On April 11, 1863, Brigadier General John Brown Gordon, previously Colonel of the 6th Alabama, assumed temporary command of the Georgia Brigade from Colonel Clement A. Evans of the 31st Georgia. Gordon had been named a Brigadier in November 1, 1862 on Lee's recommendation after his heroic service at Sharpsburg (Antietam) where he sustained five wounds. He was not confirmed in his new rank until May 11, 1863 (with the promotion made retroactive to May 7), after the Battle of Chancellorsville, and was assigned permanent command of the Georgia Brigade shortly thereafter following a unanimous petition by its regimental officers to General Lee.
A "comparative stranger" to his new brigade, Gordon was to make quite an impression in the days that followed. Private G. W. Nichols of the 61st Georgia wrote that:
We were soon all acquainted with him. He put the company and regimental commanders to work drilling the boys. We often had three drills daily; first, company drill; then, battalion drill; and in the afternoon brigade drill. Gordon would ride along the line, talk very kind, yet very positive, and the officers and men were soon liking him very much.
The end of April found the Georgia brigade still posted in their winter encampments along with the rest of Lee's 60,000 man Confederate Army of Northern Virginia guarding defensive lines overlooking Fredericksburg and the west bank of the Rappahannock River. The 130,000 man Union Army of the Potomac under new commander "Fighting Joe" Hooker was positioned across the river to the east.
The 31st Georgia was encamped to the south covering the crossing at Port Royal. The rest of the brigade was posted with General Early's division along the line of the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad between Deep Run and Hamilton's Crossing. Their camps were in the low foothills paralleled the Military Road with pickets advanced forward to the River Road [a.k.a the Richmond Stage Road] where they could cover the crossings south of the town. This was ground over which the Georgians had fought the previous December, launching the counterattack that repulsed the advance of General George Meade's Union division during Ambrose Burnside's disasterous first battle of Fredericksburg.
The preceding night, Union General Hooker had ordered John Reynold's First Corps to cross the Rappahanock downsteam from Fredericksburg at Fitzhugh's Crossing. Reynold's task was to form a beachhead and pin Lee's army in place while Hooker completed his flanking movement around Lee's left with the men of Howard, Slocum and Meade's Corps. Reynold's picked Wadsworth's Division to make the crossing and Wadsworth selected the Iron Brigade of hard-fighting westerners from Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana, a frequent nemesis of the Georgians, to lead the way.
That morning, the 13th Georgia was posted in rifle pits on a small bluff overlooking Fitzhugh's Crossing. As the heavy fog lifted they looked down to see Union engineers working desperately to unload a train of 40 pontoons needed to lay a bridge across the Rappahannock for the crossing. They quickly opened fire. On the opposite bank, approximately 200 yards away, the 6th Wisconsin was rushed forward to return fire. Soon, the entire First Corps artillery (seven batteries of 3-inch rifled guns and two batteries of12 pound Napoleons) opened up, raining death and destruction along the forward confederate lines.
The 13th Georgia held on gamely at Fitzhugh's Crossing until their ammunition ran low and the 6th Louisiana moved forward to relieve them. This was the most trying time of the battle for the men of the 13th Georgia, for they were fully exposed to the enemy's fire as they left the safety of their rifle pits on the bluff. Pvt. Henry Walker of the 13th recalled, "we never lost but one man while we was in the rifle fight...but when we went to base, they swept our boys down."
Shortly thereafter, the 6th Wisconsin and the 24th Michigan bravely crossed the river in pontoon boats under a hail of fire and stormed the line of the 6th Louisiana, which gave way. In their rapid pursuit the men of the Iron Brigade captured another 28 men of the 13th Georgia who were slow to retire.
Meanwhile, the balance of Gordon's brigade moved forward from their camps to the railroad and began strengthening their lines as the sound of the firing from the river became more insistent. According to Lt. Urbanus "Barney" Dart, Company A (Brunswick Rifles) of the 26th Georgia:
Everything was in the greatest confusion and we only took our haversacks, etc., with us, leaving baggage and camp utensils behind. We got to our advance line very soon, the pickets still firing and heavy cannonading from both sides...Thus we remained all day in line of battle as above stated our pickets being at the big road [River Road]. During that day and the next I never worked harder in my life, every Co. and regiment looking to its own safety began strengthening our position by cutting heavy logs and piling them on the railroad, also what crossties and iron we could get, and by nightfall we had made a splendid fortification and believe me there was not a handful of dirt thrown upon the work with hoe or shovel, but with coats off and sleeves rolled up we pitched in with bayonets, etc. for loosing the dirt, and our hands for throwing it on.
