer than five miles to the battery at martello tower.

The famous ship Fingal, whose adventures in 1861 have been narrated, having become unavailable as a cruiser on account of the blockade, was converted into an ironclad, of the familiar Confederate type, known as the Atlanta. John A. Tift had charge of the construction. At the same time the ironclad battery Georgia was constructed, to which the ladies of Savannah made large contributions. The Fingal, whose length was 204 feet, breadth of beam 41, and draught 15 feet 9 inches, was cut down to the main deck, widened amidships, and overlaid with an ironplated deck. On this was built an ironclad casemate, like that of the original Virginia. The sides of this casemate were 15 inches of pine, 3 inches of oak and 4 inches of iron. At the bow was attached a ram and a spar to carry a torpedo. Her armament was two 7-inch Brooke guns on bow and stern pivots, and two 6-inch Brooke rifles in broadside, and the larger guns were so arranged that both the 7-inch and one of the 6-inch guns could be worked on either broadside. The Georgia was of a different construction, 250 feet long and 60 feet in beam, with a casemate 12 feet high. Her machinery was defective, and it was necessary to tow her where needed. She carried seven guns and was under the command of Lieut. J. Pembroke Jones.

The Atlanta, under command of Lieut. Charles H. McBlair, made a trial trip toward Fort Pulaski on July 31st and created much consternation in the Federal fleet. A Northern newspaper correspondent wrote that unless some monitor should come to the rescue, ‘the fair-weather yachts now reposing on the placid bosom of Port Royal bay have before them an excellent opportunity of learning what it is to be blown out of the water.’ But there [104] was no direct benefit to be derived from the Atlanta, as her trial trip showed that her alteration in form and the projecting overway caused her to steer badly, and that six or seven knots was the greatest speed to be obtained from her. Notwithstanding the inaction of the vessel during the remainder of 1862, the Federals manifested great apprehension regarding her, and brought several monitors to the vicinity of Savannah. During the fall of 1862 only a small force was left by the enemy at Fort Pulaski, the main strength being at Hilton Head. This disposition made it necessary for the Georgia troops to occasionally skirmish between Savannah and Port Royal. Notable among these encounters was one October 22d at Pocotaligo and Coosawhatchie, in which Col. G. P. Harrison was in command of the troops sent from Georgia. This was a considerable affair and a decisive victory for the Confederates.

Brig.-Gen. Hugh W. Mercer had succeeded to the command of the district of Georgia upon the transfer of General Lawton to Virginia, and on September 24th General Beauregard assumed command of the department of South Carolina and Georgia, to which Florida was soon added. Gen. Howell Cobb, after the battle of Sharpsburg, was assigned to command of the middle district of Florida, with especial reference to the defense of southwest Georgia, a region which had been blessed with the best crops in the State. In the latter part of the year the State commissioners, James M. Chambers and James F. Bozeman, sunk obstructions in the Appalachicola to prevent a river invasion and protect the gunboat Chattahoochee, then in construction.

In July, 1863, the following organizations were included in General Mercer's command, in the district of Georgia: Eighth battalion, Lieutenant-Colonel Reid; Tenth battalion, Major Rylander; Twenty-fifth regiment, Col. C. C. Wilson; Thirtieth regiment. Col. D. J. Bailey; Thirty-second regiment, Col. G. P. Harrison; Fortyenth [105] regiment, Col. G. W. M. Williams; Fiftieth regiment, Col. W. R. Manning; Fifty-fourth regiment, Col. C. H. Way; Fifty-ninth, regiment, Col. Jack Brown; Georgia Guards, Major Screven; DeKalb Rifles, Captain Hartridge; Second battalion cavalry, Companies D, B, E, Lieutenant-Colonel Bird; cavalry south of the Altamaha (Fourth regiment), Lieutenant-Colonel Clinch; Effingham Hussars, Captain Strobhar; Harwick Mounted Rifles, Captain McAllister; Lamar rangers, Captain Brailsford; Liberty Independent troop, Captain Walthour; McIntosh cavalry, Captain Hopkins; Partisan rangers, battalion, Major Millen; Partisan rangers, Captain Anderson; Ninth battalion artillery, Major Leyden; Thirteenth (Phoenix), battalion, Maj. G. A. Gordon; Chestatee light artillery, Captain Bomar; Columbus light artillery, Captain Croft; Echols light artillery, Captain Tiller; Joe Thompson artillery, Captain Hanleiter; Martin's light artillery, Captain Martin; Terrell light artillery, Captain Dawson; Light battery, Company D, Georgia regulars, Captain Read; Savannah river batteries, Lieut.-Col. Edward C. Anderson; Fort Jackson, Capt. John W. Anderson; Irish Jasper Greens, Company B, Captain O'Connor; Liberty Guards, Captain Hughes; Tattnall Guards, Captain Davenport.

