Monday, October 14, 2013

CHICKAMAUGA, THE RIVER OF DEATH


       

         It is often said, although with questionable authenticity,  that the Cherokee called the creek which runs through Walker County in Northwest Georgia, “Chickamauga” or “The River of Death.”  That moniker seems all too intuitive and only fitting  for during this week a century and a half ago, the Union Army of the Cumberland and the Confederate Army of Tennessee pommeled, battered and slaughtered each other in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountain Range.  

Nearly everyone has heard of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863.  In that horrific and climactic three-day battle, casualties were estimated from 46,000 to 51,000 or nearly 17,000 per day.  Many people don’t realize it, but the second bloodiest battle of  the Civil War took place right here in Georgia.

In two days, September 19 and September 20, 1863, the two armies counted roughly 35,000 casualties.  Nearly four thousand (1,657 USA, 2,312 C.S.A.) men would die on the battlefield or in nearby field hospitals.  More than 24,000 (9,756 USA, 14,674 C.S.A.) were wounded during the two days of fighting.  Another six thousand or more men were listed as captured or missing with the Union Army accounting for three quarters of that amount.

For the most part,  Laurens Countians served in the Army of Northern Virginia and another configuration of the Army of the Tennessee.  Slightly more than a half dozen  Laurens Countians took part in the second most deadly battle of the Civil War.  

The highest ranking Laurens Countian to take part in the battle was Col. William H. Wylly.  Wylly, then a captain and later a Dublin lawyer, was in command of Company A of the 25th Georgia Infantry.  Attached to Wilson’s Brigade of Wm. H.T. Walker’s Division, the 25th, which had seen only coastal duty until that time, was engaged in the fighting at the northern end of the battlefield.  Capt. Wylly made it through the battle unscathed.  George M. Prescott, a member of the Brown Light Infantry of Screven County, but later a long term resident of Laurens County, also made it through the fighting virtually free of injuries. 

The majority of the local men who saw action at Chickamauga were members of the 20th Georgia Volunteer Infantry.  The 20th Regiment, under the command of Gen. Benning’s Brigade, saw little fighting as they were used in reserve during the vicious crisscrossing combat along the LaFayette Road.  Young Woodard Swinson, one of the county’s first men to volunteer for Confederate service, joined the Muscogee Mounted Guards on May 23, 1861.  Swinson survived the fighting, only to be killed at Deep Bottom, Virginia eleven months later.

George W. Belcher, who would later become Police Chief of Dublin, joined the Jefferson County Guards in 1861.  Sgt. Belcher was wounded in the Seven Days Battles and at the Second Battle of Manassas in 1862.  Belcher survived the hellish fighting at the Devil’s Den at Gettysburg as a member of Gen. John B. Hood’s Division under corps command of Gen. James Longstreet.  Longstreet’s Corps, which had suffered brutal casualties at Gettysburg, had only eleven weeks of rest before going into the cataclysmic combat at Chickamauga.

Sgt. Belcher, of Company C,  was severely wounded in the fighting, probably between the Brock House and the Log School east of Lafayette Road.  He recovered and returned to his company which surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox.   Chief Belcher died in 1911 and is buried in Northview Cemetery.  

James McLeod, who briefly lived in Laurens County at the turn of the 20th Century, was a member of Company B from Telfair County.  McLeod survived most to the war unscathed until he lost the sight in one eye at Appomattox Court House, a day before the surrender.


Walter T. Dawson, a private in Gist’s Brigade, Walker’s Division, was wounded in an eye and lost his sight in the heavy fighting along the northern end of the fighting. 

James F. Hawkins, of the Hancock County Guards, was a member of Benning’s Brigade.  Pvt. Hawkins, who moved from Washington County to Laurens County, in 1900, was wounded in the left shoulder at Cold Harbor in June 1864.   
Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans launched an offensive from Chattanooga down into the northwest corner of Georgia against Gen. Braxton Bragg’s forces to drive Bragg’s army out of that strategic Tennessee fortress. Bragg wasn’t going to give up so easily and moved north to meet Rosecrans.  

After skirmishes between infantry and cavalry on September 18, the real killing began the next day.  Longstreet’s Corps attacked and drove a large part of the Union Army off the battlefield.  The Federal Army held onto their tentative defensive position, while Confederate units attacked Chattanooga from its neighboring heights on Lookout Mountain.
 
The brutal fighting started just after dawn on the 19th.  Bragg’s forces made repeated charges against the Union right with some successes.  Determined Union defenders held strong.  Just before midnight,  Longstreet’s two divisions, with six fresh brigades, arrived on the scene, switching the advantage of the attack to Bragg.  

With Longstreet’s Corps on the left and Polk’s corps on the right, Bragg launched a decisive blow to the entrenched Federals.  Rosecrans’ mistaken order to fill a gap in the Federal line, resulted in a move which in fact created a fatal gap into which Gen. Hood poured eight brigades, forcing a total collapse of the Union right at the southern end of the field.

Union Gen. George Thomas, thereafter known as the “Rock of Chickamauga,” gathered his remaining troops and stood solid against the capture of his entire force.   Thomas’ men held their ground against repeated assaults, withdrawing only under the cover of darkness. Neither side had the stomach to fight again on the following day.

The battle resulted in somewhat of a tactical draw.  The Southern army remained in control of the heights above Chattanooga. The defeated Federals escaped back to the safety of their former lines, which they held for the rest of the war.  Had Bragg decided to pursue the retreating Federals the following day, the casualty count could have surpassed the horrific toll at Gettysburg.

The Battle of Chickamauga was a test for things to come.  In the early spring which followed, Gen. William T. Sherman, came down from the hills of North Georgia, attacking and destroying all targets of military value along his way to the rail center of Atlanta.  In his “March to The Sea,” that summer and fall, Sherman put the final nail in the Confederacy’s hopes to retain control of the Southern States and making the end of the war a virtual certainty.

ALL PHOTOS BY SCOTT B. THOMPSON, SR., OCTOBER 2012


Thursday, September 19, 2013

BEYOND THE HIGH WATER MARK



The 48th Georgia at Gettysburg

They were three days which changed the world.  So much of the courses of our lives today were set in motion in the rolling hills of southern Pennsylvania exactly 150 years ago today. The place, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania - a cross roads town just above the Maryland border - would become the scene of the most horrific carnage of the Civil War or any other war on American soil.   Nearly 50,000 men, roughly thirty percent of the effectives on the field of battle. were killed, captured, wounded or missing in action in three dying days. 

