Quitman County GaArchives Military Records.....Quitman Grays History From "The Quitman Echo" Civilwar ************************************************ 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: Donna Eldridge DonnaEldrid@aol.com July 2, 2004, 3:46 pm Quitman Grays History From "The Quitman Echo" HISTORY OF THE QUITMAN GRAYS Company I This company was organized at Georgetown, Quitman County Georgia, from the counties of Quitman, Randolph, and Clay, and consisted of 87 men. The following were its officers: Capt. T. L. Guerry; first Lieutenant, L. P. Dozier; second Lieutenant, F. M. Bledsoe; third Lieutenant, O. R. Smith; Orderly Sergeant, William Groce; first Sergeant, B. S. Darden; second Sergeant, Daniel Neel; third Sergeant, W. B. Gilbert; forth Sergeant, Daniel McIlvane; Corporals, J. G. D. Pittman, John Guerry, E. B. Brannon and William Cook. We left Georgetown on the 30th of June, 1861, and arrived in Atlanta July 1, at 8 o'clock a.m. We were mustered into service on the 3rd of July, by Major Calhoun and left Atlanta that night for Richmond, Va. On the morning of the 6th we reached Lynchburg and remained there until the 9th, when we went on to Richmond. In the formation of our regiment G. T. Anderson of Walton County was elected Colonel, T. L. Guerry Lieutenant Colonel; Charles Goode, Major and a man by the name of Newton, Adjutant. Our company was known as Company I and our regiment as the Eleventh Georgia Volunteers. Our guns were the old smooth bore musket. Our tents were good but too small for five to be comfortable in the hot July weather. We were well uniformed in gray and as fine looking men as ever left southwest Georgia, but as inexperienced in military tactics as were mustered into service. Most of us had never seen a company drill; did not know anything of the manual of arms and knew not how to put up our tents. Our knapsacks were a great puzzle to me. We left home with satchels and trunks full of clothes as though we were going off on a pleasure trip, but alas, we found that we had no use for satchels and trunks. After remaining at Richmond a few days we boarded a train bound for Winchester, going by way of Manassas Junction. On the evening of July 16th, we reached Strasburg and here we camped for the night. The next day we took our march from Strasburg to Winchester, a distance of 16 miles. That hot July day will never be forgotten. To men not used to such business having to march in four ranks with hot uniforms on and carry gun, cartridge box and forty rounds of cartridges was almost unendurable. We reached Winchester about sunset and camped for the night. The next day we joined our brigade to which we were attached, consisting of Seventh, Eighth, Ninth and Eleventh Georgia Regiments and First Kentucky Regiment with the gallant Francis Bartow in command. About one o'clock we commenced that memorable march back to Manassa. All that evening and night it was tramp, tramp, tramp. About midnight we waded the Shenandoah River and began to ascend the Blue Ridge Mountains, reaching a little town by the name of Paris about daylight, and out of 87 men of our company only five were together, namely, Lieutenant F. M. Bledsoe, S. P. Belcher, C. Belcher, F. M. Bland and the humble writer, the balance having fallen by the way. Here we got breakfast the best way we could not having eaten anything since noon the day before. Most of the company and regiment having arrived with blistered and bleeding feet we were ordered on to Piedmont, ten miles further, at which place we arrived about ten o'clock. Owing to lack of transportation we lay there until Monday morning, the 22nd. At daylight we took train cars for Manassas and when we reached there the fight was over and the enemy gone. We marched out to the battlefield and went into camp. Here was a scene but few had ever seen, the sight of which whipped some of the bravest men we had. Around that old stone house were dead men lying everywhere and the most of them unburied; others partially buried. Horses lay in piles around where the batteries stood. Fences torn down and houses riddled with cannon balls. We remained there until August, when we were ordered down four miles below Manassas. It was here the measles got into the company and regiment and for a month we were disabled for duty. Here we lost eight of our company, four dead and four discharged. About the last of August or the first of September we moved up near Fairfax Courthouse, our first duty being on picket at Falls Church, near the Potomac River. It was here that Dr. W. B. Gilbert was elected lieutenant to fill the vacancy of Lieutenant O. R. Smith, who died in the hospital at Warrenton. We drilled and did picket duty in one place and then another until late in the