As they worked, a cheer passed along the brigade from left to right. The beloved Stonewall Jackson was passing behind the line gathering up his troops in preparation for the march on Chancellorville. Pvt. Nichols of the 61st joined in, noting years later that "I am, oh, so sorry to tell you, we never cheered him again."
Later in the day, as dusk fell, the soldiers of the 61st Georgia, secure behind their new breastworks, observed a brief artillery duel in which a roundshot managed to strike a Confederate gun, lodging squarely in the muzzle and dismounting the barrel. No other casualties were noted.
Gordon's brigade remained in position along the railroad line with the balance of Early's division in order to contain the Union First Corps bridgehead. Everything was quiet in this sector as Hooker was preoccupied at Chancellorsville managing his flank movement and John Sedgwick, commanding the main Union forces remaining near Fredericksburg, was reluctant to press the attack in the Fredericksburg sector.
On April 29th, Lee had begun shifting troops to face Hooker's flanking columns. After midnight on April 31st, the bulk of his army with Stonewall Jackson in command left the Fredericksburg line. Moving quickly to the front, Jackson's force hit two of the three advancing Federal columns hard as they emerged from the Wilderness west of Zoan Church on May 1st, causing Hooker to draw back into defensive positions near Chancellorsville to await Lee's full attack.
With Jackson gone, 11,000 troops comprising Early's Division of Jackson's Corps and Barksdale's Brigade of McLaw's Division were left on May 1st to hold the Fredericksburg line against Sedgwick's Sixth Corps, Reynold's First Corps, and Gibbon's Second Corps division. Early spread his lines thinly and the men were put to work decoying the enemy.
According to Lt. Dart, "details were made to build fires along our lines and hollar and hoop and by this means we kept them off....The yells would commence at one end of the line and it would reach the other end and thus we kept at bay such a force for that length of time." He added, "the boys did not know what to think of the officers when they were told they were on a hollaring detail but appeared to be quite fond of it."
On May 2nd, General Early received a garbled order from General Lee that caused him to pull most of his small command out of line to join Lee's main force. Only the 21st Mississippi of Barksdale's Brigade on Marye's Heights, Hays' Louisiana Brigade and 15 guns of Pendleton's artillery battalion (approximately 3,000 men) were left to face Sedgwick's Sixth Corps and Brooks Division of Reynolds Corps.
Early moved deliberately shifting his units and guns so as to disquise his withdrawal as much as possible. It wasn't until later in the day that the Georgians joined the line of march, which had already commensed along the Telegraph Road. The head of Early's column had turned North along Mine Road and had just reached the junction of the Orange Plank Road as the sun was setting when a clarifying order from Lee was received. Early reversed directions and marched his men back at the double-quick to their original positions at Fredericksburg, reaching his old lines near midnight. His march was hastened by news from couriers that Sedgwick's Corps had thrown out bridges over the Rappahannock and was beginning its advance into Fredericksburg
Private Nichols and the 61st Georgia had moved out of their works at dark to join the march. "I supposed we had gone three or four miles when we heard an order come up the line, 'Halt! Halt! About face! Forward march!' and away we went back in a hurry." As they marched in the darkness, the march column suddenly disintegrated as the men of the 61st dodged to the left and right to avoid what they thought was a cavalry charge from their rear. After dusting themselves off and falling back into line, a half a mile down the road they came across the source of the commotion, an old crippled horse who was struggling to get up a steep hillside.
Upon regaining their old lines along the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, Private Nichols was one of the skirmishers detailed to feel out the Union position beyond the River Road. "We advanced, expecting, when we got to the road, the Yankees to rise up and shoot at us at short range. The moon had risen and was shining very clearly." Much to his relief, "when we got to the road we did not find a Yankee."
The morning of May 3rd found Union commander John Sedgwick contemplating the remanned Confederate line above Fredericksburg. A cautious man by nature, he was reluctant to repeat the frontal assault of the Stone Wall on Marye's Heights that had produced so much futile bloodshed at the first battle of Fredericksburg. Although he strove to find an alternative, circumstances again dictated this as the point of attack. After learning how thinly manned the Confederate lines were there following a truce to retrieve the wounded and dead from an early morning reconnaissance, he launched a heavy assault that overran the positions held by the 18th and 21st Mississippi regiments and the Washington Artillery at Marye's Heights.