Each corner of the battlefield has its own name.  Little Round Top, The Devil's Den, The Peach Orchard, The Wheatfield, and Cemetery Ridge are names which still live in infamy.  Every year, more than a million people  conduct pilgrimages to the scene of the climactic battle of the Civil War.   

Robert E. Lee, still celebrating his greatest victory at Chancellorsville, launched his first invasion of Pennsylvania.  Although Lee wanted to avoid contact with the Union army at Gettysburg, advance elements of both armies collided on July 1, 1863, sucking both combatants into the chasm of the war's most brutal and critical battle. 

On the second day of the battle, Robert E. Lee launched an all out attack on the Federal positions from Little Round Top to Cemetery Ridge.  Each division attacked in order from south to north.   Late in the afternoon, the order came for A.R. Wright's brigade to attack the Federal positions on Cemetery Ridge.  The brigade commander (LEFT) was a Louisville born attorney, whose brigade consisted of four Georgia Regiments, including the 48th Georgia.      

The 48th Georgia was composed of companies from Jefferson Co., "The Jefferson Volunteers"; Johnson Co., "The Battleground Guards; Twiggs Co., "The Slappey Guards"; and Emanuel Co., "The McLeod Volunteers."  Several Laurens County residents were members of the Battleground Guards.  The 48th Georgia were a part of R.H. Anderson's Division of A.P. Hill's Corps.

At 6:30, Anderson sent his three remaining brigades to attack the center of Cemetery Ridge.  Wright's men were deployed from left to right:  48th Georgia, 3rd Georgia, and 22nd Georgia.  The 2nd Georgia was deployed in front as skirmishers.  A few hundred yards away on the  Bliss farm, four New Jersey companies were lying in wait.  Wright, with his sixteen hundred Georgians, began the attack in a quick step march across a mile-wide open field toward a small dip in the terrain.  

The advance went smoothly until the men came within musket range of the Emmitsburg Road.   There they encountered a strong body of infantry behind a fence.  The skirmishers from the 2nd Ga. were preparing the way.   The battle line moved rapidly toward the ridge.  Wright later recalled "We were in a hot place, and looking to my left through the smoke, I perceived that neither Posey nor Mahone had advanced and that my left was totally unprotected."   Wright sent a courier to Gen. Anderson, who replied "both Posey and Mahone had been ordered in and that he would reiterate the order."  (Left - Capt. Alexander C. Flanders, McLeod Volunteers) 

As Wright's Brigade passed the Bliss' yard, only a portion of Posey's men were in support of his attack.  After a brief and furious fight at the Emmitsburg Road,  Wright's right wing passed the Cordori House with little resistance.  With half of their advance forces down and both of their flanks turned, the 82nd New York and 15th Massachusetts regiments fell back to a superior defensive position on the ridge. . 

"As we were in the charge I had an old U. S. Musket that would not shoot, but seeing a wild Yankee lying in a ditch in the pike road with a fine rifle I asked him it was any good, he said that it was, I told him to take off his belt and cartridge box and give it to me, which he did. I cut off my old belt, cartridge box and shoulder strap with my jack knife, put on the Yankee accouterments, took his rifle and went to the charge," wrote a member of the 48th Georgia.



The  attack was directed toward a battery between a small clump of trees and Ziegler's Grove on the ridge to north.  Wright's brigade, stretching four hundred  yards wide, would just fit in between the trees and the grove. The six Napoleon cannon of Brown's Rhode Island Battery pounded Wright's men with case shot and then canister.  Wright's men routed the Federals from their second line of defense, a stone wall which would later come to be known as the "High Water Mark of the Confederacy. 

The Rhode Island Battery moved further up the hill under pressure from Posey's 19th Mississippi.  The 48th attacked Gibbon's lines in hand to hand fighting.  With well directed fire,  Wright's men drove the cannoneers from their guns.  As the charging Confederates  captured the Napoleons of the Rhode Island Battery,  they were suddenly pelted with canister and small arms fire from a ridge, one hundred yards away.

 The Georgians jumped the stone wall and rushed to stand at the crest of the ridge.  With an irresistible charge, they swept the Federal infantry from the ridge into a gorge beyond.  The men were jubilant.  

"We were now complete masters of the field," Gen.  Wright, "having gained the key, as it were, of the enemy's whole line."

The point where they stood would be the objective of Lee's attack the following day.  Wright again requested support.  The help they prayed for never came.  Posey was stuck in the field to the north, west of the Emmitsburg Road.   For some unknown reason Mahone, sitting idle,  would not budge his brigade from Seminary Ridge - despite the repeated urging of Gen. Anderson.  

 The 69th Pennsylvania counterattacked on Wrights' front. Wright's men suffered three effective volleys upon their unprotected flanks. Wright reported that the enemy was closing in.  With no sign of support, the 48th retreated from the ridge.  The Federals launched a bayonet charge and severe artillery  attack.

The rapid retreat continued under artillery fire from Cemetery Ridge.  The 106th Pennsylvania, under Gen. Abner Doubleday, the fictional inventor of baseball, caught up with the 48th Georgia just before they reached the Emmitsburg Road.  Col. William Gibson and several other officers including Capt. Thomas Kent of Johnson County were captured.  After an hour or so it was all over.  Nearly one half of the brigade lay dead, were wounded, or were captured.  The 48th lost 70 men killed, including 8 officers, with 97 wounded and 57 missing in action. 

The 48th Georgia's advance was the closest Lee's men came to breaking the Federal center at Gettysburg.  Wright's men are often ignored in the history books for their accomplishments.  They went further than any Confederate brigade at Gettysburg.  A lone marker in front of the stone wall marks their historic feats of courage in their valiant charge.

On the third and final day of the climatic conflict, Lee, observing that Gen. Wright broke the Union center with a single brigade, ordered Gen. George Pickett of Virginia to attack the same point, confident that an entire division could easily break the Federal center and secure a sure victory.  That attack, slow to start from the beginning, utterly failed, costing the lives of many of Pickett's men.  Their advance to the Angle at the  Stone Wall, where Wrights men had stood alone, if only briefly the day before, will be forever known as the "High Tide Of The Confederacy." 

