Military: Civil War: Fayette Co., GA
The 53d Ga. Vols. A Brief Sketch of Its Valiant Record June 10 1888

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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Lynn Cunningham lcunnin1@bellsouth.net January 2, 2003, 11:39 pm

The Griffin Daily News. Griffin, Georgia

The 53d Ga. Vols. 
A Brief Sketch of Its Valiant Record
Fighting All Through The War - A Call for a Reunion of the Survivors

Haralson, Ga., June 9 - Some time since I noticed In the Weekly News a call to 
the survivor[s] of 53rd Regiment for a reunion. A sketch of that regiment might 
not come up amiss in this connection.

The 53d. Ga. Vols. was organized in the manufacturing city of Griffin, June 
1862, with one of Griffin's noble sons, Leonard T. Doyal, as Colonel, Thomas 
Sloan of McDonough, as Lt. Colonel, and J.P. Sims of Covington, as Major. Ten 
companies composed the regiment, with Capt. Nutt, Co. A, Spalding county; Capt. 
Chestnutt, Co. B, Newton county; Capt. Marchman, Co. C, Fayette county; Capt. 
Moses, Co. D, Coweta county; Capt. Glass, Co. E, Covington, Newton county; Capt.

Brown, Co. F, Henry County; Capt. R.P. Taylor, Co. G, Coweta county; Capt. Bill 
Baker, Co. H, Pike county; Capt. Bond, Co. I, Butts county; and Capt. J.M. 
Ponder, Co. K, Monroe county; with Capt. Rich Hogan, of Forsyth, Quartermaster; 
Lt. Hanson, of Griffin, Adjutant; Dr. Simon Sanders and Dr. J.J. Nott, of 
Griffin, Surgeon; Capt Bill Glass, of Fayette, Commissary; Rev. J.T. Bowles, of 
Haralson, Chaplain; and with one thousand (1000) as good soldiers as ever left 
Georgia. During the seven days fighting around Richmond, Va., this gallant 
regiment was ordered from Griffin to the front to join the Army of Northern 
Virginia.

Many of the regiment never saw a musket till they drew guns in camps beyond 
Richmond. In the fight on Sunday evening of the Seven Days, this regiment was 
thrown in reserve line. The regiment the 53d was supporting being pressed, an 
artillery company was ordered up into a gap on the 53d's left, and the Captain 
of the company gave orders to "fire and fall back" until the order reached the 
color company, when the gallant Tom Sloan, Lieutenant Colonel, can dashing down 
the line from the right and rallied the regiment, returned them to their 
original position under heavy fire and they held their position till night put a

stop to further hostilities for that day.

For that misguided step the regiment of many "raw recruits" was stigmatized by 
some of the older soldiers. "The Bloody 53rd, the Twentieth Georgia Army Corps, 
etc." At last the crowning victory of the seven days fight around Richmond where

Gen. R.E. Lee showed beyond all doubt his superiority of generalship over the 
best general the Federals ever had. Gen. George B. McClellan, the Malvern Hill 
victory, this regiment did gallant service. The 53rd Ga. Regiment never drilled 
three weeks in preparation for military service til after engaging in several 
hotly contested engagements. At the battle of Sharpsburg, Md., Sept. 17th, 1862,

where Lieut. Colonel Tom Sloan was shot down, and Major Sims and nearly every 
officer had received wounds, that grand old military chieftain, Lieut. Gen. 
James Longstreet forever removed the uncalled for stigma by complimenting the 
gallant 53d on the battlefield; and from then on till the lamented General Lee, 
surrendered a small remnant of the 53rd with his shattered and broken down army 
at Appomattox Courthouse, did the gallant regiment do valiant service: 
Fredericksburg, Chancellorsville, Culpepper Courthouse, Gettysburg; the to the 
Army of the West, with her brave and gallant chieftain Longstreet, through to 
Knoxville, back to Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor and down to Richmond; 
and in the last regular engagement of the Army of Northern Virginia, at Ameliar 
C.H., nine tenths of the regiment was captured with General Ewell's command 
three days before the surrender, and spent three months in Northern prisons. On 
detach service under the gallant, dashing Maj. Gen'l. Kershaw, with Gen'l. 
Early's army in the Valley, October 19th, 1864, the regiment scored a splendid 
record. The regiment had the misfortune to lose, killed on the battlefield, five

lieutenant colonels, as follows: Lieut. Col. Tom Sloan at Sharpsburg; Lieut. 
Col. Hanee, at Gettysburg; Lieut. Col. R.P. Taylor, at Knoxville; Lieut. Col. 
Glass, at Spottsylvania; and Lieut. Col. Wiley Hartsfield, at Ameliar C.H. With 
twelve hundred (1200) in her first fight and not over two hundred (200) in her 
last, she made a record that history may never recount - a record that will live

as long as kith or kin of her survivors lives.

Fellow soldiers and officers, let us reunite, somewhere. I will suggest the city

of organization, Griffin. She is no longer the town of Griffin of 1862, but the 
manufacturing city of the New South. Why Griffin? you say. Because, she gave us 
our first colonel - a camping ground - she shared her hospitality with us. It 
was freely shared without cost to us. (I know whereof I speak.) She is nearest 
in the center of the regiment, with railroad facilities sufficient. Many of us 
are old men now and soon we will pass away. I assure you, Griffin will share her

hospitality again with her regiment the 53rd Ga. Volunteers. I would like to 
tramp upon the same old camping ground with all the survivors of our gallant old

regiment. One day spent in reunion would dispel the gloom of twenty two years 
separation. I have received several letters from gentlemen from Newton, Pike, 
Carroll, Henry, Butts and Spalding counties, saying "old age and decrepitude are

crawling upon us, and we would like so much to visit a reunion before we go 
hence to be no more." So would I, dear brethren of the Lost Cause.

I felt constrained to give this sketch not a full history. I rejoice in my old 
age that I was a member of the 53d Georgia Regt., Seeme's, Bryant's, and then 
J.P. Sims Brigade. McClaws and then Kershaw's division, Longstreet's corps, and 
the Army of Northern Virginia.

Newton, Henry, Monroe, Pike, Coweta, Fayette and Carroll papers, if friendly to 
reunions, please give of your valuable space the sketch and you will very much 
oblige.

Through the Griffin News I presume the subject of reunion can be discussed or 
you can address me at Haralson, Ga. - W.L. Taylor

(Transcribed 1/2/03 Lynn Cunningham)
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