With his line cut in two, Early patched together a new position behind Marye's Heights at the Cox House. Gordon's brigade moved toward this new front. Meanwhile, as the Federal advance paused at Marye's Heights, Early's left wing (Hays and Barksdale's brigades) slipped across the front of the Union position and entered Early's line. Early then moved his entire command southwest to Telegraph Road, then westward and finally northward across country, where he could see a Union column marching westward on the Orange Plank Road toward Salem Church. While Early shadowed them to the southeast, Sedgwick's main force had moved out due west along the Orange Plank Road to threaten Lee's rear. But Lee was aware of the threat and quickly shifted troops to face this new thrust. Sedgwick's Sixth Corps was stopped in its tracks by Wilcox's Alabama Brigade, Mahone's Virginia Brigade and three other brigades of McLaw's division in a sharp battle at Salem Church.
Having stopped Sedgwick's advance at Salem Church, Lee approved an early morning attack by McLaws and Early on Sedgwick's new line. The Sixth Corps line was bent back on both flanks like a horseshoe from the Orange Plank Road to the Rappahannock River to protect the crossing at Banks Ford. As part of the proposed attack, Early gave orders to Gordon's brigade to retake Marye's Heights so as cut off Sedgwick from Fredericksburg.
This being his first time leading the Georgians into combat, Gordon formed his men and addressed them. According to Pvt. Henry C. Walker of the 13th Georgia, Gordon told them "...yesterday Gen. Lee drove the Yankees ten miles and taken three thousand prisoners & says if we want any reinforements we can have them, but I say we have got men enough. Every man that is willing to follow me up them hights today let him raise his hat....I don't want you to hollow, wait until you get up close to the heights. Let every man raise a yell and take those heights...Will you do it? I ask you to go no farther than I am willing to lead." The Georgians gave what Gordon described as "a long and thrilling shout." At that, Walker recalls Gordon gave the order to advance and "we all stepped off at quick time."
With the 31st Georgia skirmishing in advance, Gordon moved his Georgians forward rapidly, too rapidly in fact as Early was still bringing up William "Extra Bill" Smith's Virginia brigade to support Gordon's attack. Later, Gordon recalled that "General Early playfully but earnestly remarked, after the fort [Marye's Heights] had been taken, that success had saved me from being court-martialed for disobedience to orders."
Pvt. G. W. Nichols of the 61st Georgia recorded that "we had advanced about two miles when the skirmish line struck the Yankee skirmish line, and drove it in at once, and pushed on to the heights. Our line of battle forwarded and re-took the heights with but very little loss to us. In this little battle of only a few minutes; my shoe sole was shot intwain and my foot stunned. Captain Kennedy had his sword strap shot in twain and Corporate William Holloway had his canteen bursted open with a ball. There were not over fifteen or twenty of the Sixty-First killed and wounded."
On the 26th Georgia's front, Lt. Dart recalled
With a shout we followed him [Gordon] and of all the thick woods, hills and valleys I ever saw, that beats all. For two miles we went and as soon as we commenced storming the heights the Yankees retreated and formed a line of battle so they could flank us, but our General knew his business and after taking possession of the heights, we formed two lines, one to prevent him from reinforcing through the town, the other to prevent an attack upon those guarding the heights."
The 31st Georgia continued its advance across Marye's Heights and down the north side to the Plank Road where they briefly tangled with the guards and teamsters of a supply train, capturing "30 prisoners, several wagons full of stores, [and] about 30 or 40 horses & mules" according to their Colonel Clement A. Evans. The 31st continued their advance ahead of Gordon's brigade until they struck the lines of Thomas Neill's Brigade of Howe's Federal Division. There the 31st Georgia went to ground, keeping their heads low under the heavy Federal rifle fire until, as Pvt. Isaac G. Bradwell of the 31st recalled, "someone saw fit to send the 13th Virginia Regiment [Smith's Brigade] to assist us." The advancing Virginians chided the Georgians, calling on them to get up and help drive the enemy. Bradwell recalls that the Georgians replied "in language more forcible than polite...that what our regiment had failed to do they would be very far from doing." And such was the case as the 13th Virginia reeled back from the heavy fire of Neill's Brigade.