Although no Laurens Countians were killed during the fighting, John Swinson was wounded and died one week later, while Wiley K. Bracewell would die from his wounds 8 weeks later.  The wounded were: Robert A. Beall, John T. Bender, Jesse Bracewell, Lewis Coleman, Allen Cowart, William E. Duncan, James Bryant Gay, T.D. Hudson, James E. Jones, James P. Kinchen, Dennis McLendon, James M. Mincey, John B. Roberts, Rev. Peter S. Twitty, William C. Vaughn, and Wade Wright.  Taken as prisoners were David Alligood, William F. Brewer, William M. Cardell, Thomas J. Green and Samuel Miller.

At the end of the arduous third day as the moon hung high in the sky, General Robert E. Lee mournfully reflected, "Yes, it has been a sad, sad day to us." 

WALKING IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF GLORY










At the appointed hour of three o’clock on the afternoon of July 3, the roaring reports of the cannon stopped reverberating throughout the hot, humid Pennsylvania countryside in Gettysburg. It was the signal to begin the advance to east.  Some fifteen thousand history buffs and curiosity seekers assembled behind the flags of the nine brigades of George Pickett, Johnston Pettigrew and Isaac Trimble.  We were there to commemorate the supposedly glorious, war changing charge led by General George Pickett on the climatic moment of the climatic battle of the American Civil War.





It was exactly one hundred and fifty years ago to the hour from the time when Lt. General James Longstreet, in dutiful obedience to the decisive orders of General Robert E. Lee, reluctantly nodded his head in approval of Pickett’s request to move his division forward from the Confederate position on Seminary Ridge in an effort to strike and break the center of the Union line, well positioned behind a stone wall between “The Angle” and “The Copse of Trees.”  (Left)









After a two-hour Confederate cannonade, the largest ever staged in North America and one which was heard as far away as Baltimore and Pittsburgh, Longstreet’s  12,000 men moved out.  After an hour long advance across open fields in the face of skirmish fire and a relentless barrage of Union artillery fire, a fragment of Gen. Lewis Armistead’s brigade managed to briefly break the Federal position at the angle.  (Left)



With nearly half of their men dead, wounded or captured, and all three of Pickett’s  brigadier generals, along with three others of Pettigrew and Trimble’s divisions,  dead or gravely wounded, the battered brigades reversed their course and limped back to the safety of the woods along the Seminary Ridge.  The failed attack, one which General Longstreet had feared would be futile and a waste of lives, would be forever known as “Pickett’s Charge” and “The High Water Mark of the Confederacy.”








For the culmination of the commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the National Park Service invited reenactors, living historians and the public to participate in a walk across the same mile wide field which led to the capture, wounding or deaths of 11 of 15 of Pickett’s regimental commanders a total loss of more than 6,000 men in a single hour.





Visitors had their choice of following in the paths of Brockenbrough, Davis, Lane, Marshall, Fry, Lowrance, made of up of units from nearly all of the southern states, supported by Thomas’s Georgia Brigade including two companies from Laurens County on the left.  Pickett’s three brigades of Virginia infantrymen were positioned on the right with Garnett in the lead on the left, Kemper on the right and Armistead in the rear.



The largest crowd gathered behind the flag of the  brigade of Armistead, whose brigade broke the Union center and whose leader, General Lewis “Lo” Armistead, is featured prominently in Ted Turner’s movie, “Gettysburg.”





My wife Kathy and I took our spot on the far right end of the Confederate formation.  We were there to walk in the footsteps of Kathy’s great-grandfather, William Foushee Harrison, a slight in stature, long bearded, 22-year-old 2nd Lieutenant of  Co. A. 7th Virginia Infantry, of James L. Kemper’s brigade.

















(Lt. William F. Harrison, Co. A, Richardson Guards, 7th Virginia Infantry, Kemper's Brigade, Pickett's Division.



For our point of departure, we were moved a few thousand yards north from the original position toward the center to shorten our strides. We could not see our objective on the ridge a mile in front of us, nor could the swiftly swelling crowd on Cemetery Ridge see us.  Pickett chose this position around the Spangler farm to take advantage of the  swales to conceal his position from Union lookouts.  Like Pickett’s men, we baked in the sweltering sun for nearly two hours before moving out.



While Park Ranger and author, Troy Harman, was  giving us our final instructions and interesting aspects of what would have happened along our path 150 years ago, a bellowing voice rang out.  A  tiny man asked if anyone remembered the scene in the movie when the 7th Virginia’s  commander, Waller Tazwell Patton ( great-uncle of General George S. Patton) was wounded.  He pointed to the scene with the actor portraying Col. Patton, he movie’s producer, Ted Turner,  rallied his men and then grasped his left rib and fell mortally wounded  on the field.  In fact, the old man exclaimed loudly, “part of his jaw was ripped away.”





In an instant, astonished park rangers and professional and amateur historians recognized the booming voice.  Ed Bearss, a Marine veteran of World War II and the country’s consummate dean of Civil War and World War II guides and historians, was among our ranks!  As he spoke to our brigade, whispers rang out, “Who’s he?” “He’s famous!”











We even had our own mascot in formation.  An white-headed, brindled English Bulldog, sporting a 3"x5" battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, was attempting to stay cool in the shade of adoring, camera clicking participants.





After our chaplain recited the Lord’s Prayer, Ranger Harman led us  followed by a chorus of Dixie.



“Forward march,” came the command!



Two wavy ranks began to climb the hill to the fence line where General E.P. Alexander’s artillery was once stationed to pound the Union positions on the ridge to the northeast.   Our leaders directed us to go through a gap in the rail fence and reform for the second leg of our march to the left of Rogers house on the Emmittsburg Road, though along the line some couldn’t resist the urge to climb over the rails.



As the formation began to disintegrate into a jumbled mass, I looked a few steps to my right to find Bearss walking beside me.  Asking for answers to questions to be delayed  until the end, Bearss wanted to personally embrace the moment.  As the prolific author Bearss wavered in his pace, I felt I should do the military thing and guard my superior’s unprotected left, just in case he fell.



For a few moments, I looked left down the entire line to see the breath taking sight of thousands and thousands of people walking, running and trudging forward.  A wave of a rainbow colored horde spotted with gray clothed soldiers and waving battle flags was rolling, rolling  across the plain and steadily up the hill.  



