Southern Storm

Stiles/Akin

Sergeant Major
Joined
Apr 1, 2016
Location
Atlanta, Georgia
After three days of horrific fighting at Gettysburg, General Lee's Army of Northern Virginia was forced to retreat back towards Virginia. Many of the severely wounded of the 38th Georgia were left behind in field hospitals, to the mercy of their enemies. Others, like Sergeant Francis Hudgins of Company K, The Bartow Avengers, were placed in a 17 mile long wagon train of the wounded for the long retreat back to Virginia. Excerpt from my book, "Hurrah for Georgia! The History of the 38th Georgia Regiment:"

While the Georgia Brigade remained in the rear covering the retreat, the wagon trains carrying Sergeant Hudgins, Private Nash and other wounded 38th soldiers, slowly rumbled far ahead of the main column. Lee ordered General Imboden and his cavalry brigade to escort the Confederate ambulance train back to Virginia. The ambulance train departed Gettysburg on July 4th, at four o’clock in the afternoon. The walking wounded trailed the column, which was 17 miles long. General Imboden recalled the hellish retreat of the massive train of the wounded,

“After dark I set out from Cashtown to gain the head of the column during the night. My orders had been peremptory that there should be no halt for any cause whatever. If an accident should happen to any vehicle, it was immediately to be put out of the road and abandoned. The column moved rapidly, considering the rough roads and the darkness and from almost every wagon for many miles issued heart-rending wails of agony.

For four hours I hurried forward on my way to the front and in all that time I was never out of hearing of the groans and cries of the wounded and dying. Scarcely one in a hundred had received adequate surgical aid, owing to the demands on the hard-working surgeons from still worse cases that had to be left behind. Many of the wounded in the wagons had been without food for thirty-six hours. Their torn and bloody clothing, matted and hardened, was rasping the tender, inflamed and still oozing wounds.

Very few of the wagons had even a layer of straw in them and all were without springs. The road was rough and rocky from the heavy washings of the preceding day. The jolting was enough to have killed strong men, if long exposed to it. From nearly every wagon as the teams trotted on, urged by whip and shout, came such cries and shrieks as these:

'O God! Why can't I die!'
'My God! Will no one have mercy and kill me!'

'Stop! Oh! For God's sake, stop just for one minute;
take me out and leave me to die on the roadside.'

'I am dying! I am dying! My poor wife, my dear
children, what will become of you?'

Some were simply moaning; some were praying and others uttering the most fearful oaths and execrations that despair and agony could wring from them; while a majority, with a stoicism sustained by sublime devotion to the cause they fought for, endured without complaint unspeakable tortures and even spoke words of cheer and comfort to their unhappy comrades of less will or more acute nerves. Occasionally a wagon would be passed from which only low, deep moans could be heard.

No help could be rendered to any of the sufferers. No heed could be given to any of their appeals. Mercy and duty to the many forbade the loss of a moment in the vain effort then and there to comply with the prayers of the few. On, we must move on. The storm continued and the darkness was appalling. There was no time even to fill a canteen with water for a dying man; for, except the drivers and the guards, all were wounded and utterly helpless in that vast procession of misery. During this one night I realized more of the horrors of war than I had in all the two preceding years."

Federal cavalry harassed these wagon trains and a member of the Tom Cobb Infantry remembered a keen loss to the regiment, “On our retreat we had lost, by capture, one of the favorite of the company and also of the regiment. This was Lieutenant A. W. Webb Robinson, who was captured in an ambulance, being very sick. He was taken to a Federal prison, where he languished until the close of the war.
 
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Day#3- 17 November 1864 (clear mid 40's to low 50's)
Right wing reports that “Country beautiful, forage in great abundance and roads good and very little annoyance from the enemy". Orders are given to shoot any bloodhound or dog found by the federals.

Left Wing reports “The country being very hilly; moving very slow."
Left Wing reaches Covington and Social Circle,
Right Wing reaches Jackson
Cavalry travels southeast from Bear Creek Station to the south of Jackson
 
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The famed "Phillips Legend" of the Confederacy Leader was raised in the hills just north above Clarkesville, GA (at the time it was in Habersham County)

Col. Charles Duval "William" Phillips, CSA (1824-1908) Commander of the "Phillips Legion" - buried in Marietta City Cemetery - General of 4th Georgia State Brigade, 1861, Confederate Colonel of Phillips Legion, 1861/1862

Read the rest here: https://www.facebook.com/oldmariett...140/449798328408006/?type=3&comment_tracking={"tn":"O"}
 
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