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BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG

Wofford’s Brigade arrived on the scene at around 7:00 AM on July 2^nd, the second day of the battle. Longstreets corps which contained McLaw’s division and Wofford’s Brigade, were moved to the south toward the left flank of the Federals. The attack was supposed to occur in the morning but it took Longstreet until around 3:00 to get his command moving forward. McLaw’s Division was to anchor the left of the corps as an en echelon attack started to the right and moved left. The Confederates in the area of Wofford’s Brigade hit Federals under the command of General Daniel Sickles in the Peach Orchard. Sickles had moved his corps well in advance of the Federal line, without orders, making himself extremely vulnerable. As a result the Confederate attack drove him back in intense, close quarter fire fights and hand-to-hand combat. Wofford’s Brigade moved in as the reserve behind Barksdale’s Mississippians and Kershaw’s South Carolinians. As Kershaw’s men began to lose steam, Wofford himself came forward with his men and renewed the spirit of the attackers. Moving on they hit Colonel Jacob Sweitzer’s Brigade and was able to overrun them. During the fight the colonel of the 4^th Michigan, Harrison Jeffords was killed in a fight for his regiment’s flag. In the process he was bayoneted by men of Phillip’s Legion making him the highest ranking Federal officer to be killed by a bayonet in the war.

After clearing Sweitzer’s Brigade, Wofford’s men moved on and took the 3^rd Battery Massachusetts Light Artillery who were left with no infantry support. Continuing on the men began approaching Little Round Top from the north. With night falling and taking canister fire from the summit of the hill, the attack stalled. Longstreet sent word to his commanders to fall back as the Federals were bringing up fresh reinforcements at an alarming rate. The battle was over for the Georgia Brigade except for skirmishing between the Sharpshooter Battalion, who had been posted ahead of the brigade, and a federal skirmish line. The next day they would all observe Pickett’s Charge to their left. Longstreet later described the fighting in the area of Wofford’s Brigade as the “best three hours of fighting ever done my any troops on any battlefield.”

Don Troiani’s “Saving the Flag” which depicts the fight between Phillip’s Legion men and

Colonel Harrison Jeffords of the 4^th Michigan Infantry.

Wofford’s Brigade can be seen on the bottom left. The majority of the Federals in this map had been driven off

by the time the Georgians came through. They would continue in a left to right and slightly south direction across

the map. They would strike the flank of Sweitzer’s Brigade in the flank just off the map to the bottom right.

This map shows Sweitzer’s Brigade in the top left just before being hit by Wofford’s Brigade from the north west.

Wofford’s attack would move down the Federal line to roughly the creek before Little Round Top.

After taking Walcott’s Battery, the Georgian’s approached Little Round Top. This would have been their view

as they advanced but by this time the attack was unaligned and fizzling out.

THE BRIGADE MOVES WEST

Following the Battle of Gettysburg, General James Longstreet’s corps was ordered to the western theater to help General Braxton Bragg’s Army of Tennessee. Bragg had gotten out-foxed in what was called the Tullahoma Campaign through southwest Tennessee and was now being maneuvered out of Chattanooga by Federal General William Rosecrans. The two armies met at the Battle of Chickamauga on September 19-20, 1863 in what would become the second deadliest battle of the war only behind Gettysburg, where the Brigade was just two months earlier.

For the Brigade, getting to Georgia was a nightmare. Southern railroads were not standard and a variety of track gauges prohibited riding straight through. The route started in Hanover Junction, Virginia then on to Richmond, Petersburg, Weldon, N.C., Wilmington (where they crossed on steamboats), Florence, S.C., Charleston, Savannah, GA., Atlanta, and up the Western & Atlantic Rail Road to Catoosa Springs Station just south of Ringgold, Georgia. While the Brigade was in Richmond they were issued new uniforms made of blue kersey from England. They would bear a striking contrast to the raggedly dressed Confederate soldiers in the west.

As the Brigade camped the night of 20^th outside of Ringgold they could hear the battle to their west. They had arrived too late to take part. The beaten Federals fell back into Chattanooga after the battle. The Confederates moved forward and occupied the heights that looked down on the town, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. The Brigade fought in a small skirmish as they came onto the Federal lines around the city suffering minimal casualties. It was here that General William Wofford would go on furlough. He would be replaced temporarily by Colonel Solon Ruff of the 18^th Georgia.

Drawing of Longstreet’s Corps arriving at Catoosa Station and the site today.