As we approached the road and the second fence row, I noticed Bearss had moved well ahead of me, confirming the statement in his Wikipedia article that he frequently outwalks the much younger members of his tours.  I certainly could stop worrying about him  and concentrate on my own ability to make it to the objective.



After crossing the main road and moving to the right of the Cordori House, the ground became even more treacherous.  A single mowed lane led in the direction of our march.   In accordance with our commander’s original orders to march in ranks and not columns, I urged Kathy to move to the right. I shouted “Come over here to the right where your ancestor would have marched” in the face of frequently fatal flanking fire of the muskets of 59th New York, 20th Massachusetts and the 13th Vermont, which inflicted heavy casualties on Kemper’s men, including Kemper himself, who fell severely wounded and was eventually captured and exchanged.  Kemper, who was a family friend and neighbor  of Lt. Harrison, would be the only one of Pickett’s brigadiers to survive the attack.









After enduring ankle wrenching pot holes, sticky thistles, biting bugs and concealed rocks ravaging her partially covered feet and lower legs, that’s when Kathy broke the ranks and joined the files on the stable and safer path. I was left alone to defend the entire right flank of Pickett’s division.  Soon, I too succumbed to the obstacles in my course along the undulating ground and rejoined her in the column as we moved the last 100 yards.



Little did I know that we were walking over the molecular remains of hundreds of Confederate soldiers who,  for the most part, were buried where they fell that horrific day.



As the formation stopped at the wall, once again I looked left to observe a sea of humanity, converging  at the angle at the stone wall.  The Park Service estimated that approximately 40,000 people had assembled on the same spot where the battle culminated and set forth the course toward the end of the war, accelerated by the surrender of the Southern Army at Vicksburg a day later on July 4.





We were instructed to wait at the wall and listen for the wailing call of a bugle.  One by one, from north to south,  professional and amateur buglers played “Taps” in echo style moving from our left to our right.







       When the last somber middle c faded into the hot July afternoon, I looked over to a big rock in a gap in at the stone wall.  There I saw, Ed Bearss, sitting in the shade of his escort’s rainbow colored umbrella, completely exhausted.  I was still standing and walking, hot and sweating, but not out quite all out of breath.  I didn’t revel in my achievement, after all, he is 90 years old.



For George Pickett and nearly every man in his division, the attack on the Union center was all for the glory of their beloved Virginia.   As I surveyed the tens of thousands of persons congregating, on that day and the third day of July 150 years ago,  around the stone wall and think of half of them being dead or wounded, I looked back to the total tragedy of it all.









Perhaps General Lee said it best when he saw a similar somber sight which  his men inflicted on nearly 8,000 Union soldiers at the base of Marye’s Heights in Fredericksburg when he lamented, “It is well that war is so terrible that we may grow too fond of it.”









































It was at this point, late on the afternoon of July 2, 1863, when the Georgia Brigade under the command of General Ambrose Ransom Wright, including many local men, broke the Union center at the Copse of Trees.  This temporary successful accomplishment led Gen. Robert E. Lee to believe that if Wright's Brigade could break the center, surely Pickett's fresh Division could.






WILEY K. BRACEWELL, THE FINAL RETURN HOME




"Never in the history of our city has a more quite, melancholy, and sadly, appreciated occasion been before our people and never have they seemed to feel more seriously," wrote a Savannah Morning News writer. 

As the procession passed through the gate of the now ancient Laurel Grove Cemetery, it was met by virtually hundreds of women of the South, the unsung heroes of the Lost Cause, who endured the hardships of death and dying in distant lands with no ability to comfort the wounded and dying.

The three caskets were placed in three graves.  Rev. Benedict eulogized the fallen heroes to the tune of "Rock of Ages."  It was at that moment when the grand ladies moved forward, carrying arm loads of flowers which they covered the hallowed ground.

Eventually the names of each of the 32 men were placed on markers in the area known as "The Confederate Field" or "Gettysburg Field." On September 24, 1871, 69 more sets of remains were buried in Laurel Grove. 

The climatic battle of Civil War was fought in the crossroads town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in the first three days of July 1863.  Wiley Bracewell was a private in Company G of the 49th Georgia Infantry, Thomas' Brigade, Pender's Division, A.P. Hill's  Corps.   His brother, William Sampson Bracewell, and brother cousins, Jesse A. Bracewell and John A. Bracewell, along with another cousin, James W. Bracewell were also members of the company.

The 49th Georgia arrived late on the field after the first day's fighting.   The regiment was relieved on the series of attacks on Federal positions on the 2nd day.  Just as the nautical twilight faded on July 2, Thomas' brigade was moved forward to the far Confederate left in preparation of an all out attack on Cemetery Ridge on July 3.  Although Thomas' brigade was not engaged in the infamous "Pickett's Charge," nevertheless it suffered some casualties as the companies were pommeled by artillery fire and some of its members were killed or wounded while on skirmish duty.

On July 25, 1863, Jesse A. Bracewell wrote home to his parents, "Mother, I got wounded in the hand at the Gettysburg fight on the 3rd of July, but thank the Lord I got out to the rear and have my hand dressed.  Mother, it was the biggest battle I have ever seen. Dear Mother, you couldn't tell one cannon from another. It was a continuous roar all the time. We were lying behind a rock fence and everything was quiet. I could see the Yankees' canon and they were walking around them and neither side was firing. In a few minutes, General Lee rode up on his old gray horse and asked me to hold it for him. I did so.  He took out his telescope and spied over at the Yankees and in a few minutes he left.   I saw a courier coming with a paper in his hand, which he gave to the captain of the cannonade.  Then we fired at the Yankees and they returned it. Every now and then, a ball would strike the fence.  Mother, I want you to know it frightened them.  I was just as afraid of the rock on the ground.  Cousin Wiley Bracewell was wounded and left on the field and the Yankees got him.  We could hear his calling for his brother, but it was at night and his brother was afraid to go out to him.  He was in the halfway ground and his brother never saw him anymore.  Dear Mother, they think peace will be made soon. I hope so, for I am tired of this dreadful war and I want it to soon close for I want to see you for all the worse I ever did in all my life. Dear Father and Mother, I want you to pray for me, for I feel needful for your prayers. Tell the children I want to see them and them to write to me.  Will close, hoping to hear from you soon, your son until death, Jesse A. Bracewell, Co. G, 49th GA Regiment."

