TAYLOR - MACON COUNTY, GA - Military - Fort Stedman (Co I 4th Regiment) Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: "Ferdinand Carson" Table of Contents page: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/macon.htm Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm FORT STEDMAN General Robert E. Lee was committed to the defense of Petersburg, Virginia, and the Confederate capital of Richmond. By March of 1865, things were looking bleak for the Confederacy. General Sherman had completed his march through Georgia and was headed for Petersburg to join forces with General Grant’s Army of the Potomac. General Jubal Early, operating in the Shenandoah Valley, had failed to draw significant numbers of federal troops away from Richmond and Petersburg. Union troops surrounded Petersburg on three sides, and Confederate defenses had been stretched thinner and thinner as Union forces gradually encircled Petersburg. Confederate rail lines leading to Petersburg had been destroyed by the Union army, so that supplies had to be brought in by wagons. Contrary to popular suppositions, there was never a shortage of military supplies for Lee’s army, but there was a shortage of soldiers. Confederate forces in Petersburg numbered about 50,000, a sizeable army, but they were facing a Federal army of about 200,000. Lee saw that the South’s last hope lay in escaping from Petersburg and stopping Sherman from joining forces with Grant. Lee’s youngest corps commander was thirty-three-year-old General John B. Gordon, who owned a farm in Taylor County, Georgia, just north of the Carson Place in Macon County. On March 4, 1865, Lee summoned Gordon to his headquarters and asked Gordon to devise a plan to escape from Petersburg. Gordon presented his plan to Lee on March 22. The attack would be made against Fort Stedman, and would be made at night. The first step was for special squads to open avenues through the Confederate defenses, so the soldiers could get out into the no-man’s land between the two armies. The plan then called for handpicked men to infiltrate the Union lines, overpower the advance Union pickets, and clear a pathway through the Federal obstructions. Next, fifty men with axes would enlarge the opening through the Federal obstructions. Then, three storming parties of 100 men each were to attack the Federal line. One storming party would capture Fort Stedman, while two other storming parties would capture Battery X north of Fort Stedman and Batteries XI and XII south of Fort Stedman. After Fort Stedman and Batteries X, XI, and XII were captured, three more groups of 100 men each were to press through the gap and capture certain crucial places in the rear of the Federal lines. These groups were to use local guides to help them find their objectives in the dark. Finally, the bulk of Gordon’s 15,000 men would rush through the gap to the Union rear, cutting communications and generally raising havoc. Lee approved this plan on March 23, 1865. Serving as a captain of Company I, 4th Regiment of Georgia Infantry under General John B. Gordon, Joseph Perryman Carson had a hundred sharpshooters under his command. On the night of March 24-25, 1865, Captain Carson and his men charged Fort Stedman, commanded by Edward W. Rogers under General McLaughlin. Fort Stedman was named for Connecticut Colonel Griffin A. Stedman, who had been killed in August, 1864, while reconnoitering the site. Fort Stedman was situated on a little hill, and surrounded by three rings of obstructions. The first ring was composed of skinned pine logs about eight inches in diameter. Holes had been bored in these, and sharpened spikes inserted. These logs, about 25 feet long, had been crossed and recrossed and fastened with wire. About 40 steps outside the first ring was the second ring, composed of tangled brush piled up. The third ring was composed of fence rails stuck in the ground with their sharpened ends slanted outward. The fort itself was surrounded by a moat four feet deep and half full of water. The dirt from the moat had been piled up on the inside edge of the moat, so that from the bottom of the moat to the top of the dirt pile was thirteen feet. The fort was manned by 500 Yankee soldiers, armed with eight cannons and numerous rifles. Under cover of darkness, Captain Carson and his men took this fort, killing many of the defenders and capturing the rest. The other two storming parties also captured Batteries X, XI, and XII and captured General McLaughlin, but the next three storming parties became separated from their guides in the confusion and darkness and failed to reach their objectives. It was not until the battle was over that Captain Carson learned that his younger brother, Robert Hall Carson, had been killed in the battle. The next morning, the Yankees advanced with superior forces, and Captain Carson was forced to withdraw. He carried the body of his brother back to the Confederate line on his shoulders. F. T. Sneed of Montezuma, GA, was wounded during the withdrawal. Captain Carson’s horse was shot through the nose, but survived, and served Captain Carson for many years after the war. Captain Carson was forced to bury Robert Hall Carson near the scene of the battle, but reburied him in the Carson Cemetery in Macon County, Georgia, probably in the Fall of 1867. Captain Joseph Perryman Carson was wounded again, this time at Petersburg, VA on April 3, 1865. He was taken to Receiving and Wayside Hospital Number 9 in Richmond, where he was captured on April 3, 1865. He was transferred to Stuart Hospital in Richmond on April 19, 1865, and was paroled on April 20, 1865. Confederate losses at the Battle of Fort Stedman were never officially tallied. Unofficial estimates range from 800 to a little over 4,000, with the figure of 2,681 coming from a careful study made after the end of the war. Union losses were put at 1,044 during the Battle for Fort Stedman itself, and another 690 in related actions against the Confederate lines later in the day. John B. Gordon went on to become United States Senator from Georgia three times, and Governor of Georgia for four years. In 1904, a Union veteran of the Battle of Fort Stedman asked the elderly John B. Gordon why the assault on Fort Stedman had failed. Gordon had been expecting reinforcements which never arrived. He said, “Why did we fail? I’ll tell you why. God did not intend that we should succeed. He did not intend that the Southern Confederacy should be an accomplished fact. He caused the axle of the tender of the last section of the train that was to bring troops from north of Richmond to break, thus delaying that entire body of troops from reaching us. Had they arrived I believe that we should have captured City Point [Grant’s headquarters] that morning. God did not intend that we should succeed. He was in command.” In Taylor County, Georgia, much has been made of the idea that General Gordon was a neighbor of the Carsons. While it is true that Gordon did own Beechwood Plantation on the River Road, about four miles north of the Carson Place, Beechwood was a white elephant for Gordon, and he used it mostly as a sort of vacation retreat. Gordon was never a full-time planter like the Carsons. Gordon was in various businesses, such as coal mining in North Georgia, the practice of law in Atlanta, the insurance business and politics in Atlanta and Washington, and, during the last year of his life, as a lecturer. While Gordon was certainly a Confederate war hero and a great political leader, it is difficult to understand why Gordon is so honored today as an important citizen of Taylor County. It has been claimed that he capture of Fort Stedman was the last Confederate victory in the war. Not true. That dubious honor goes to the Battle of Dinwiddie Courthouse, fought on March 31, 1865. The war ended with Lee’s surrender on April 9th, 1865.