Following the quick dash along the Heights and up Lee's Hill, Adjutant William C. Mathews of the 38th Georgia recalled thinking "the tug of war had come, for we had to charge down the hill and across a deep mill pond and then up a long slant to dislodge them. They had commensed shelling us also. After a little halt, during which time bayonets were fixed, we commenced the charge. We went down the hill like an avalanche and into that mill pond where the water on the right of the regiment reached to our waist. We were soon across and under the brow of the hill, reformed and started again. Then the bullets commenced their music, but before we could get near the road the Yankees were going like a parcel of sheep through the woods."
Heavy firing continued along the skirmish lines through the day and the Georgians checked their guns and resupplied their ammunition in anticipation of further action. Meanwhile, General Lee, in an icy rage that McLaws had not joined Early in the morning attack, was preparing a heavy push designed to cut-off and destroy Sedgwick's shrinking bridgehead. The afternoon was spent maneuvering units into line to fill the gap between McLaws and Early's commands. Early's Division was given the task of turning the Union left and driving it back from the Banks Ford. Gordon's Brigade was posted on the right of Early's line and ordered to move ahead parallel to the Rappahannock River, seizing the high ground at Taylor's Hill and pressing on into Sedgwick's rear.
The attack commenced after 5:30 p.m., signalled by the rapid report of three guns fired by Porter Alexander's artillery. Pvt. Nichols of the 61st Georgia recalled the time as 6:00 o'clock when "we heard a big signal gun and our regimental commanders commanded attention. We were all on our feet at once and ordered to move forward." Lt. Dart of the 26th Georgia noted that General Gordon "rode again in front of us and told us he wanted us to charge some batteries and drive every Yankee into the river. We had to raise our hats again to inform him if we were willing and on we went climbing hills, some 40 to 50 feet high and so steep we had to climb them on hands and feet."
Pushing rapidly ahead, Henry Walker of the 13th Georgia recalled "about this time the boys raised a yell enough to frighten any living thing on earth" and drove the Yankees back so quickly that "it was all the skirmishers could do to keep in shooting distance."
As Gordon's Brigade crossed Stansbury Hill on the approach to Taylor's Hill, they fell under the converging fire of Union batteries firing from three different directions. Lt. Dart recalls there was "one battery in our rear just across the river, another on our left flank, and two in front all throwing shells and canister." To Pvt. Nichols, it appeared that the Yankees,
"had their batteries massed right in front of the Sixty-First Georgia." They seemed to open fire at our regiment with every gun (about twenty), almost at the same time, loaded with grape and cannister shot. They were about two hundred yards from us. When we saw the smoke puff from the mouths of their cannons it looked like every man fell at once. It seemed that the air was full of grape and canister shot. Luckily for us we had not gotten to the top of the hill; and when we fell, which was almost automatically, the ground was about twelve or fifteen inches higher in our front than it was where we were, and the deadline missiles passed harmlessly over us."
The fire from Union 20 pounder guns posted across the river near Falmouth played down on the confederate ranks with more deadly effect. In a letter to his wife, Captain W. R. Redding of the 13th Georgia described it as a "tremendous shelling" and recalled with horror the sight of two men in his company killed by a single solid shot. In the 38th Georgia's sector, Adjutant Mathews guided six companies out of a ravine where they had ducked for cover. "We had scarcely got out of the ditch before they fired upon us, and "Jewhilikens!' I never heard anything in my life till then, at the first fire over 20 men were shot down. We retired at a full run...."
Fortunately for the Georgians, Gordon's line overlapped the batteries, threatening their unsupported left flank. There was no time to hesitate and so the Georgians continued their rush forward as the Union artillerists nervously eyed their unprotected flank. Barney Dart's 26th Georgia "charged upon them so near that the batteries in front hitched up and went off in double quick. We had by this time got so close to the enemy that the other batteries could not play upon us without doing damage to their own men."
In the advance, Lt. Dart had already survived a near miss from a bullet that passed through his pants above his shin. His luck almost ran out before the guns when a grape or canister shot glanced off a tree, striking him heavily in the thigh. "I rolled with it for awhile but when the line was ordered forward I used my sword for a walking stick and limped through it."