Wiley's brother, William Sampson Bracewell, wrote home twenty days later;" 

"Thru the tender mercies of God I am spared to write you a few lines that will inform you that I am well at this time. And, you don't know how glad I was to hear from you and to hear that you were will and you can't tell how glad I was to hear from Wiley.  I hope that he will soon by paroled and if he is I think that he will get the chance to come home and stay till he gets well., and I want to know whether his thigh was amputated or not. I hope that it was not.  I hope it will get well without being amputated.  My Dear Mother you said that you and all the children wanted to see me very bad.

Mother, I know that you don't want to see me any more than I want to see you and I want you to pray for me and also for the close of the cruel war that we may be spared to meet you all again on this of the grave, and if we may meet in heaven. Dearest mother, you ask me to write you all the news that I have. I can't tell half of it,, as it is -------.  I will tell you that our army is demoralized. Worse than is ever has been and the men are deserting every night more or less and you can think of things as they are and how that it is bad times here.  Mother I must close for this time by remaining your son till death.  

W. Burton Owen, Chaplain of the 17th Mississippi Regiment, wrote to Mrs.Redley Bracewell on August 27, 1863;

"Dear Madam, your letter to your son, W.K. Bracewell, was received at Gettysburg and now that I am now within our lines again, I will give you some information concerning him.  His right thigh was fractured by a wound and he died at the General Hospital in Gettysburg on August 27th(1863). The ---- Register from Richmond may be able to give you the particulars of his death. I am certain that he died in peace and that he gone to rest. May the Lord Bless and comfort all of his relatives. I will be glad to hear from you that I may know that this has been received." 

When Wiley died,  his remains were buried In Confederate Section 6, Grave 8 in Camp Letterman Hospital  (above) cemetery on the outskirts of Gettysburg. 

During the fighting, Jesse was wounded. He would be captured at Petersburg at the close of the war he so desperately pleaded for.  Although he spent nearly ten weeks at Hart's Island Prison, New York for 10 weeks, he made it back home.  William was wounded in the next major battle at the Wilderness on May 6, 1864 and sent home where he remained until the end of the war.  John C. Bracewell, who suffered a wound at Mechanicsville in June 1862 and presumably never made it Gettysburg.  Very little of cousin James Bracewell's activities are known. He may or may not have been at Gettysburg.

When James Ray Bracewell began investigating the story of the "Five Bracewell Brothers,"  he discovered that the quintet were Bracewells, but there were two sets of two brothers (first cousins to each other) and another Bracewell, a third cousin.  In his research on Wiley K. Bracewell, Bracewell discovered that his tombstone was incorrectly marked "Wiley .R. Bracewell."  It appears that Wiley's middle initial was changed at Camp Letterman, General Hospital. 

This error put Bracewell on a quest to once and for all to give the final honor to his kinsman. So after plying through red tape covered with bureaucratic apathy, the corrected tombstone of Wiley Kinchen Bracewell will be unveiled at a ceremony on August 27, 2013, one hundred fifty years to the day on which Wiley K. Bracewell died in a Union hospital in Gettysburg.

"It is personally, a quest for knowledge about where I came from. For most of my life, all that I knew was that my father and his father were from Dublin, Georgia," wrote James Bracewell. 

The ceremony at Laurel Grove Cemetery (802 W. Anderson St., Savannah) at 4:00 o'clock, p.m.  is open to the public and all Bracewell relatives are specially invited to attend. After the unveiling, James Ray Bracewell will give a talk about the life and death of Wiley K. Bracewell and about how he came to be buried at Laurel Grove North Cemetery.

CHICKAMAUGA, THE RIVER OF DEATH


       

         It is often said, although with questionable authenticity,  that the Cherokee called the creek which runs through Walker County in Northwest Georgia, “Chickamauga” or “The River of Death.”  That moniker seems all too intuitive and only fitting  for during this week a century and a half ago, the Union Army of the Cumberland and the Confederate Army of Tennessee pommeled, battered and slaughtered each other in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountain Range.  

Nearly everyone has heard of the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863.  In that horrific and climactic three-day battle, casualties were estimated from 46,000 to 51,000 or nearly 17,000 per day.  Many people don’t realize it, but the second bloodiest battle of  the Civil War took place right here in Georgia.

In two days, September 19 and September 20, 1863, the two armies counted roughly 35,000 casualties.  Nearly four thousand (1,657 USA, 2,312 C.S.A.) men would die on the battlefield or in nearby field hospitals.  More than 24,000 (9,756 USA, 14,674 C.S.A.) were wounded during the two days of fighting.  Another six thousand or more men were listed as captured or missing with the Union Army accounting for three quarters of that amount.

For the most part,  Laurens Countians served in the Army of Northern Virginia and another configuration of the Army of the Tennessee.  Slightly more than a half dozen  Laurens Countians took part in the second most deadly battle of the Civil War.  

The highest ranking Laurens Countian to take part in the battle was Col. William H. Wylly.  Wylly, then a captain and later a Dublin lawyer, was in command of Company A of the 25th Georgia Infantry.  Attached to Wilson’s Brigade of Wm. H.T. Walker’s Division, the 25th, which had seen only coastal duty until that time, was engaged in the fighting at the northern end of the battlefield.  Capt. Wylly made it through the battle unscathed.  George M. Prescott, a member of the Brown Light Infantry of Screven County, but later a long term resident of Laurens County, also made it through the fighting virtually free of injuries. 

The majority of the local men who saw action at Chickamauga were members of the 20th Georgia Volunteer Infantry.  The 20th Regiment, under the command of Gen. Benning’s Brigade, saw little fighting as they were used in reserve during the vicious crisscrossing combat along the LaFayette Road.  Young Woodard Swinson, one of the county’s first men to volunteer for Confederate service, joined the Muscogee Mounted Guards on May 23, 1861.  Swinson survived the fighting, only to be killed at Deep Bottom, Virginia eleven months later.

George W. Belcher, who would later become Police Chief of Dublin, joined the Jefferson County Guards in 1861.  Sgt. Belcher was wounded in the Seven Days Battles and at the Second Battle of Manassas in 1862.  Belcher survived the hellish fighting at the Devil’s Den at Gettysburg as a member of Gen. John B. Hood’s Division under corps command of Gen. James Longstreet.  Longstreet’s Corps, which had suffered brutal casualties at Gettysburg, had only eleven weeks of rest before going into the cataclysmic combat at Chickamauga.