A negro regiment that had been organized by General Hunter was called the First South Carolina volunteers (colored), and in November a company of it was employed on an expedition up the rivers and lagoons of Georgia between St. Simon's and Fernandina. This was led by Col. O. T. Beard of New York, Rev. Mansfield French, chaplain, and Charles T. Trowbridge, captain. The expedition made thirteen different landings, had skirmishes at King's bay and Spaulding's, and ‘destroyed nine salt works, together with $20,000 worth of horses, salt, corn, rice, etc., which could not be carried away.’ Gen. R. Saxton reported that the negroes fought bravely, and he recommended that a number of light-draught steamers [106] should be sent up the Georgia streams, each carrying 100 negro soldiers and extra arms, and that the whistle should be sounded at landings to call in the slaves, who should be enlisted and armed. The boat would then proceed as before until, he said, ‘we should very soon have occupation of the whole country.’ A few days later a similar expedition was made up the Doboy river, and a sawmill was raided and the lumber, saws, etc., were carried away. Col. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, of Boston, commander of this negro regiment, led it in another expedition early in 1863, on board three steamers. On the St. Mary's river they were attacked by a daring body of Confederate cavalry. Higginson reported that ‘though fearful of our shot and shell, they were so daring against musketry, that one rebel sprang from the shore upon the large boat which was towed at our stern, where he was shot down by one of my sergeants.’ Colonel Higginson was on a collecting expedition, and picked up 2500 bars of railroad iron from St. Simon's and Jekyll islands, from abandoned Confederate forts, some ‘valuable yellow pine lumber,’ rice, resin, cordage, oars, a flock of sheep, horses, steers, agricultural implements, and ‘40,000 large-sized bricks.’ The real conductor of the whole expedition up the St. Mary's, Colonel Higginson went on to say, was Corp. Robert Sutton, of Company G, formerly a slave upon the St. Mary's river. ‘In every instance when I followed his advice the predicted result followed, and I never departed from it, however slightly, without finding reason for subsequent regret.’ Further said the colonel: ‘No officer in this regiment now doubts that the key to the successful prosecution of this war lies in the unlimited employment of black troops.’ On September 30th a reconnaissance was made by several New York companies up the May river from Fort Pulaski, which resulted in the destruction of some valuable salt works at Crowell's plantation, above Bluffton. Colonel Barton, commanding, reported that he [107] stopped at the latter place on his return and carried off a considerable quantity of furniture from the deserted houses, which he asked permission to retain for the use of his officers and himself.

These barbarous raids were made for private and public plunder. To destroy public stores is admissible in war, but to loot private houses and seize private furniture were a disgrace to the troops who were guilty of such outrages, and a still greater disgrace to the officers who allowed it. But all this was innocent compared to the atrocity of the effort to arouse the negroes of the black belt of the State to insurrection against the scanty white population of that section, especially when every American of any intelligence remembered the horrors of the servile insurrection in San Domingo. The conduct of their enemies during and immediately after the war proves that the Southern people were not mistaken as to the ultimate aim of the party that came into control of the government in 1860, even admitting that they made a mistake in the remedy adopted.

In November, on account of the depredations of Colonel Higginson's negro regiment, the governor notified the legislature that Col. Henry Floyd, commanding Camden militia, had asked leave to call out his forces for home defense, and he requested the legislature to decide if he had authority under the conscript act to make such a call. A spirited discussion of several days resulted, in which it appeared that the majority of the body regarded the conscript law as unconstitutional, but no definite action was taken. The legislature did, however, authorize the governor to obstruct the navigable streams and to hire or impress slaves to perform the necessary labor, and the governor proposed to General Beauregard that the State should hire or impress the slaves and put them under the control of officers detailed by the general, a proposition [108] which was accepted. The same plan had been followed in supplying laborers to General Mercer to finish the fortifications at Savannah.

The governor's message in November described the military work of the year. Of the $5,000,000 appropriated, $2,081,004 had been expended; 8,000 State troops had been employed and supported for six months; the State's quota of Confederate war tax (in round numbers $2,500,000) had been paid; a State armory had been established in the penitentiary which was turning out 125 guns a month. The Confederate Congress had passed an additional conscription act, extending its scope to men between thirty-five and forty-five years of age, and compelling the recruiting of existing organizations until filled to the maximum number. Governor Brown had notified the President a few weeks before the meeting of the legislature that he would not permit enrollment under this new law until that body met and acted on the subject. The much-debated question of the constitutionality of the conscript laws was submitted to the State Supreme court, and that body affirmed the constitutionality.

Other war measures of the legislature of 1862 were acts restricting the cultivation of cotton to three acres a hand, intending to diversify agricultural industry and make the people self-supporting; appropriating $500,000 to supply the people with salt; $100,000 for cotton cards; something more than $500,000 for obstruction of rivers; $400,000 for the relief and hospital association; $1,500,000 for clothing for soldiers; $2,500,000 for the support of widows and families of deceased and disabled soldiers; $1,000,000 for a military fund, and $300,000 to remove indigent white non-combatants from any part of the State threatened with invasion. The aggregate of these appropriations for war was more than $6,ooo,ooo. The governor was authorized to raise two regiments for home defense, and to impress slaves for work on the defenses of the latter [109] city. It was further patriotically resolved that ‘Savannah should never be surrendered, but defended, street by street and house by house, until, if taken, the victor's spoils should be alone a heap of ashes.’

