Muscogee County GaArchives Military Records.....The Columbus Factory Guards, 1863-64 - Rosters 19th Battalion, State Guards ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: John Mallory Land retrofit@flash.net October 22, 2004, 5:16 pm The Columbus Factory Guards, 1863-64 The Columbus Factory Guards, 1863-64 The 19th Battalion, Georgia Infantry, State Guards - also known as "Thompson's Guard," "City Guard Battalion (Columbus)," and the "1st Muscogee Battalion" - was formed in July or August 1863, with Lieutenant Colonel D. B. THOMPSON in command, to serve as a local defense unit for the City of Columbus and Muscogee County for six months. It appears that some of the men in this unit later joined the 1st City Battalion Infantry, State Guards (see below). The companies of the 19th Battalion, all formed in Muscogee County and serving there, were as follows: Company A: Eagle Guards, Co. A - Capt. Samuel R. JAQUES Company B: Eagle Guards, Co. B - Capt. William L. SHERMAN Company C: Rail Road Guards ­ Capt. James M. BIVINS and Capt. J. E. APPLER Company D: Grant Factory Guards - Capt. John J. GRANT Company E: Columbus Factory Guards - Julius J. CLAPP Company F: Muscogee Guards - Julius BRANDS D. B. THOMPSON, who had stepped down from the office of Mayor of Columbus in 1861 to enter the service as a Major and who separated as a Lieutenant Colonel, is perhaps Dester Booth THOMPSON, MAR 1823-1869 (son of D. B. & Louise W. (BOOTH) THOMPSON), interred at Linwood Cemetery. Also at Linwood is Isabel JACQUES (Mrs. S. R.), 02 JUN 1845 Powhattan Co, VA-10 AUG 1869 Macon, Bibb Co, GA (daughter of D. C. & Mrs. E. A. ROGERS). Samuel R. JACQUES is not mentioned in my listing of Linwood graves. As Major, he commanded the 1st City Battalion Infantry, State Guards - also known as the "1st City Battalion (of Columbus)" or "Ja[c]ques' Battalion of Reserves." By the time the Enrollment Act, dated April 16, 1862, had established a conscription (or draft) for service in the Confederate military, most of the able-bodied men had volunteered for regular service and had been sent to the front lines or elsewhere to fight. As a result, the Home Guard (referred to by some as the Decrepits) was made up principally of men too old and boys too young to enter the regular service. (Prior to the institution of child labor reforms in the early Twentieth Century, it was not unusual for children as young as eight or nine years old to begin working, either on farmsteads or in factories. This was probably more common among the less privileged classes.) However, on April 21 of that year, the Confederate Congress enacted an amendment exempting from regular service specific classes of persons. These included (among others) superintendents and operatives in cotton and woolen factories. The act was modified on October 9, 1862 to include special details from the army to perform certain types of skilled labor, which was considered to be a class of exemption from regular service. The first details of this nature were for the manufacture of shoes, but the scope was extended to include (among other fields) contractors and their employees furnishing arms or supplies to the state or the Confederacy, factory owners, shoemakers, millers, tanners, and blacksmiths. These services on the home front were considered vital to supporting the war effort. [This information appears in an excerpt from "Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama", by Walter L. Fleming and from the ORs of the War of the Rebellion, as cited 23 JUL 2000 by Michael Lee Busby of Ohatchee, AL, on the Rootsweb message board for Fayette Co, AL (archived at: http://listsearches.rootsweb.com/?list=ALFAYETT ).] So some able-bodied soldiers were detailed to work at the factories to keep them operating at full capacity and to help protect them. An example of this is Eli Fountain DAVIDSON, who had been born 16 NOV 1845 at Summerville in Russell Co, AL. DAVIDSON entered service at Columbus in July of 1863 as a Private in Captain JENKINS' Regiment. He continued with this unit until January of 1864, when he was detailed as a wool carder at Clapp's Factory, where he remained until the close of the war in April, 1865. [This information is per the 1907 Alabama census of Confederate Veterans; DAVDISON was residing in Lee County, AL, at that time.] This appears to have been the purpose of the companies of the 19th Battalion. The Eagle Mill was already in operation by 1852, when the Eagle Manufacturing Company incorporated. In April 1860, this outfit bought out the Howard Factory (begun 1847), which it integrated into its Eagle Mills operation in Columbus. Apparently, these were the facilities to which Companies A and