James Lemon Describes the Fighting Along the Hagerstown Pike

Andy Cardinal

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James Lemon, 18th Georgia
I've been reading James Lyle Lemon's wartime recollections, Feed Them the Steel! It is a relatively short and very interesting account written in 1886 and published by one of Lemon's descendants in 2013. A bit of background: Lemon, who was born in Decatur and grew up in Ackworth, was 25 when the war began. He was well-educated and was a partner at his brother's bank, the Smith Lemon Banking Company (reputedly the first bank in Cobb County). He was married to Eliza Devenport and had a daughter. He was also active in the local militia and was among the first to volunteer in what would become the 18th Georgia in 1861. Sent to Virginia, James returned home in March 1862 on a recruiting trip. When he returned to his regiment, his brothers-in-law Marcus and William went with him.

Like the rest of Hood's brigade, Lemon began the morning of September 17 in reserve and hoping to eat for the first time in several days. "To our everlasting dismay, the firing fron the field from which we had withdrawn had greatly intensified & we were ordered back to the front at once. Our men went almost wild with anger & furiously threw their rations to the ground & poured out their coffee as they moved into line. Gen'l Wofford had ridden up & was among us as we formed, calling out 'Never mind boys, there will be plenty to eat soon enough. It is the Yankees who have taken your breakfast. Make them.pay for it!' A savage yell went up in response & the men's faces I shall never forget. Wild-eyed & furious, clenched teeth & oaths from every man, from the most savage to the most mild-hearted, all were as one in the wrath."

The brigade moved through the woods, passed the Dunker Church, and crossed the Hagerstown Pike. Deployed in a field, they could see the fighting in front of them as the Iron Brigade drove Douglass's brigade back from the southern end of the cornfield. A body of the Iron Brigade was advancing southward along the pike, and the Texas brigade deployed to meet them. As Lemon described it:

"We crossed the pike into a field of clover where we formed into line of battle & loaded our rifles. Our order of advance was as follows -- Hampton's Legion on our left & next to the pike, 18th Geo., 1st Texas, 4th Texas & 5th Texas on the right. The Yanks, Wisconsin men, were about this time emerging in force from a large piece of corn to our front. Out in front of them & coming towards us were hundreds of our own troops of Gen'l Lawton's command who had been repulsed. Once again, as at Coal Harbor [Gaines's Mill] we heard the command 'Trail arms!' & knew what that meant. It was to be an advance without perceptible halt on our part. Do or die, victory or death! At 'Forward, quick-time, march!', we stepped off again in perfect unison, a thousand Confederates, bone tired & starving, but with a burning fury for the hated Yankees."

The Georgians advanced steadily toward the cornfield. Lemon saw "the black-hatted Yanks coming on in style." Lieutenant Colonel Solon Ruff called out, “Looky there boys, at them black hats! Let’s go knock them off!” Then, according to Lemon, "Wild laughter & the piercing 'Rebel-Yell,' is heard again & at the command 'Fire!' a rolling volley blasted forth, delivered from the hip… instantly killing scores of the enemy & halting his advance. In an instant came the command 'Fix bayonets!' & this was, again done without halting. All knew what would come next. 'Double-time, March!' came the command & a yell, more like a tortured scream bellowed forth from every throat. Off we went at charge bayonet & at the double-quick."

From the opposite side, Major Rufus Dawes, commanding the 6th Wisconsin, knew his men were in trouble. They were exhausted, their weapons fouled, and their ranks in disorder from the heavy fighting they had just endured. His own Wisconsin men were hopelessly intermingled with Colonel Walter Phelp’s regiments. There was no time to sort things out and establish a proper firing line. Meanwhile the “long gray lines,” who remained unbroken as fugitives from Starke’s division ran through them and past them, were advancing at the double-quick. The oncoming Confederates opened fire. “It was almost like a scythe running though our line,” Dawes wrote. “Two out of every three men who went to the front of the line was shot.” Dawes realized that the "auspicious moment had passed" and that a "great victory had passed from our grasp." Their fighting strength spent, they had no chance to stop the Texas brigade. Dawes's men turned and ran, not stopping when they reached the southern edge of the corn. “It was a race for life that each man runs for the cornfield,” Dawes later said.

The Georgians saw the Wisconsin men run and took off after them. Lemon wrote: "The ranks of the Yanks, men of the most-vaunted Wisconsin Black Hat Briggade, shuddered & broke, turning at once & flying back through the corn. On we swept like a cyclone driving them before us in demoniacal fury. As we reached the ground where they had briefly stood, about 70 or so Yankee bodies lay on the ground, some writhing, some still. I clearly remember the ground being litter with dozens of black hats, & then also remembering Ruff's words with grim amusement."

The Georgians continued into the cornfield: "After entering the corn for some distance, which was already choked with bodies both blue & gray, we perceived several regiments of the enemy, about 200 yards distant on the far side of the pike, moving by the flank towards our left with the intention of turning our flank. At this point Col. Ruff, & everyone else, also became aware of a battery of guns placed obliquely in the road ahead & to our left which, if we had advanced as planned, would have taken our left flank in enfilade fire." This was Battery B, 4th U.S., and the infantry were likely the supporting regiments including the 80th New York, 7th Wisconsin, and 19th Indiana. Ruff ordered the Georgians toward the left, and they advanced directly toward the guns. "As we advanced, these guns began to do terrible work among us," Lemon wrote. "With guns double-shotted with canister, they blew gaps in our lines. We halted by sheer necessity by the fence among the pike & began to concentrate our fire among the gunners, whose guns were now about 70 yards away."

