50th Georgia Drayton's Brigade at Fox's Gap and Sharpsburg

lelliott19

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Activities and casualties of the 50th Georgia, Drayton's brigade at Fox's Gap and Sharpsburg. The article also includes coincidental mention of the 15th Georgia, Toombs' brigade. The article was submitted by Virgil A. S. Parks, Captain D/17th GA (Toombs). He was killed July 2, 1863 at Gettysburg, but prior to that time, served as a war correspondent - or at least a regular contributor - to the Savannah Republican. You may have seen other articles he submitted -- he always signed with his initials V.A.S.P.
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[The Savannah Republican. (Savannah, Ga.), October 01, 1862, page 2.]

Recapitulation by the author utilizing data above
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@Andy Cardinal @Brian Downey this may be of interest to you.
 
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The Bloody Prelude: The Battle of South Mountain blogspot (see links) contains a couple posts describing of the 50th Georgia's travails at South Mountain and a casualty list. A quote from Sergeant George E. Fahm (later Captain) taken from the second link follows.
https://mountainaflame.blogspot.com/search/label/Regiment (Confederate)
https://mountainaflame.blogspot.com/search/label/Fox's Gap

"Company E was composed of sixty-five effective men, and of this company thirty-three were killed in the line of battle and twenty-seven were wounded. Five were all who came out unhurt. Seven of the eight color bearers, four on each side of the flag, or colors of the regiment, in that fearful battle, seven of these eight men were killed where they stood; the eighth man was wounded; the flag, flag-staff, clothing, cap and blanket of the color bearer (myself) showed thirty-two bullet holes, and yet most strangely to relate, I did not receive a scratch in that battle. Surely God was with me in that fearful struggle.”
 
The Bloody Prelude: The Battle of South Mountain blogspot (see links) contains a couple posts describing of the 50th Georgia's travails at South Mountain and a casualty list. A quote from Sergeant George E. Fahm (later Captain) taken from the second link follows.
https://mountainaflame.blogspot.com/search/label/Regiment (Confederate)
https://mountainaflame.blogspot.com/search/label/Fox's Gap

"Company E was composed of sixty-five effective men, and of this company thirty-three were killed in the line of battle and twenty-seven were wounded. Five were all who came out unhurt. Seven of the eight color bearers, four on each side of the flag, or colors of the regiment, in that fearful battle, seven of these eight men were killed where they stood; the eighth man was wounded; the flag, flag-staff, clothing, cap and blanket of the color bearer (myself) showed thirty-two bullet holes, and yet most strangely to relate, I did not receive a scratch in that battle. Surely God was with me in that fearful struggle.”

Quite a variation there in the casualty stats from Fram and those in the table above. It would appear that Fram's casualty numbers are for the whole regiment, and not very accurate at that level either.
 
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Quite a variation there in the casualty stats from Fram and those in the table above. It would appear that Fram's casualty numbers are for the whole regiment, and not very accurate at that level either.

Thanks to @lelliott19 for finding that list and compiling the numbers.

Newspaper reports aren't perfect , obviously, but they are gold for people like me looking to tie names to the event - names that may not be flagged otherwise in rosters, official reports.

I haven't scrubbed through the 50th Georgia as carefully as I have for some other units in Maryland, but I did a basic pass through Henderson's Roster and some cemetery records a few years back. Here's what I have so far:

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Quite a few more than the newspaper report and similar to Tim Ware's numbers for South Mountain (51 kia, 116 wia, 36 pow/mia - 203 total) from Mountain Aflame.

Original losses I had for the 50th in Maryland from "Surgeons' reports" in the ORs were 27 killed and 97 wounded. Similar to the newspaper lists, but obviously not correct. I wonder if this was part of a conscious public downplaying of casualties under General Lee?

26 of 225 of my total were in Company E, by the way - Sgt Fahm's numbers are high, I suspect he was speaking of that Company's total war experience or some longer period than just the Maryland Campaign.

The regiment's size on entering Maryland was not recorded, but they were down to about 100 men at Sharpsburg on the 17th. Given South Mountain casualties of about 200, and assuming none of those were still present at Sharpsburg, then their initial strength was about 300. Another unit with a very high casualty rate (~75%) in Maryland in 1862.

I have more research to do and will undoubtably discover errors and omissions in my data. It never ends :smile:
 
Drayton's Brigade was nearly captured at Fox's Gap, and Gen. Roswell Ripley was blamed for failing to support Drayton (as ordered).

There was quite a bit of recrimination after the fact, and was a factor in Ripley losing his command soon after after the battle.
Drayton does not appear to have been one of the better Confederate generals. After the Sharpsburg hid brigade was broken up and the regiments reassigned. Drayton was sent to the West and eventually to the Trans-Mississippi.
 
I wonder if this was part of a conscious public downplaying of casualties under General Lee?
I've often wondered the same thing. In researching casualty data for "my" regiment, a comparison of casualty figures reported vs. actual data from carded records reveals that casualties are generally under reported by 10-25%.

For example for Chancellorsville, casualties of the regiment were reported as K-19; W-130; C- 6 = TOTAL 155. But carded records reveal the actual count as K-21; MW-16; W-128; W&C-0; C-6; M-0 = 171 TOTAL which translates into an under reporting of casualties by about 10%. For Gettysburg, casualties were reported as K-14; W-58; M-33 = 105 TOTAL. But carded records reveal K-12; MW-13; W-50; W&C-19; C-39; M-1 = 134 TOTAL which translates into an under reporting of casualties by about 22%. And of interest to your research, casualties for Crampton's Gap reported as K-24; W-36; M-107 = 167 TOTAL vs. actual casualties of about* K-27; MW-25; W-13; W&C-57; C-93; M-0 = 215 TOTAL or under reporting of casualties by about 22%. *I say "about" for Crampton's Gap because there are a couple of men who may be listed twice under similar names and three with no carded records except Federal POW cards - those 3 may belong to other regiments.
 
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Drayton does not appear to have been one of the better Confederate generals. After the Sharpsburg hid brigade was broken up and the regiments reassigned. Drayton was sent to the West and eventually to the Trans-Mississippi.

The "political" generals from the North come in for a lot of derision from historians, but the South had their politicals too. Drayton was one of them. A wealthy planter from South Carolina, he was a personal friend of Davis (they had attended West Point together) and very well connected in the SC ruling elite. He had attended West Point but was not a professional military man. He had resigned from the Army some 25 years before the War to devote himself to politics an other non-military pursuits.
 
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Activities and casualties of the 50th Georgia, Drayton's brigade at Fox's Gap and Sharpsburg. The article also includes coincidental mention of the 15th Georgia, Toombs' brigade. The article was submitted by Virgil A. S. Parks, Captain D/17th GA (Toombs). He was killed July 2, 1863 at Gettysburg, but prior to that time, served as a war correspondent - or at least a regular contributor - to the Savannah Republican. You may have seen other articles he submitted -- he always signed with his initials V.A.S.P.
View attachment 314138
View attachment 314140
[The Savannah Republican. (Savannah, Ga.), October 01, 1862, page 2.]

Recapitulation by the author utilizing data above
View attachment 314142
@Andy Cardinal @Brian Downey this may be of interest to you.
Thank you very much for your time and research! My 3rd great uncle was one of those wounded at Fox's Gap, Sgt. Noah Pittman. His brother, Moses, fought on at Burnside's Bridge.
 
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