Lawton/Gordon/Evans' Georgia Brigade

There was a hard-working family living in north Georgia who tended, without any slaves, a small 202-acre farm in 1861 when the war started. The young couple had five boys ranging in age from 1 to 19 and two daughters, ages 12 and 5. The two oldest boys, Billy age 19 and his younger brother, Johnny, who was only 15 or 16, enlisted together on September 26, 1861 in the Murphy Guards, in what would become Company A of the 38th​ Georgia Infantry, part of the Georgia Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV). They would be later be joined, in the same unit, by their father, Patrick.

Patrick would become ill and died during the war of acute dysentery. William, whom everyone called Billy, was wounded in fighting at Barlow Knoll at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. He was left behind and captured when the ANV withdrew. He would survive the war in a Union POW camp and later returned to Georgia.

Johnny would fight on with the Georgia Brigade. He survived and endured the miseries of the Campaigns of 1864, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. In June of 1864 Johnny was slightly wounded at Lynchburg, Virginia, but he was soon able to return to active duty, back to his beloved 38th​ Georgia.

In February of 1865, just two short months before the war ended for the ANV, Johnny who was now nearly 19 years old and a battle-hardened Confederate veteran, gave his utmost for the South. It was on a cold February day outside of Petersburg where Union general U.S. Grant and his massive Federal army were closing in on Lee and his beleaguered ANV men.

At Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, during a Confederate counterattack which stopped a Union advance, young Johnny was shot on his left side on February 6, 1865. He was loaded on a wagon with other wounded Confederate soldiers and carted to Richmond to Jackson Hospital. He died there the next day. His lifeless body was taken to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond where he was buried in an unmarked grave.

Young Johnny was my great uncle. His father Patrick was my great grandfather and the 1-year-old left back in Georgia with his mother was my grandfather.

In the 1990s I visited Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond and I found the exact location of his grave. His last name was slightly misspelled on cemetery records, but there was no question that it was Johnny’s final resting place. To my surprise, after I followed the cemetery coordinates, I found that his grave was right beside the large stone pyramid in the Confederate section of the cemetery. The “Confederate Pyramid” was 90 feet tall and was built in 1869 to honor the approximately 18,000 Confederate veterans buried in the cemetery. Later I had a Veterans Affairs marker placed on Johnny’s grave.

A little personal story of the Georgia Brigade.

Hollywood Cemetery.JPG
 
You have captured my attention mentioning classes, and the theme here with your post. Looking at a whole brigade and the life it led, what question mark are you following. A cumulative accounting is highlighted by comparisons with other formations. The eventual interest and motivation to accumulate the successes and failures of the brigade was due to a reason of fascination. May I ask what it was that spurred your desire, and if your major is in history? You are quite sharp. (an idiomatic expression).
Lubliner.
Yes, I am majoring in History...though I've considered majoring in other fields that pay more while studying subjects of history, particularly the Civil War, as a side project. I've been interested in the war since I learned about Patrick Cleburne and his infamous proposal, and from that point my interest and fascination with the conflict has swelled.
I've gotten interested in this brigade as it is probably the most well known Georgia Brigades of the war, and for its fascinating commander John Brown Gordon (whom I've not found much disparaging his combat record, unlike other commanders of his rank).
I certainly need more books on this brigade though to give a more thorough analysis, most of what I've written is what I've gleaned from reading up on the Overland and 1864 Valley Campaigns, as well as peripheral mentions in certain books on Gettysburg and the like.
Currently though, I intend to make in depth analysis of the divisions of the AoT (I've started a thread on Cleburne's Division back last month), though I need to get more in depth sources for all of them.
 
There was a hard-working family living in north Georgia who tended, without any slaves, a small 202-acre farm in 1861 when the war started. The young couple had five boys ranging in age from 1 to 19 and two daughters, ages 12 and 5. The two oldest boys, Billy age 19 and his younger brother, Johnny, who was only 15 or 16, enlisted together on September 26, 1861 in the Murphy Guards, in what would become Company A of the 38th​ Georgia Infantry, part of the Georgia Brigade in the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV). They would be later be joined, in the same unit, by their father, Patrick.

Patrick would become ill and died during the war of acute dysentery. William, whom everyone called Billy, was wounded in fighting at Barlow Knoll at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. He was left behind and captured when the ANV withdrew. He would survive the war in a Union POW camp and later returned to Georgia.

Johnny would fight on with the Georgia Brigade. He survived and endured the miseries of the Campaigns of 1864, Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor. In June of 1864 Johnny was slightly wounded at Lynchburg, Virginia, but he was soon able to return to active duty, back to his beloved 38th​ Georgia.