Having driven away the guns, Dart recalls:
"We halted in the edge of a piece of woods to make some arrangements before charging the infantry. While the skirmishing from both sides kept up a heavy fire doing some damage to the lines of battle....The arrangements being made, Gordon came again to us and told us he was proud of us and that the troops to our left were thrashing them and he wanted us to clean the woods of them. We fixed bayonets and according to his orders commenced yelling for he told us he wanted us to make the welkin ring. We advanced with fixed bayonets and a genuine Georgia hoop which was kept up till nine o'clock and believe me we run the devils out without firing a shot and the most of them did not stop till they were safe on the other side of the river."
Pvt. George Bandy and the 60th Georgia joined in the race. "I never have saw yankees Skeedadle so in all my life. When they hear the Rebels come charging and hallowing they cant stand." Having made their way through the woods, the 60th emerged to see a new line of Union guns formed about 300 yards distant, "but it was so dark we had no chance to charge it. So we just laid as flat ato the ground as ever you saw a flying squirl lay to a tree. Hear there were severl mens heds tore off."
For a brief moment, it seemed the fate of Sedgwick's Corps hung in the balance as Gordon's brigade threatened to swoop down on the nearly unguarded Rappahannock crossings that were the Sixth Corps only line of retreat. However, seeing the danger, Sedgwick had forwarded Wheaton's Pennslvania brigade and a fresh battery to block Gordon's path to the fords. His advance impeded by the growing darkness, Gordon halted his advance. Content with their progress, the Georgians slept quietly in line of battle along the edge of the woods they had just captured in anticipation that the attack would resume in the morning.
After scouring the woods and collecting their spoils of war, the Georgia Brigade marched that day back to its old camp along the Fredericksburg line. There the men of the brigade enjoyed a welcome respite from war, mending their wounds, writing letters home on captured stationary, and generally returning to the routine of camp life. So they remained until June 4, 1863 while Lee reorganized his army.
Thus did the Georgia Brigade and their new Brigadier John Brown Gordon contribute to General Robert E. Lee's stunning victory at Chancellorsville. It proved to be a hollow victory for the Confederacy, however, for Stonewall Jackson had fallen wounded by his own men in the confusion of battle in the WIlderness. His weakened condition led to the onset of pneumonia and on Sunday, May 10th Jackson died. While defeating a foe over twice his size in desperate fighting, Lee had lost his "right arm" along with over 13,000 of his best troops. Rather than destroying the Union army or a significant portion thereof, Lee's victory succeeded merely in restoring his Rappahannock line of defense. The victory also reenforced Lee's resolve to undertake a second invasion of the North culminating in the ultimately disasterous defeat at Gettysburg.
The Georgia Brigade's own losses in the Chancellorsville campaign (April 29-May 5) have been estimated as 17 killed, 178 wounded and 36 missing. Despite these losses, their spirit was buoyed by their success and by a growing admiration for their new commander, John Brown Gordon. To Lt. Dart, he was "our gallant Brigadier, Oh! how we love him." To Pvt. Nichols, he was the "famous, energetic, gallant" Gordon. Even Col. Clement Evans, who had been passed over for command of the brigade, joined with his fellow officers in petitioning General Lee for Gordon's permanent appointment. Gordon returned their enthusiasm for his new command, writing years later that "no more superb material ever filled the ranks of any command in any army."
The official Confederate casualty returns for the Battle of Chancellorsville are notoriously unreliable. Using more accurate regimental and brigade casualty returns as his source, Stephen Sears reports casualties in Gordon's brigade during the battles fought April 29th through May 5th as follows:
| Killed | Wounded | Missing | Total | ||
| Staff | - | 1 | - | 1 | |
| 13th GA. | 4 | 54 | 28 | 86 | |
| 26th GA. | 3 | 21 | - | 24 | |
| 31st GA | 3 | 22 | 1 | 26 | |
| 38th GA | 2 | 18 | - | 20 | |
| 60th GA | 5 | 30 | 4 | 39 | |
| 61st GA | - | 32 | 3 | 35 | |
| TOTALS: | 17 | 178 | 36 | 231 |
You can visit the Chancellorsville, Salem Church and Frederickburg battlefields, which are preserved as part of the National Park Services Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Historical Park. You can also read the Park Service' on-line History of the Battle of Chancellorsville.
Or look for any of the following books in your library or bookstore:
All quotations used in this essay are taken from the following primary sources and are reproduced as in the original (misspellings included):
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Last Update: Sept. 18, 1997
Copyright © 1997, Chris J. Brantley (all rights reserved as to original materials).