B were assigned to work and protect. The Coweta Factory (begun 1844), also in Columbus, had been operated by the Coweta Manufacturing Company, but by March of 1861 had been acquired by Daniel and John J. GRANT and became known as the Grant Factory. Company D was evidently detailed to this mill. Company E was detailed at the Columbus Factory (popularly known as Clapp's Factory), several miles above Columbus. Company C evidently guarded the railroad infrastructure in and around Columbus and perhaps operated and maintained the railroads as well. Company F may have been assigned to generally guard the industrial facilities in the Muscogee County vicinity (the Muscogee Manufacturing Company was not formed until 1867, on the site occupied by the Grant Factory during the War). Julius J. CLAPP (b. ca. 1840), who was captain of Columbus Factory Guards, was probably a nephew or cousin of Julius Rowe CLAPP (1808-1876), part owner and operations manager of the Clapp's Factory. In 1880, Julius J. (age 40) is listed as a music teacher, heading a household on p. 689C in Columbus. During the war, he was active in Clapp's Factory business affairs, as evidenced by his correspondence with the Georgia Quartermaster's office. The roster for his company follows. I have biographical data on several of the men in this unit and am interested in obtaining family information and background on as many of these soldiers as possible, as some of them or their family members likely are buried in the Clapp's Factory Cemetery. Company E: "Columbus Factory Guards" - Captain Julius J. CLAPP SURNAME, Given name/initials (rank in/rank out0 ADAMS, Benjamin (Private/Private) BATES, George (Private/Private) BELCHER, David (Private/Private) BOLAND, H. (Private/Private) CHALMERS, T. (Private/Private) CLAPP, H. B. (First Sergeant/First Sergeant) [Horatio?] CLAPP, J. B. (Corporal/Corporal) [Is this Julius Rowe CLAPP, 1808-1876?] CLAPP, Julius J. (Captain/Captain) CLINES, William B. (Corporal/Corporal) CORLEE, M. (Private/Private) DAVIDSON, Eli [Fountain] (Private/Private) [1854-aft. 1907] DAVIS, C. (Private/Private) DEWBERRY, James M. (Sergeant/Sergeant) DUNAWAY, A. T. (Private/Private) EADY, H[enry] P. (Third Lieutenant/Third Lieutenant) FLOYD, John (Private/Private) GUERRY, J. L. (Corporal/Corporal) GUERRY, William M. (Private/Private) GUNN, H. C. (Private/Private) [prob. Henry Clay GANN (1846-1875), buried at Linwood] HAMMACK, L. (Corporal/Corporal) HAMMACK, William L. (First Lieutenant/First Lieutenant) HARPER, S. H. (Private/Private) HENDERSON, John D. (Private/Private) HILL, Jesse (Private/Private) [ca. 1813-1870s] HILL, [Daniel] Washington (Private/Private) [1842-1911] HILL, William [Henry] (Private/Private) [1841-1931] HINES, G. W. (Private/Private) JONES, William (Private/Private) JONES, William L. (Private/Private) KENNEDY, Daniel (Private/Private) [testified at 1870 murder trial] LINLEY, Andrew (Private/Private) McCOY, Dicken (Private/Private) [m. Jane A. MOBLEY] McCOY, Henry (Private/Private) MOAT, David (Private/Private) MORRIS, Henry (Private/Private) [1820-1890, buried in St. Clair Co, AL?] MORRIS, Thomas (Private/Private) MULLEN, F. (Private/Private) MURPHY, Willis (Private/Private) NEWSOM, Henry [M.] (Private/Private) [1836-1899, buried in Carroll Co, GA] NEWSOM, James (Private/Private) [ca. 1834-1897, buried at Clapp's Factory] NEWSOM, John (Private/Private) [1820-ca. 1895, buried at Clapp's Factory] NEWSOM William A[nderson] (Private/Private) [1826-bef. 1880?] O'BANNON, B. (Private/Private) PETTY, N. K. (Sergeant/Sergeant) TILLERY, James (Private/Private) [sisters married CLEGG and McCOY] WALKER, M. J. (Sergeant/Sergeant) WATSON, Alexander (Private/Private) WATSON, Nathan (Second Lieutenant/Second Lieutenant) [ca. 1831-aft. 1870] WHITE, William (Private/Private) I found information about the 19th Battalion at the following sites: "Georgia Infantry Units," posted by M. A. PURDY at: http://members.aol.com/mapurdy16/GAInf.htm#38RGVI "Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System" searchable index at: http://www.itd.nps.gov/cwss/ "Military Units of Georgia in Service to the C.S.A." at: http://www.researchonline.net/gacw/gaunits.htm [the link at this site for the 19th Battalion, Georgia State Guards is now dead] "Georgia Military Units" posted by Glenn SPURLOCK at: http://gacsa.cobbslegion.com/frames/gacsa_frame.htm [no longer online; Glenn has a new site that apparently deals exclusively with Cobb's Legion at: http://colquitt.k12.ga.us/glens/Cobbslegion/index.html ] File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/muscogee/military//rosters/gmt119u19thbatt.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/gafiles/ File size: 9.8 Kb