In February of 1865, just two short months before the war ended for the ANV, Johnny who was now nearly 19 years old and a battle-hardened Confederate veteran, gave his utmost for the South. It was on a cold February day outside of Petersburg where Union general U.S. Grant and his massive Federal army were closing in on Lee and his beleaguered ANV men.

At Hatcher’s Run, Virginia, during a Confederate counterattack which stopped a Union advance, young Johnny was shot on his left side on February 6, 1865. He was loaded on a wagon with other wounded Confederate soldiers and carted to Richmond to Jackson Hospital. He died there the next day. His lifeless body was taken to Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond where he was buried in an unmarked grave.

Young Johnny was my great uncle. His father Patrick was my great grandfather and the 1-year-old left back in Georgia with his mother was my grandfather.

In the 1990s I visited Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond and I found the exact location of his grave. His last name was slightly misspelled on cemetery records, but there was no question that it was Johnny’s final resting place. To my surprise, after I followed the cemetery coordinates, I found that his grave was right beside the large stone pyramid in the Confederate section of the cemetery. The “Confederate Pyramid” was 90 feet tall and was built in 1869 to honor the approximately 18,000 Confederate veterans buried in the cemetery. Later I had a Veterans Affairs marker placed on Johnny’s grave.

A little personal story of the Georgia Brigade.

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Thank you for your post. Would love to see more like this.
If I get the money and the time, I do intend to look more into soldier's records of their time in the brigade, of the actions they engaged in, etc.
 
Thank you for your post. Would love to see more like this.
If I get the money and the time, I do intend to look more into soldier's records of their time in the brigade, of the actions they engaged in, etc.
Thank you for the answer, and I agree with the you on the post by @Texas Johnny. That was close to home.
Lubliner.
 
Colonel John H. Baker and BG Clement A. Evans were going to get a major generalship for Evans and a brigadier generalship for Baker in 1865. Question, were generals John Pegram, Cullen A. Battle and James A. Walker going to get major generalship?

Source:
 
Colonel John H. Baker and BG Clement A. Evans were going to get a major generalship for Evans and a brigadier generalship for Baker in 1865. Question, were generals John Pegram, Cullen A. Battle and James A. Walker going to get major generalship?

Source:
Walker and Pegram probably. I don't see a real opening for Battle, as Grimes had the division as MG.
 
One of my Confederate ancestors, William J. Strickland, was a private in Company K, 26th Georgia, Georgia Brigade.

I remember as a small child listening to my great-grandmother talk about what she knew about his time in the war. I was only about 5 years old, but remember very well what she said:
"Lord have mercy, he once saw a river run red with blood."

While researching my ancestor's wartime record, I came across General Gordon's after-action report of the Battle of Monocacy, in which he stated, "I desire in this connection to state a fact of which I was an eye-witness, and which, for its rare occurrence and the evidence it affords of the sanguinary character of this struggle, I consider worthy of official mention.... So profuse was the flow of blood from the killed and wounded of both these forces that it reddened the stream for more than 100 yards below."

This fits with the anecdote stated by my great-grandmother, except that my ancestor's record appears to show that he was absent-sick at the time of the Battle of Monocacy (since October, 1862). I actually own the original muster roll for his company for Sept/Oct 1864, and it still shows him absent-sick. My muster roll seems to be the last extant record of Company K.

So, I will throw this question out there.
Does anyone know of another instance prior to October, 1862, where the Georgia Brigade would have seen a "river run red with blood?"

I would dearly love to have an answer to this.
 
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One of my Confederate ancestors, William J. Strickland, was a private in Company K, 26th Georgia, Georgia Brigade.

I remember as a small child listening to my great-grandmother talk about what she about his time in the war. I was only about 5 years old, but remember very well what she said:
"Lord have mercy, he once saw a river run red with blood."

While researching my ancestor's wartime record, I came across Generall Gordon's after-action report of the Battle of Monocacy, in which he stated, "I desire in this connection to state a fact of which I was an eye-witness, and which, for its rare occurrence and the evidence it affords of the sanguinary character of this struggle, I consider worthy of official mention.... So profuse was the flow of blood from the killed and wounded of both these forces that it reddened the stream for more than 100 yards below."

This fits with the anecdote stated by my great-grandmother, except that my ancestor's record appears to show that he was absent-sick at the time of the Battle of Monocacy (since October, 1862). I actually own the original muster roll for his company for Sept/Oct 1864, and it still shows him absent-sick. My muster roll seems to be the last extant record of Company K.

So, I will throw this question out there.
Does anyone know of another instance prior to October, 1862, where the Georgia Brigade would have seen a "river run red with blood?"

I would dearly love to have an answer to this.
Maybe she was misremembering other stories of the war, other famous battles fought near streams which turned red from blood was often an occurrence in cases where major battles were fought nearby them.
Oral history can get muddy from generation to generation, especially in a culture in which written record is a simple and readily available alternative (I hear of African cultures with no prior writing system having long histories of story telling traditions and memory).
Have you searched to find any writings by him?
 