fall, when we moved to Centerville and finally went into winter quarters. Here we lost seven of our men in the fall and winter. We remained here until the 8th of March when we broke up camp and fell back toward Richmond at Orange Courthouse. There we remained until the 11th of April, thence down to Richmond. On the 13th we took a boat for Yorktown and on the 14th landed on the peninsular. On the 16th we had our first experience in battle at dam no. 1. Colonel G. T. Anderson was in command of the brigade and by his courage and bravery won the admiration of the whole brigade. We remained there doing picket duty and building breastworks. While there, as Colonel Kit Warren said, "The clouds wept over misfortunes." for it rained nearly all the time, and being without tents and having very bad water to drink nearly everybody got sick. On the 4rd day of May we evacuated that place, retreating back toward Richmond Virginia. For two nights and one day we marched through rain, mud and water until the men were thoroughly exhausted. After several days marching we reached the Chickamominy river, crossed over to the south side, and camped. From then until the seven days fight around Richmond we were run from one place to another doing picket duty. During all this time several changes had taken place in the company and regiment. Major Goode had resigned and Captain William Luffman, of Company C was promoted in his stead. In my Company Lieutenant W. B. Gilbert had resigned and E. B. Brannon was elected in his stead. Then Lieutenant Colonel T. L. Guerry resigned and Major Luffman was promoted to lieutenant colonel and Lieutenant Frank Little of Company G, was elected major. Adjutant Newton had resigned and John Green advanced to that position. Colonel G. T. Anderson, who had been in command of the regiment since 1861 was promoted to brigadier general and Major Frank Little was promoted to colonel. Capt. Welch of Company D was elected major. Soon after Major Welch resigned and Lieutenant Henry D. McDaniel, who had been promoted to captain in his Company (H) was elected major. We took part in the seven days fight around Richmond and at Malvern Hill. The first day of July 1862, we lost our first man in battle, J. S. Davis, who was a brave soldier. After the fighting was over we fell back around Richmond. Here we remained until the 13th of August, when we took the cars towards Manassas. On the 28th we took part in the battle at Thoroughfare Gap, then on the 30th, engaged in battle Second Manassas. Here we lost John Guerry and about twelve men were killed and wounded. From there we went into Maryland and was engaged in the battle at Sharpsburg on the 11th of September. Here we lost more of our men. It was here that S. P. Belcher was elected lieutenant to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Lieutenant John Guerry. After the battle at Sharpsburg we returned back to Virginia. Up to this time we had been attached to General D. R. Jones' division but here we were transferred to General John B. Hoods' division, Longstreet Corps. After resting several days, about the 1st of October, the brigade went out south-west of Winchester on the mountains not far from Strausburg. Here we remained until the last of October, when we were ordered to Gordonville, about 100 miles distant, but we made the trip in about three days. On the first day of November we crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains, it taking us all day to make the trip. We remained here, near Orange Courthouse until about the first of December, when we were ordered to Fredericksburg, and was there when the battle was fought on the 13th, but were not engaged. We then went into winter quarters. In February we were sent south of Richmond and remained there until April, when Longstreet's corps was sent to Suffolk and was there when the battle at Chancellorsville was fought. On the 3rd day of May we retreated from Suffolk, marching all night and crossed the big Black River next morning at Franklin and lay all day there. The next day, the 5th, took up the march for Richmond, marching about 30 miles that day and reached the railroad. Next morning we took the cars for Petersburg, a distance of 40 miles, reaching there about ten o'clock and lay there the balance of the day. Then commenced that long march through the state of Virginia into Maryland. On the 26th day of June we waded the Potomac River at William's Ford, into Maryland, then into Pennsylvania, through Greencastle on to Chambersburg. From there to Gettysburg, taking part in the battle on the 2nd and 3rd day of July. Here every commissioned officer in the company was wounded and about half the men killed and wounded and captured. Again at Funkstown, on the 10th we were engaged