Sgt. Belcher, of Company C,  was severely wounded in the fighting, probably between the Brock House and the Log School east of Lafayette Road.  He recovered and returned to his company which surrendered with General Lee at Appomattox.   Chief Belcher died in 1911 and is buried in Northview Cemetery.  

James McLeod, who briefly lived in Laurens County at the turn of the 20th Century, was a member of Company B from Telfair County.  McLeod survived most to the war unscathed until he lost the sight in one eye at Appomattox Court House, a day before the surrender.


Although not found among the official records, Charles W. Holmes and Richard A. Odom  were shown among county records as members of the Telfair Volunteers, Company B.  

Walter T. Dawson, a private in Gist’s Brigade, Walker’s Division, was wounded in an eye and lost his sight in the heavy fighting along the northern end of the fighting. 

James F. Hawkins, of the Hancock County Guards, was a member of Benning’s Brigade.  Pvt. Hawkins, who moved from Washington County to Laurens County, in 1900, was wounded in the left shoulder at Cold Harbor in June 1864.   
Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans launched an offensive from Chattanooga down into the northwest corner of Georgia against Gen. Braxton Bragg’s forces to drive Bragg’s army out of that strategic Tennessee fortress. Bragg wasn’t going to give up so easily and moved north to meet Rosecrans.  

After skirmishes between infantry and cavalry on September 18, the real killing began the next day.  Longstreet’s Corps attacked and drove a large part of the Union Army off the battlefield.  The Federal Army held onto their tentative defensive position, while Confederate units attacked Chattanooga from its neighboring heights on Lookout Mountain.
 
The brutal fighting started just after dawn on the 19th.  Bragg’s forces made repeated charges against the Union right with some successes.  Determined Union defenders held strong.  Just before midnight,  Longstreet’s two divisions, with six fresh brigades, arrived on the scene, switching the advantage of the attack to Bragg.  

With Longstreet’s Corps on the left and Polk’s corps on the right, Bragg launched a decisive blow to the entrenched Federals.  Rosecrans’ mistaken order to fill a gap in the Federal line, resulted in a move which in fact created a fatal gap into which Gen. Hood poured eight brigades, forcing a total collapse of the Union right at the southern end of the field.

Union Gen. George Thomas, thereafter known as the “Rock of Chickamauga,” gathered his remaining troops and stood solid against the capture of his entire force.   Thomas’ men held their ground against repeated assaults, withdrawing only under the cover of darkness. Neither side had the stomach to fight again on the following day.

The battle resulted in somewhat of a tactical draw.  The Southern army remained in control of the heights above Chattanooga. The defeated Federals escaped back to the safety of their former lines, which they held for the rest of the war.  Had Bragg decided to pursue the retreating Federals the following day, the casualty count could have surpassed the horrific toll at Gettysburg.

The Battle of Chickamauga was a test for things to come.  In the early spring which followed, Gen. William T. Sherman, came down from the hills of North Georgia, attacking and destroying all targets of military value along his way to the rail center of Atlanta.  In his “March to The Sea,” that summer and fall, Sherman put the final nail in the Confederacy’s hopes to retain control of the Southern States and making the end of the war a virtual certainty.

ALL PHOTOS BY SCOTT B. THOMPSON, SR., OCTOBER 2012


Friday, May 24, 2013

BAD DAY AT BAKER'S CREEK (UPDATE)



THE CHARGE UP CHAMPION'S HILL




This week marks the one hundred fiftieth anniversary of the Battle of Baker's Creek (also known as the Battle of Champion's Hill to Southerners.)   As Civil War battles go, it doesn't rate near the top of the list of the most important battles.  You probably have never even heard of it.  Before the day ended, it would be the most bloody and vicious battle of the war for more than one hundred and fifty Laurens County men of the 57th Georgia Infantry.  More men in the regiment  were killed on that one day than in the entire war.  Almost as many men in the 57th were wounded that day than in the four years of fighting.  The date was May 16th, 1863.  The place was Baker's Creek near Champion's Hill in Hinds County, Mississippi.  Ironically the battle took place within a few miles of U.S. Highway 80 between Jackson and Vicksburg and also runs through the heart of Laurens County.   

The 57th Georgia was organized in May of 1862.  Company B and Company C of the regiment were formed in Laurens County.   Some of the soldiers, like the Garnto brothers, were residents of western Johnson County.  Company I was formed by soldiers from Laurens and Wilkinson County.  Lt. Col. Cinncinatus Saxon Guyton of Laurens County was second in command of the regiment.  

Vicksburg, Mississippi, according to most military authorities, was the key to entire Civil War.  Its commanding heights allowed Confederate artillery to control shipping up and down the Mississippi River.  On the 13th of May, Gen. Johnston, C.S.A., decided to unite his forces in one concentrated attack on the forces of U.S. Grant.  Johnston ordered Gen. Pemberton to attack the Federals at Clinton, east of Vicksburg.  The plan failed.  The Confederates began a retreat toward  Vicksburg.  On the night of the 15th, Pemberton's forces were camped at a crossroads south of Champion's Hill.  Federal forces were surging ahead, moving by their right flank.   The Confederates did an about face and turned toward what they thought was the rear of the Yankee column.   Before the maneuver could be completed, Pemberton's men ran head long into the advancing Federal troops.  

The 57th , under the command of Gen. Stevenson, took the left.   His mission was to protect the wagon trains on the Clinton Road.   Just as the 57th had formed in their lines, the skirmishers of Hovey's Division engaged them near the foot of the hill on the Champion plantation.    About 10:30, the Federal skirmishers began their advance up the hill.  Two  more brigades, McGinnis' and Slack's, were thrown into action against Stevenson.   By noon, Federal forces were attacking Stevenson's entire front.  The Confederates were forced to retreat for six hundred  yards.  Three hundred prisoners were taken and eleven artillery pieces were lost.   With their backs in the woods, the Confederates rallied and forced the Federals back down the hill.   