Maybe she was misremembering other stories of the war, other famous battles fought near streams which turned red from blood was often an occurrence in cases where major battles were fought nearby them.
Oral history can get muddy from generation to generation, especially in a culture in which written record is a simple and readily available alternative (I hear of African cultures with no prior writing system having long histories of story telling traditions and memory).
Have you searched to find any writings by him?
She would probably have gotten the story from the veteran himself (her father-in-law), so not much chance of it being altered from one teller to the next, although it's possible that her memory could have been faulty. She was only about 66 and in good health, mentally and physically, when I heard her recount it.

I have found nothing written by my ancestor, unfortunately. It does appear that he was at the Seven Days Battles, the Battle of Brawner's Farm (2nd Manassas) and possibly at Antietam.
 
John Brown Gordon (1832-1904)
Gordon ranks high amoung the best commanders in the AoNV, not a mean feat given his contemporaries. However, he gained for himself a reputation as a charismatic and aggressive commander, willing to lead from the front, and was able to get even the most exhausted and dispirited soldiers into action. And this was not just the fluster of his own postwar memoirs (which do indeed contain many absurd claims which historians have been gone through debunking for years); many soldiers who served under him would refer to him as a living god of war or Mars incarnate, one soldier quoting "He's the prettiest thing you ever did see on a field of fight. It'd put fight into a whipped chicken just to look at him" [1].
Gordon was born in Upson County Georgia, February 6th, 1832. His family moved to Walker County in 1840 (in the census, the Walker family owned 18 slaves). Gordon went to UGA to study law, left before graduating and began a practice in Atlanta. In 1854, he married Rebecca "Fanny" Haralson, the love of his life. They would have 6 children together, and Fanny would accompany her spouse on the campaign trail, which apparently helped motivate him to fight harder. In 1860, Gordon owned 1 slave, while his father owned 4.
When the war began, Gordon raised a company, the Raccoon Roughs, to fight for the Confederacy. Due to the Governor's refusal to accept more troops for Confederate service, he crossed the border to Alabama, having his company join the 6th Alabama. Despite having no prior military experience, he was elected Colonel of the regiment in 1861, and would lead it in combat at Seven Pines. When Brigadier Rodes was wounded in the battle, Gordon briefly commanded the brigade until his recovery. He led the regiment in the Seven Days and again at Antietam. Fighting in the Bloody Lane, Gordon wound receive 5 wounds, knocking him out cold, and nearly drowned in his cap. Recovering consciousness, stuck in no man's land, Gordon crawled back to friendly lines [2].
Another popular anecdote of the incident, Gordon was placed in a barn to be tended to. His wife Fanny came to see him for the first time since the battle, and was shocked to find the state he was in. To which, Gordon told her he had just attended an Irish wedding [3]. Despite the many wounds, Gordon not only survived without the need for major amputations, but would be able to return to command.
For his actions at Seven Pines and at the Bloody Lane, Gordon was promoted to Brigadier and given command of Lawton's brigade, which would forever be connected with him [4]. His rank still unconfirmed, he would command the brigade at Chancellorsville as part of Early's detached command at Fredericksburg. He would gain confirmation of his rank as Brigadier General on May 7th 1863 [5].
Gordon next took part in the 2nd Battle of Winchester, helping Ewell overrun Milroy's isolated command, before moving into Pennsylvania for the Gettysburg Campaign. His men made it the farthest north, occupying Wrightsville just as Union troops burned the great Pennsylvania Railroad Bridge. His command moved to reinforce Hill at Gettysburg on July 1st, helping overlap Barlow's division at Barlow's Knoll.
Here, Gordon apparently met and aided the wounded Barlow. In his memoirs, Gordon talked about an incident in D.C. after the war, where he met Barlow again, believing he had died back at Gettysburg, a claim that is bizarre considering Barlow's division would oppose Gordon's brigade at the Mule Shoe and in the Appomattox Campaign, so he should have known Barlow had survived. Nevertheless, he and Barlow would apparently become good friends postwar.
Gordon's big break came at the Wilderness, where he led a flank attack upon the exposed Union right flank. Gordon claims that Ewell, under the influence of Jubal Early, denied his request for forces to make the attack, until Lee arrived at headquarters and granted Gordon's request. This claim was thoroughly debunked by Gordon C. Rhea, who pointed out that Lee was too focus on events transpiring on his right flank to visit 2nd Corps headquarters, so the request was granted by Ewell on his own initiative [6]. This would, however, result in Gordon's star rising and his elevation to division commander, as well as sow seeds of distrust with Early.
After the Wilderness, when Early was put in command of 3rd Corps, Lee gave Gordon a new division consisting of his brigade, Hoffmann's Virginians, and R. D. Johnston's North Carolinians, and would lead them to Spotsylvania. He would play a pivotal role helping contain the breaches of the Mule Shoe, first against Upton's limited attack on the 10th, and again on the 12th, his quick thinking helping stem the blue tide and prevent a Confederate disaster. This ensured his promotion to Major General on the 14th. Apparently, Lee wrote to Davis regarding Gordon, noting how he was "characterized by splendid audacity"; whoever wrote this on Wikipedia did not bother to cite the source, however, so I have to assume it is apocryphal.
After the disaster on the 12th, Gordon's division consisted of his old brigade and the remnants of Ed Johnson's Division. He would lead this new command on the May 18th Engagement, Harris Farm, the North Anna, and Cold Harbor.
When the 2nd Corps was transferred to the Valley, Gordon's division was assigned to Breckinridge's Corps, possibly to avoid command conflicts with Early. Here, Gordon would show his meddle at the Monocacy, 2nd Kernstown, and at Third Winchester (where he was wounded above the eye, yet continued to lead the battle), at Fisher Hill and at Cedar Creek. After that final disaster, Gordon, the senior division commander still alive, was elevated to command the 2nd Corps while Early remained in the Valley, 2nd Corps returning to Lee at Petersburg.
Despite the Corps having been weakened by last year's battles to around 8000 men, it's veteran status and Gordon's leadership skill lead Lee to rely on him as his new hammer. He was first engaged at Hatcher's Run in February, and then was tasked with planning the assault on Fort Stedman. Though initially successful, the attack was repulsed due to a lack of reserves and exhaustion of the troops.
Gordon would lead the remnant of his Corps in the retreat from Petersburg, fighting at High Bridge and Sayler's Creek. On the morning of April 9th, his men attacked forward Union troops at Appommattox Court House, in the last Confederate charge of the war. He was stopped by federal reinforcements, and Lee sent forth his offer to surrender. Gordon would lead the surrender procession on the 12th.
After the war, Gordon was apparently involved in the Ku Klux Klan, though there is no solid proof of his involvement due to the secrecy of the organization. He became a Bourbon Democrat, trying to reverse the effects of Reconstruction. He was elected to the US Senate in 1873 and 1879, becoming the first ex-Confederate to do so. However, he resigned in 1880, part of a scheme with Joseph Brown and Alfred Colquitt. This incident reeked of corruption to many. He would later be elected Governor of Georgia in 1886 and Senator again in 1891.
In 1903, Gordon worked to publish his Reminiscences of the Civil War, and he went on a speaking tour of the US talking about the last days of the Confederacy. In 1890, he became the first Commander-in-Cheif of the United Confederate Veterans, holding his position until his death. He was visiting one of his children in Miami Florida when he died, aged 77. He was buried in Oakland Cemetary in Atlanta, with his funeral procession numbering 75000.