As the Siege of Chattanooga became a stalemate, Longstreet’s corps was detached and sent to Knoxville to try and destroy a Federal army commanded by General Ambrose Burnside. On November 4, the corps loaded onto boxcars again at Tyner’s Station just east of Chattanooga. On the 16^th the Confederates reached Knoxville with Burnside comfortably (except for the poor and freezing weather) behind his entrenchments. Fort Sanders anchored the northwest quadrant of the Knoxville Defenses. Wofford’s Brigade and General Benjamin Humphrey’s Mississippi Brigade were given the task of taking the fort. As the 3^rd Battalion, Georgia Sharpshooter began what we call today “covering fire” the two brigades began. Phillip’s Legion led the way with the 16^th, 18^th, 24^th, and Cobb’s Legion coming behind. The federals had strung telegraph wire through the approaching field of fire which is one of the first examples of such obstructions. Upon reaching the moat, to the attacker’s surprise they found 8 foot ditch that was the same in width. Without ladders there was little they could do but try to climb up. The cold weather had also turned the field and moat icy causing further difficulty. After only twenty minutes the attack was called off and the Brigade retreated. In the short amount of time the attackers suffered 813 casualties while inflicting only 13. Colonel Ruff was included in the killed in the moat. General Wofford would return to command as the corps moved back to Virginia to rejoin General Lee.

Harper’s Weekly drawing of the Battle of Fort Sanders.

Post-battle image taken of Fort Sanders.

Kurz & Allison’s dramatized rendition of the battle.

Captain James L. Lemon of the 18^th Georgia, Co. A was captured at Fort Sanders. He commanded my GGG Grandfather.

RETURNING EAST

After withdrawing from Knoxville, Longstreet’s corps fought a small battle at Bean’s Station, Tennessee and went into winter quarters at Russellville, Tennessee. The next spring they began to make their way toward Lee’s army using trains as well as marching. They arrived within earshot of cannons during the Battle of the Wilderness on May 6, 1864 and went into action.

BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS

A commanding officers nightmare was not knowing his position or the position of the enemy. With that being said, the Battle of the Wilderness turned into a nightmare for both armies. The new commander of the Army of the Potomac, Ulysses S. Grant, hoped to cross the Rapidan River and move through the area of the Wilderness and Chancellorsville quickly in order to not get bogged down or have to fight Lee there where he might not be able to use his numerical advantage. Lee reacted quickly and moved his men forward to meet the advancing Federals. The Federal V Corps under General Gouverneur Warren ran into Confederate General Richard Ewell’s II Corps who had entrenched across the Orange Court House Turnpike. The Federals attacked all day of May 5^th but were unsuccessful. Just to the south along the Orange Plank Road, Confederate General A.P. Hill’s III Corps were hoping to duplicate Ewell’s success. They were not able to deploy and dig in, however, and fighting went back and forth in this area. The next morning Grant ordered attacks all along the line. Lee knew Longstreet was fast approaching and desperately needed his corps. Along the Orange Plank Road, Hill was getting pushed back and the Confederate line there was breaking. As a rout was becoming inevitable, the Texas Brigade (to whom the 18^th Georgia was originally attached) appeared moving forward. Lee pointed them in the direction of the advancing Federals and was bent on personally leading the counter-attack. The Texans began yelling “Lee to the rear!” and moved to a safer location. The Confederate line was secured for the moment. In the meantime one of Longstreet’s assistants, Lt. Colonel Moxley Sorrel led four Confederate brigades, one of them Wofford’s Brigade, along an unfinished railroad bed that led to the Federal left flank. Upon deployment the Confederates hit the flank and shattered it causing the Federals to fall back.

Wofford’s Brigade can be seen at the bottom right attacking the left flank of the Federal II Corps.

BATTLE OF SPOTSYLVANIA COURT HOUSE

Following the Battle of the Wilderness, Grant pulled back his army but quickly shifted them to the east in an attempt to draw Lee out into the open. This was a drastic shift from Grant’s predecessors who would normally withdraw and regroup after a hard battle. Lee moved to block Grant’s approach and was able to occupy the area around the crossroads before the Federals arrived. Wofford’s Brigade, in Kershaw’s division were sent in by JEB Stuart to push back the advance Federals around the court house. Over the next four days the Brigade would be held it reserve. In one area of the Confederate line was a salient that jutted out and was named the Mule Shoe. Grant focused his attacks here and took broke the line on May 12 after several days of attempts. Wofford’s Brigade was put in to plug the new gap. In what was perhaps the most intense and desperate hand to hand fighting of the war, the Georgian’s were on one side of the works and the federals on the other side. All this happened despite of a heavy rainstorm which drowned wounded men in the trenches. After days of fighting in the trenches the Federals began to break off and move around to the east. The brigade pulled out of line and camped on the Po River for the several days after the battle.

Wofford’s first position can be seen moving up from the bottom left to support the defense of the Mule Shoe, then in reserve.

Section of the Mule Shoe showing the field the Federals advanced through.

Painting by Richard Schlecht showing his rendition of the “Bloody Angle” on the western side of the Mule Shoe. It was here that Wofford’s

Brigade rushed forward to reinforce.

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