As the afternoon progressed, fresh Union troops were brought in.  The 57th and the other regiments under Stevenson's command were falling, one after another.  The Union forces advanced and took the hill.   Stevenson and his men were forced further to the right.  Stevenson reported that he was outnumbered nearly ten to one.  Years after the war, John L. Keen of Brewton wrote. "In this battle, our First Lieutenant was killed and several others of our regiment.  The color bearer was shot down, and the next man hoisted the flag;  he was suddenly shot down until the third man was killed ."  The men found themselves cut off from the main body of the Confederate  army.  The tide of the battle began to turn.  On the north side of the battle field, elements of Logan's division had advanced to the top of the hill.  Stevenson found his entire division cut off from the main body.   He was forced to make a long sweeping detour to the South.  They arrived the next day with no baggage, cooking utensils, or wagons at Crystal Springs.  

The Union Army was victorious.  The battle at Baker's Creek or Champion's Hill was devastating to the 57th.   The casualties totaled forty killed, ninety-six wounded, and forty- eight prisoners of war.    It was the worst day for any Laurens County company in the war.  The carnage was more savage than their fellow Laurens Countians had suffered at Gettysburg, Spottsylvania, and Fredericksburg.  1st Lt. Virgil C. Manning of Laurens County was the highest ranking officer killed in the battle.   5th Sgt. Washington Hobbs, and privates, Wilkinson C. Price, John L. Stewart, Jordan Surmons, Alonzo Walker, John Walker, and James R. Witherington were also killed.  

Fielding J. Bass, John English, Fielding Fordham, Thomas Garnto, Martin Hightower, John Hobbs, Larry Hobbs, Thomas Holmes, Aaron Hutchinson, Joshua Hutchinson, David Maddux, Alfred L. Morgan, Moses L. Pope, Sr., F.J. Ross, Samuel F. Scarborough, Richard N. Smith, Wingfield B. Smith, William M. Snellgrove, Joshua J. Underwood, Wingfield W. Underwood, Thomas B. Winham, and Green S. Young were wounded.  Some of these men, like Thomas Garnto, had limbs amputated.  Garnto's amputation was performed by a Union surgeon after he was captured and while he lay dying on the battlefield along side privates Ross and Richard Smith.   Smith was taken to Ft. Delaware and died there in prison.   Thomas White and Elbert Underwood were also captured. 

With the news of the battle and its toll, the citizens of Laurens County went into mourning.  A memorial service was held at Boiling Springs Methodist Church. The church is still located across the road from the old muster grounds where Company B trained in preparation for war.  The members took it especially hard, since James Boatright, a member of the community had been killed.  

 The Battle of Baker's Creek proved to be the turning point in the Vicksburg Campaign.  Federal Forces had tried for over a year to capture the strategic port city.  The seven week siege of Vicksburg  was about to begin.   On July 4th, the city of Vicksburg fell,  just one day after Lee's defeat at Gettysburg.   The tide of the war turned in favor of the United States.  All 342 remaining members of the 57th Georgia, along with all of the defenders of Vicksburg, were captured.  The men were paroled after a couple of months.  They returned to Georgia, disheartened and demoralized.  The 57th was sent to Savannah where they fought a battle on Whitemarsh Island in February, 1864.   From there they were transferred to Andersonville, where they served as prison guards until the spring.  The 57th also participated in the battles of the Atlanta Campaign, seeing the most action at Kennesaw Mountain, Peachtree Creek, Atlanta, and Jonesboro.  In the last major engagement of the Army of the Tennessee, they lost fifteen men at Bentonville, North Carolina.  

On April 26, 1865 the 57th Georgia, then a part of the 1st Georgia Consolidated Infantry surrendered at Greensboro, North Carolina.  The long journey home began.  The fighting, the dying, the starving, and suffering was over - finally.  The bodies of the dead never made it home from Baker's Creek.  They lie in unmarked graves somewhere between the creek and Vicksburg, known only to God.  

Saturday, May 4, 2013

THE 150TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF CHANCELLORSVILLE




The Stars of Night Contain The Glittering Day       


         One hundred and fifty years ago on May 3, 1863, the wheels were set in motion to begin the climatic end to the Civil War.  A Confederate victory at Chancellorsville made General Robert E. Lee and his men feel unequivocally  invincible.  Two months later, the Confederate hopes were crushed at the Battle of Gettysburg.  A group of Laurens County men, who called themselves the Blackshear Guards and the Laurens Volunteers, were assigned to the 14th Georgia Infantry Regiment of Thomas’s Brigade, Army of Northern Virginia.  And, they were right in the middle of this horrific fight.

Following the devastating Union loss at Fredericksburg in December of 1862, Gen. Hooker, the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, planned a bold move to attack Gen. Robert E.  Lee’s (left) forces on the opposite side of the Rappahannock River.  Hooker sent the major part of his force north up the river where they crossed and turned south.  The move went totally unnoticed by Lee, who discovered the movements at the last moment.  

Lee’s  commanders, Ambrose Powell Hill and Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson, moved from Fredericksburg west along the Mine Road toward Tabernacle Church in late April, 1863.  Jackson arrived at Chancellorsville on the 1st of May.  Gen. Hill was located to his rear along the Orange Plank Road.  By nightfall, the 14th Ga. was located about one mile east of Catherine's Furnace.  Thomas relieved Posey's brigade just after sun up on the 2nd.   

Jackson devised the boldest plan of his military career.  He planned to take his entire corps on a long forced march south and west, all the way around Chancellorsville.  At first, the Federals  thought Jackson's men were moving away from their lines.  Thomas's Brigade was sent to the rear of the column to assist the artillery train just after noon.    

The Volunteers, under the command of Gen. A.R. Wright, came to the aid of their fellow Laurens Countians to prevent  Geary’s attack on Thomas and the Blackshear Guards.  Thomas and Archer were forced to turn their brigades back to help Wright and Posey in front of Catherine's Furnace.  After the Federal attack was repulsed, Thomas and Archer double-timed along Jackson's route along the Brock Road.  By six o'clock that afternoon, Thomas was still two miles below Catherine Furnace - miles away from Jackson's front. 

Just after dark, Jackson moved to front of the column to scout for the Federal flank or rear.  While he was returning from the Federal lines, “Stonewall Jackson” (left) was struck by elements of the North Carolina Infantry.  Jackson fell and was taken away.  The highly beloved General died  at Guinea Station  on the 10th of May.  Many say that the hopes of the Confederate Army died with him.  A.P. Hill succeeded to the command of Jackson’s corps. 