After his death, Clement Evans, one of Gordon's lieutenants in the Georgia Brigade and postwar historian, proposed to create a statue honoring the deceased General and politician. With the assistance of the UDC and UCV, an equistrian statue was dedicated and placed in front of the State Capitol, in 1907. It is one of the many statues many today call to be removed in light of recent injustices against the black community. 44 of Gordon's descendants wrote to the Governor asking it to be removed, stating, "the primary purpose of the statue was to celebrate and mythologize the **** of the Confederacy" [7].

Sources:
1.) Nichols, A Soldier's Story of his Regiment, 141-142, as quoted in Scott Patchan's The Last Battle of Winchester
2.) Eckart, John Brown Gordon: Soldier, Southerner, American, 50-52
3.) Eckart, 52
4.) Eckart, 55
5.) Eicher and Eicher, Civil War High Commands, 260, as quoted from Wikipedia
6.) Rhea, Battle of the Wilderness, 407-409, 412-416.
7.) https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/t...apitol-statue-removal/5cxJfDjN4UARzBCU7j9xpK/

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Gordon in civilian clothes (unsure if pre or post war)
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Gordon later in life
Thank you! I have always been interested in John Brown Gordon and his exploits!
 
By the way, I found this painting online of the Georgia brigades flank attack at the Wilderness.

I love the Oh ****!!! feel of the painting. Perfect 90 degree flank attack.
I have never seen this painting. Who is the artist? Thanks for posting!
 
It is Battle of the Wilderness. I think the Georgia Brigade was defending Fredricksburg during the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Yes. From what I've glanced from reading Eckart's book on Gordon, Gordon arrived mid-campaign to take temporary command of the brigade as a temporary brigadier (his rank wasn't confirmed until later). He took part in a vaguely worded engagement, I believe the author refers to something similar to Salem Church.
 
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