and again lost more men. It was about this time W. A. Cumbie was promoted to lieutenant to fill the vacancy caused by the death of S. P. Belcher, who received wound at Gettsburg. When the command retreated back into Virginia, General Longstreet's Corps were transferred to Charleston, S. C., in August and we remained there until September and then we went from there to North Georgia and from there to Tennessee. There we were engaged in the siege at Knoxville, Tenn. Here we lost more men. We then went through Tennessee back into Virginia. We were at and took part in the battle of the Wilderness, on the 6th day of May, 1864. My command was engaged in thirteen battles that year. We were in the retreat from Richmond and with General R. E. Lee when he surrendered at Appomattox Courthouse the 9th day of April 1865. Will here state that we never belonged to any other company and I never served in any other regiment but the Eleventh Georgia Regiment and was never attached to any other brigade than G. T. Anderson. A braver man than General Anderson never rode across the battlefields of Northern Virginia. He was kind, generous and brave. His men all loved him and where he went his men were not afraid to go as he never ordered his men where he would not go himself. During our four years service five men served as captain of our company, namely T. L. Guerry, L. P. Dozier, Samuel Thatcher, F. M. Bledsoe and E. B. Brannon. Lieutenant G. W. Moore was the only officer with the company at the surrender. In 1864 there were 30 or 35 recruits added to our company, several of their names I cannot recall, but there were only five of them with the company at the surrender. So far as a sketch of my service, I never ranked higher than sergeant in my company. I was captured at Gettysburg, July 5th, 1863 and was carried to David Island, N.Y., where I remained until the 12th of September, when I was paroled and sent through to Richmond. I was sent home on parole furlough, where I remained until exchanged in February, 1864. In march I joined my command at Bulls Mountain in East Tennessee. From then through that memorable year of blood and carnage I was continually with my command. I took part in eleven battles that year besides skirmishes beyond my recollection. During my four years service I was struck but once with a ball and that was a spent ball, not breaking the skin. In November, 1864, I was taken sick and sent to the hospital at Richmond, where I remained until the evacuation of Richmond on the 3rd of April, 1865 when I again fell into the hands of the enemy. On the 29th of April I received my parole and on May 3rd, I left Richmond for my home in Quitman County, Georgia, where I arrived on the evening of the 10th. Now, dear reader, being conscious within myself of the manner in which the foregoing has been written, it is with some degree of trepediation that I send it forth. Having kept no diary while in service, what I have written has been from memory and though it has been thirty years since we laid down arms and the thunders of the Civil War have ceased to roar, yet the trials, sufferings and hardships of those four years and these few facts submitted together with many facts, truths and circumstances too numerous to mention are so indelibly fixed in my mind until they can never be eradicated so long as my mind is rational. Many books and histories have been written by the north and south about the war, but as the queen of Sheba said when she visited King Solomon and saw all his riches, "The half has not been told," and I feel today the heroism as displayed by the south in contending against so great and overwhelming numbers on the battlefields together with such hardships and trials, marching through heat and cold, realizing hunger and famine, foot sore and poorly clad, has never been surpassed by ancient or modern warfare. Those who fell upon the blood stained battlefields believed like the battle scarred veterans who are living witnesses of those four years of carnage belief they were contending for a just and righteous cause, yea, a cause that stirred men's souls as they have not been stirred since the days of Washington. I am now in my 69th year and feel conscious I, too, will soon cross over the river to join my comrades on the other side. J. J. Adams. Company I, 11th Georgia Regiment. Clinton Georgia. Contributed by Mr. Frank Bledsoe "The Quitman Echo - Quitman County, Georgia" - Jacquelyn Shepard (pages 19-23) Additional Comments: Transcribed and submitted by Donna Eldridge with permission from Jacquelyn Shephard File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ga/quitman/military/civilwar/other/nmt18quitmang.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/gafiles/ File size: 14.7 Kb