“Everybody vacated the road, and lay flat on the ground. I did the same; and, while thus "hugging the ground", four litter bearers, carrying a wounded man, on account of that awful cannonading put the wounded man down so close to me that I could have touched him with my hand. I soon found it was "Stonewall" Jackson. He moaned frequently and piteously. When his friends proposed to move him out of the line of fire of the Federal batteries,  he told them "not to mind him, but look out for themselves," wrote Washington Lafayette Goldsmith, who began the battle as Captain of Company K and after the battle was promoted to Major of the regiment.

Thomas’s Brigade marched up the Orange Plank Road, reaching Wilderness Church about ten o’clock that night.  Thomas finally  arrived west of Chancellorsville just before  midnight.  His command was placed on Pender's left, north of the turnpike and just west of Bullock Road.  The moon was bright.  Shells were bursting.  The battle raged on until  after midnight.  By dawn, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, now commanding Hill's Corp's, had ten brigades massed, waiting for an early morning attack.



The climax of the Chancellorsville battle began just after dawn.   Carr's Federal troops began to pull back as they were threatened by Pender and Thomas.  Thomas's brigade at the northern line of the attack rapidly turned the Federal flank.   At 7:30,  Pender and Thomas attacked Huger, striking Hay's right line south of the Orange Plank Road.  Thomas found the enemy two hundred and fifty yards away, and drove  them  from their works.  A second attack met with a similar success.  Gen. Hooker sent French's division of Couch's Corps to attack Thomas on his left flank and at his rear.  At this point, Thomas had no troops to protect his flanks.  Carroll's Federals threatened Thomas’s men, who were forced to retreat over Berry's and Slocumb's log works.  Thomas joined with Pender and Hall.  About ten o'clock that morning,  the Confederates pushed the Federals across the Orange Plank Road and back north of Chancellorsville. For the next two days, Hill's Corps kept Burnside's Army in check north of Chancellorsville.  

Captain Goldsmith wrote, “Next morning, the 3rd of May, the order came to "charge, and remember Jackson," was given, it was said, by Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, who had taken command of Jackson's corps. A.P. Hill was also wounded. Instead of Jackson' death casting a gloom and damper on the troops, it acted just the opposite. I never saw our soldiers act so much like insane demons; they moved forward utterly regardless of the blinding rain of bullets. The Federals fought with great bravery. My company was the first to gain the breastworks, and I was the second man across them. Here I first saw hand-to-hand fighting. A young Federal soldier came at me with fixed bayonet. With sword in my right hand, I knocked up his musket and grabbed it with my left hand. The tussle was a fearful one; but George Kelly, a sergeant in Company D, shot and broke the Federal's thigh. The poor fellow fell, but continued to fight game. I could have cleaved his head with my sword, and Kelly started to brain him with his clubbed musket; but I forbade it, and called on my brave enemy to surrender, or I would have him shot, which he did in broken English. He was a German, and a brave fellow, and elicited our hearty praise.”
Private George W. Hall of Company G described the scene at Chancellorsville: “The shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying as I lay nearly insensible around me that night, displayed all the horrors of war and put feelings and imaginations through the mind that I never wish to experience again.  There scattered over the fields and immense forest the battle field encompassed lay thousands of poor wounded and dying soldiers far away from home and friends, writhing in the agonies of death with no one to speak a soothing words to their ears." 

Gen.  Lee’s top aide, Col. Charles Marshall, described the scene as the triumph, as the oh so beloved Virginia general rode on the battlefield after the fighting subsided.  " The fierce soldiers with their faces blackened with the smoke of battle, the wounded crawling on feeble limbs from the fury of the devouring flames, all seemed possessed with a common impulse.  One long unbroken cheer, in which the feeble cry of those who lay helpless on the earth, blended with the strong voices of those who still fought, rose high above the roar of the battle, and hailed the presence of the victorious chief."   

Thomas’s Brigade lost 177 killed and wounded, including Lt. Colonel James Fielder, who was killed along with three captains in the brigade. No Laurens Countians lost their lives.

            The Laurens County men  took the rest of the month to rest and reorganize the regiment. David Bush and John J. Dominy, Robert L. Hill and Francis A. Linder of the Blackshear Guards were wounded during the fighting.  Of the Laurens Volunteers, William Henry Harrison Ashley, a musician, and Henry Curl were also wounded.  

George Washington Brooks, who would later move to Dublin, was captured during the battle and taken to Elmira Prision in New York, from which he escaped, only to be recaptured at the Battle of Petersburg and taken back to Elmira at the end of the war.  John Davidson lost his eye during the fighting.  Other future Laurens Countians who were injured during the fighting were John Thomas Floyd, John Benjamin Roberts and Peyton Shy. 

During the lull in the war, the 14th Georgia and Thomas's Brigade were placed in Pender's Division.  By mid-June, Lee launched his offensive into the North.  Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia moved through the Shenandoah Valley with their sights set on Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

In the first three days of July, the Guards and the Volunteers would witness Lee’s greatest defeat, “The High Water Mark of the Confederacy at the Battle of Gettysburg.  Fortunately for the men and their families, the men of Laurens County were not totally engaged in the several skirmishes in and around Gettysburg. They survived those horrible days, only to be engaged in the vicious fighting next spring west and south of the battle known as Chancellorsville. 







The Dying Words of Stonewall Jackson 
by Sidney Lanier, Signal Corps, C.S.A.



The Stars of Night contain the glittering day
And rain his glory down with sweeter grace
Upon the dark World’s grand, enchanted face—
        All loth to turn away.

And so the Day, about to yield his breath,
Utters the stars unto the listening Night,
To stand for burning fare-thee-wells of light
        Said on the verge of death.

O hero-life that lit us like the sun!
O hero-words that glittered like the stars
And stood and shone above the gloomy wars
        When the hero-life was done!




The phantoms of a battle came to dwell
I’ the fitful vision of his dying eyes—
Yet even in battle-dreams, he sends supplies
To those he loved so well.


His army stands in battle-line arrayed;
His couriers fly: all’s done: now God decide!
And not till then saw he the Other Side
Or would accept the shade.    

 Thou Land whose sun is gone, thy stars remain!
 Still shine the words that miniature his deeds.
 O thrice-beloved, where’er thy great heart bleeds,
 Solace hast thou for pain!