Washington County Georgia Military Co B at Winchester Company B, 12th Battalion Georgia Light Artillery File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Ash Pollette apollette@gtcom.net Georgia Table of Contents: http://www.usgwarchives.net/ga/gafiles.htm Visit Ash's page http://www.pollette.com/default.htm for more information. His pages contain history, photos, and battle information. Co B at Winchester Co. B. 12th Ga. Battalion at the battle of Winchester Virginia, September 19, 1864 Lieut. James K. Kinman endorsed the following article with the comments: "I was one of the forlorn hope, left in the trenches to check the charge of 10,000 federals till Gen. Early could rally his army in the rear. I was commanding a Company of sharpshooters and was bringing up the rear of Early’s routed army when I met Gordon at the trenches." Lieut. Kinman also survived the assault, was captured and spent the last year of the war a prisoner at Fort Delaware Prison. The following article James K. Kinman endorsed appeared in the Sunny South, May 11, 1901 A Young Confederate Judge J. Soule Smith of Lexington, Ky. is not only one of the youngest living Confederates who carried a rifle in the war between the states, but was one of four survivors on a band of 150 which was ordered to hold a position for fifteen minutes and save General Jubal Early’s command after the battle of Winchester, Va. Of these four men Judge Smith says he knows of but one that is still living, Captain James Anderson, 12th Ga. Infantry, now living in Newnan, Ga. The other men were Wiley Jones, of Company B, 12th Ga. Infantry and a Virginian of the Stonewall Jackson Brigade. Judge Smith was born at Clinton, Fl., March 20, 1848 and entered the Confederate army in 1863 at the age of 15. He enlisted at Tallahassee, Fl. In Company A, 12th Ga. Artillery, which, however, was used as infantry throughout the service. He served until captured, Sept. 19, 1864, after the battle of Winchester, and was held in prison at Point Lookout until February 1865. He served in the famous Gordon’s Brigade, fighting with Lee’s army in Eastern Virginia until after the battles around Cold Harbor. The brigade was then sent on detached service with General Jubal Early’s command in the campaign in the valley of the Shenandoah and in Maryland. It was this command which participated in the battle of Winchester, where Gordon saved the day for Early. It was after the Confederate forces were in retreat that General Gordon, for the second time during the day, rode to the front and rallied his men. This time, however, it was for the purpose of putting a small body of men in the ditches whose duty it was to take a quarter of an hour in being killed. "Get into those ditches and fight. Hold this place for fifteen minutes and you save the army," were General Gordons rallying words. "Take command of these men, Captain," he ordered Captain Anderson. A detachment of artillery rode up, and stragglers who, for various reasons, had not been able to get in the forefront of the retreating lines, were gathered there. About 100 or 150 men in all were collected. Judge Smith, who has been an extensive contributor to newspapers and magazines un the nom de plume of "Falcon", gives the following description of the battle as waged around the devoted little band. "There were all told, perhaps 100 or 150 men of different commands and branches of the service there. All of them but four are there yet. I think nearly all understood that they were there to die, but they settled down into the trenches and commenced a steady firing on the enemy. Before us was a long clear slope of nearly a mile, at the foot of which and in plain view the federal infantry was massing for a charge. They evidently overestimated our strength and were preparing a strong column for the assault. As they started toward us the artillery opened on them in fine style. They stopped and open fire on our position with artillery and musketry. Then they advanced, firing as they came. We could see plainly every line of battle and we knew there was no hope of making any impression on them. The bullets from their line being all concentrated on our small fortification, seemed to fairly fill the atmosphere above our heads. All the artillery horses were killed and the men fell dead every moment; but I never saw guns served so magnificently, and every discharge plowed furrows in the enemy. Some of our men leaped out of the ditch and tried to run away, but all of them but one was shot down before going a dozen steps, so thick was the hailstorm of bullets. Captain Anderson was shot down by my side in the ditch. He was shot through both thighs, the bullet coming out in front. The shot must have come from the rear and that really puzzled me when I examined it and bound it up for him hastily. Rising up I turned and looked to the rear. Back on the range of hills near the town of Winchester our forces had formed a line of battle. Our fifteen minutes had given them time to rally and the line looked grim and silent and capable of checking the enemy till night or longer. The Army was saved. Between us and them was a valley running from the valley pike to the Berryville pike. Up it and in our rear wound a column of dark blue calvary. It was Custer’s Brigade and we were surrounded. In front of us the terrible fire of infantry and artillery continued. It was then that I looked at the red sun go down away over toward Romney and wished him a last goodbye. As I looked Custer’s men came to a front and charged up the hill at us with drawn sabers. When they came in view, our lines on the hills in their rear opened on them with artillery and small arms at short range. A little nearer to us and the staggering, withering fire of their own comrades in our front met them full in the face. It was a terrible position and seemed to enrage them. They raised the cry of "no quarter" and charged on us. Our artillerymen were cut down at their guns, while the men who cut them down were torn into by shell from Federal batteries and swept away in a storm of bullets. As they came up to the ditches, crowding over and firing their carbines in among us, shells and grape would crash through them and men and horses would tumble in among us. I saw the explosion of a shell in a horse’s body and horse and rider were scattered around over living and dead alike. Men’s heads and legs were taken off and hurled through the air, riderless horses, some of whom crippled, pranced and reared, the pressure being so great behind and around them that could not escape the crowd except by leaping the ditch in which we were; the woulded and dead were trampled under horses hoofs; the living were hacked with sabers and riddled with bullets. Fighting like a mob among ourselves, the whole fire of both armies was centered upon this little slaughter pen, not over one hundred yards square and full of men. For five minutes this lasted. Then the cavalry drew back into their ravine and the infantry came up and occupied our ditches. All of us were either dead or wounded, but the sun went down and the battle of Winchester had been fought; our wagon trains had passed through the town and were well on their way to Fisher’s Hill. It was my last battle and made an indelible impression on my young mind." Endorsed, "I was one of this forlorn hope, left in the trenches to check the charge of 10,000 federals till General Early could rally his army in the rear. I was commanding a Company of sharpshooters and was bringing up the rear of Early’s routed army when I met Gordon at the trenches." Signed J. K. Kinman, Lieut. Co. B 12th Ga. Battalion The above is a copy of a two page letter in the collection of papers of James Augustus LeConte Copied by William Louis LeConte July 1, 1999. ======================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format for profit or other presentation. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for FREE access. ==============