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The ensuing fighting was among the bloodiest and most savage experienced during the war. Brigadier General John Gibbon was with the guns of Battery B at the time: "We knew but little of what was going on beyond our immediate vicinity," Gibbon recalled. "We were in the hottest of hornet’s nests and had all we could do to attend to what was in our front whilst the sounds of a severe battle reached our ears from all directions."

"Bullets, shot and shell whistled and screamed around us, wounded men came to the rear in large numbers, and the six Napoleon guns of Battery “B” hurled forth destruction in double rounds of canister as the enemy in increased numbers rushed forward to capture the guns," Gibbon wrote. The left gun of the battery was on the Hagerstown Pike, and each time it was fired, it recoiled down the slope. "In the midst of this pandemonium I happened to look at this gun and noticed that the cannoneers had carelessly allowed the elevating screw to run down and every time the piece was fired its elevation was increased until now its missiles were harmlessly thrown high over the heads of the enemy in its front," Gibbon wrote. "I yelled to the gunner to run up his elevating screw, but in the din he could not hear me. I jumped from my horse, rapidly ran up the elevating screw until the nozzle pointed almost into the ground in front and then nodded to the gunner to pull his lanyard. The discharge carried away most of the fence in front of it and produced great destruction in the enemy’s ranks as did the subsequent discharges, and at one of these, a sergeant of the battery (Mitchell) was badly hurt by the gun running over him in its recoil."

By this time the Georgians had reached the fence. "When at one point we had momentarily silenced the guns by shooting down every man that approached them, we quickly formed & made at them at the double-quick," Lemon recalled. "In the intervening moments, however, more men had manned the guns & when we approached within about 40 yards the most horrible blasts belched forth from the pieces which maimed and killed dozens of our boys. It was during this first charge that my beloved friends & brothers in law, my wife's only dear brothers, Wm & Marcus Davenport were cut down running side by side, united in death as in life. We reluctantly fell back to the dubious shelter of the fence, where we continued our fire on the gunners. We had killed at least 4 complete crews it seemed to me, yet more men … had stepped in to replace them."

Lemon and his comrades charged the battery twice more, and were repulsed both times. "At this point we were decimated. Fully half our men were down, yet we were forming another go at the guns, whose fire had slackened somewhat. Before we set forth on what surely would have been a forlorn hope, we were ordered by Col. Ruff, who had been ordered by Gen'l Wofford, to disengage & withdraw, as we were receiving front & left flank fire & were in danger of being cut to pieces and annihilated. We formed and moved at a trot, but in fairly good order by the left flank down the fence-line to the Dunker church, being shot at all the way back. I had the queer notion that we were human participants in a 'shooting gallery.' Bullets kicked up dust & splintered fence rails as we ran."

Lemon had to leave the bodies of his brothers-in-law, William and Marcus Davenport, behind when the retreated. He was able to recover their bodies the next day however: "During the lull in the fighting many flags of truce were seen, while parties went about gathering the dead & wounded. I therefore took the opportunity, under one such flag of truce, to seek out & recover the bodies of William & Marcus, which I did with the aid of J. J. O'Neill & a few of our boys from home. We carried them back to a spot near the church, where we buried them side by side. From my Testament I read a Psalms over them & they were covered over. Marking the spot in my diary, I resolved to return one day, if I survived the war, to recover them & carry them home."
 
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Of course most folks know that the 1st Texas of the Texas Brigade, Hood's Division had the highest casualty rate of any unit, Confederate or Federal, at the battle. The 1st Texas suffered casualties of 45 killed and 141 wounded of 226 engaged, a casualty rate of 82.3%. You can see their exposed position from the posted map. You can also see the 2nd Mississippi's advanced position, on the 1st Texas's right.
But less well-known is the fact that the 2nd Mississippi suffered the second-highest Confederate casualty rate at Sharpsburg...73.3%. Of 210 men engaged, 27 were killed and 127 wounded during the battle...
 
Part of the reason the 1st Texas was in such an exposed position was that the 18th Georgia's advance had been stopped by Battery B. Colonel Work sent three messengers back to Col. Ruff to have the Georgians advance to support their left before the 1st Texas retreated. Obviously this wasn't possible. The 4th Texas, which might have been able to fill the gap on the left of the 1st Texas/right of the 18th Georgia, had been sent to the far left of the brigade and was unavailable.

I've been looking for some good information and/or accounts about the 2nd Mississippi in the cornfield, but haven't had much luck yet. Law's entire brigade is seemingly overshadowed in general accounts of the fighting here.
 
I've been looking for some good information and/or accounts about the 2nd Mississippi in the cornfield, but haven't had much luck yet. Law's entire brigade is seemingly overshadowed in general accounts of the fighting here.
Agreed. Primary sources are as rare as hen's teeth with respect to the 2nd MS in the Cornfield. Col. Stone, Lt. Col. Humphreys, and Major Blair were all casualties. A lieutenant was reportedly the highest ranking unwounded officer after Law's retreat. My great-grandfather was wounded in both legs during this fight (Co. H, the Coonewah Rifles).
 
The Union artillery on the east side of the creek spread all the way from the upper bridge to the lower (Burnside) bridge. They created havoc over most of the northern part of the battlefield.

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Check out these posts from the Antietam Brigades blog by Kevin Pawlek. The maps above are from these posts.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
 
It seems likely James Lemon was able to keep his vow and recover his brothers-in-law's bodies. There is a small cemetery in a residential neighborhood in Cobb County GA named the Davenport Cemetery that contains the graves of Marcus L. and William A. Davenport, plus that of an older brother who died before the War.
https://www.findagrave.com/cemetery/33561/davenport-cemetery
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66621214/marcus-l.-davenport
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66621252/william-a.-davenport
 
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