The military history of the West for 1862 closes with two famous battles, almost simultaneous—one on the Vicksburg line of defenses, the other between Nashville and Chattanooga.

At Chickasaw bayou, a brigade of Georgians, organized in east Tennessee under Gen. Seth M. Barton, and thence transferred to Mississippi to meet the invasions under Grant and Sherman, took a conspicuous part in the defeat of Sherman by the Confederate forces under the command of Gen. Stephen D. Lee. This brigade was composed of the Fortieth regiment, Col. Abda Johnson; the Forty-second, Col. R. J. Henderson; the Forty-third, Lieut.-Col. Hiram P. Bell, and the Fifty-second, Col. C. D. Phillips. The brigade took position at the Indian mound, covering one of the bayou fords which the enemy attempted to cross in their endeavor to pierce the Confederate line, and on the 28th of December five companies of the Fortieth fought in the rifle-pits against sharpshooters and artillery throughout the day. On the following day a desperate assault, the main one of the battle, was made upon General Barton's position at the center, also upon the right, and the repulse of it determined the fate of Sherman's campaign. The skirmishers, taken from the Fortieth and Forty-second Georgia, bore the brunt of the attack. Their comrades, reinforced by Colonel Phillips' regiment and the Thirty-first Louisiana, fought with equal tenacity. Five resolute efforts were made to carry the breastworks, which were as often repulsed with heavy loss. Three times the Federals succeeded in mounting the parapet, and once made a lodgment and attempted to mine. The Georgians and Louisianians, said General [110] Pemberton, ‘behaved with distinguished courage and steadiness throughout. At this point the enemy did not give up his attack until nightfall.’

On the right, during the attack on General Lee, a portion of the Federal line of assault was gallantly repulsed by the Forty-second Georgia and Twenty-eighth Louisiana. General Pemberton included among the regiments ‘entitled to the highest distinction’ the Fortieth, Forty-second and Fifty-second Georgia regiments. The loss of the brigade, 15 killed and 39 wounded, was mainly in the Forty-second and Fortieth. General Barton estimated the Federal dead in their front at 650. The punishment of the Federals was appalling to them, and served to postpone the fall of Vicksburg for half a year. In his official report General Barton mentioned with praise the services of Cols. Abda Johnson (wounded), Henderson and Phillips, Lieutenant-Colonel Bell (wounded), and Maj. Henry C. Kellogg, of the same regiment, and Capts. T. B. Lyons and Patterson of his staff.

In the sanguinary struggle at Murfreesboro, or Stone's river, December 31st to January 2d, Gen. John K. Jackson's brigade, of Breckinridge's division, which included the Fifth regiment of infantry and the Second Georgia battalion of sharpshooters, was in various parts of the field at different stages of the battle, but experienced all its severe loss in the brief space from noon to three in the afternoon of December 31st, when it was sent by Breckinridge to join in the assault upon the Federal center. Jackson twice charged the enemy's strong position, but for the want of support from others, and the smallness of his own numbers, was forced to take the cover of a thick cedar wood. Both times the men fell back in good order and were reformed in line, until they were ordered to retire from the want of ammunition. Col. William T. Black, of the Fifth, fell in the charge about 1 p. m., a minie ball inflicting a wound in the head from which he died at 10 o'clock that night. Maj. C. P. Daniel was in [111] command of the regiment during the remainder of the action. The color-bearer of the regiment, Thomas J. Brantley, Company E, was killed by a minie ball passing through his head, whereupon First Lieut. J. W. Eason, of Company G, seized the colors and was instantly killed in a similar manner. Maj. J. J. Cox, commanding the Second battalion sharpshooters, was commended for gallantry. His men fought with great coolness and effect. The Fifth regiment carried into this battle but 175 men and lost II killed and 53 wounded. The sharpshooters, 152 strong, lost 4 killed and 27 wounded. The Georgians in Gen. James E. Rains' brigade, McCown's division, were fortunate enough to be in that part of the Confederate line which drove the Federals before them on December 31st. These commands were the Third battalion, Lieut.-Col. M. A. Stovall, and the Ninth battalion, Maj. Joseph T. Smith. In the first rush upon the enemy Colonel Stovall and his men drove the gunners from a Federal battery and sent the pieces to the rear. After pursuing the enemy three miles, a fierce resistance was encountered, but Stovall's men, after delivering a volley at 150 yards, charged down a hill, while the enemy scampered up another, and began a galling fire from under cover of the rocks and cedar thicket. Stovall made a gallant assault, but gaining the enemy's position suffered heavily from an enfilading fire. Subsequently this battalion, reinforced by the Ninth, which had had a similar experience though with less resistance, held an advanced position until General Bragg withdrew his army. The Third lost 6 killed and 33 wounded; the Ninth, 1 killed and 11 wounded. Moses' battery, attached to Palmer's Tennessee brigade, also participated in this battle. At about the same period the Ninth battalion of Georgia artillery, Maj. A. Leyden, was taking part in the operations in east Tennessee under Gen. Humphrey Marshall. [112]