The Lawton-Gordon-Evans Georgia Brigade (so-named for its three principal commanders) was one of the premier brigades of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, serving with distinction from the Seven Days battles around Richmond (May-June 1862) until its surrender at Appomattox Court House (April 9, 1865).
The brigade was initially comprised of six regiments (13th, 26th, 31st, 38th, 60th, and 61st Georgia), which were raised at the call of Governor Joe Brown for the defense of the Georgia coast following the bombardment of Fort Sumter.
The 13th Georgia had initally mustered into Confederate service on July 8, 1861 and served briefly with Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd's brigade in West Virginia, seeing minor action at the Battles of Sewell Mountain and Laurel Hill before being returned to Georgia due to sickness and lack of clothing suitable for the harsh winter climate in the West Virginia mountains. While on coastal duty, they engaged in a number of skirmishes, including the capture of a gunboat that afterwards bore their name and a brush-up with the 8th Michigan on Whitemarsh Island, Georgia on April 16, 1862.
The six regiments were placed under the command of Brig. Gen. Alexander Lawton, commander of the Georgia Military District, who had proposed formation of an "elite brigade" of Georgia troops to answer Richmond's call for troops to repel the threat posed by McClellan's advance from Williamsburg on the Confederate capital (i.e. the Peninsula Campaign).
In May 1862, the six regiments, which mustered between 6,000-7000 men, were moved by train to Lynchburg and the Shenandoah Valley to reenforce Stonewall Jackson as part of a deception planned by General Lee to mask his planned offensive against McClellan's forces around Richmond.
Having arrived with Jackson's column during its forced march from the Valley to engage in the Seven Days Battles around Richmond, the Brigade received its baptism of fire at the battle of Gaines Mill (June 27, 1862), suffering 492 killed and wounded out of approximately 3,500 soldiers carried into battle. Spurred on by General Richard Ewell's "Hurrah for Georgia," they formed line of battle and advanced through heavy woods and marshy stream bottoms until they met the enemy posted on higher ground. On the left, the 31st and 38th Georgia charged Sykes' Union Division, overrunning the Hoboken battery, and pushing back the elite regulars until Hood's brigade broke through the Union center and a general advance caused the Union lines to collapse.
The Brigade's service also included action at:
Following the Seven Days battles around Richmond, General Lee sent Stonewall Jackson northward with half his army to neutralize a second Union army under Gen. John Pope, which was advancing on Richmond. Jackson attacked Pope's advance at Cedar Mountain, where the Georgians guarded Jackson's supply train and saw none of the fighting. Jackson then maneuvered his Corps into the rear of Gen. John Pope's army, skirmishing with rear echelon troops at Bristoe Station and capturing the Union supply depot at Manassas Junction, before concealing his force on a wooded ridge near Groveton. At Brawner's Farm, Jackson emerged from hiding to strike the march column of King's Union Division. The Georgia Brigade suffered heavy casualties in a prolonged firefight on open ground with the Union Iron Brigade and it's Battery B, 4th U.S. Artillery. Georgia Brigade commander Alexander Lawton thereafter assumed command of Ewell's division when Ewell was severely wounded. The Georgians were posted in the center of Jackson's line for the subsequent battle of 2nd Manassas (Bull Run).
After victory at 2nd Manassas, Lee moved his army north into Maryland. When pressed by the larger Union army under Gen. McClellan, Lee collected his forces near Sharpsburg, Maryland and put them into line along Antietam Creek. The Georgia Brigade was postred at the center of Stonewall Jackson's lines along the fringe of Miller's Cornfield and the East Woods. Under temporary command of Col. Marcellus Douglass, the Gerogians blunted the onslaught of Hooker's attacking columns in desperate fighting. Helping to repulse attacks by elements of Duryea, Hartsuff, and Christian's Union Brigades, the Georgians suffered over 560 killed, wounded, and missing out of the 1100 who entered the fray in just 45 minutes of hard fighting. Their commanding general, their brigade commander, and five of the six regimental commanders were either killed or wounded in the fierce conflict. Badly frazzled but not broken, the Brigade was replaced in line by Hood's Texas Brigade during a lull in the fighting. Although leaderless, many of the Georgians remained at the front or returned to the fighting on their own accord throughout the balance of the battle.
After Antietam, Lee retired to Virginia, taking up positions near Fredericksburg guarding the crossings of the Rappahannock River. The Union Army under Gen. Burnside moved to attack the strong confederate positions on Marye's Heights making no progress in spite of heavy casualties until George Meade pushed his Federal Division through a swampy gap farther down the Confederate lines and rolled up Gregg's South Carolina Brigade. Major General Jubal Early sent the Georgia Brigade in to plug the hole. Their counterattack was so successful and the ardor of the Georgians' charge so great that they chased Meade's collapsing lines back out on the plains, driving to within 400 yards of the Rappahannock River, where their advance stalled before Birney's fresh Federal division and sixteen guns. It is reputed that the sight of this charge, involving four of the six Georgia Regiments, may have inspired General Lee's famous observation: "It is well war is so terrible; otherwise we would grow too fond of it."
In the subsequent Chancellorsville Campaign, fighting with new Brigadier General John Brown Gordon, the 13th Georgia helped delay the Union Iron Brigade and its Rappahannock crossing at Fitzhugh's Landing. While Lee faced Hooker at Chancellorsville, Sedgwick's Corps thrust through the Confederate lines at Marye's Heights above Fredericksburg and threatened Lee's rear until stopped at Salem Church. Here the Brigade recaptured the lightly defended Heights and then successfully rolled back the left flank of Sedgwick's Union Sixth Corps, threatening their line of retreat across Banks Ford.
Despite the death of Stonewall Jackson, General Lee was encouraged by the twin victories at Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg to try a second invasion. Assigned to Early's Division of Ewell's Corps, the Georgia Brigade skirmished with Milroy's Union forces at Winchester in the Shenandoah Valley on their way to Maryland and then marched as far north and east as Wrightsville, Pennsylvania before being stopped when fleeing state militia burned the bridge over the Susquehanna River. The Georgians then turned south again to join Lee's army as it concentrated around Gettysburg.
In the afternoon the first day's fighting at Gettsyburg, General Gordon led his newly arrived Brigade in a devastating charge that rolled over the right flank of the Union line, causing the collapse of the Union XI Corps. Closely pressing the disintegrating Union forces, Gordon's Brigade killed or wounded nearly 1500 Union troops and captured another 1800, against a loss of approximately 400. After the war, General Richard Ewell recalled that "Gordon's Brigade that evening put hors de combat a greater number of the enemy in proportion to its own numbers than any other command on either side ever did, from the beginning to the end of the war." Gordon was chagrined that his advance was halted and that Ewell later declined his entreaties to attack the confused Federal forces on Cemetary Hill before they could rally and entrench. The Brigade saw little action in the balance of that great battle and served as part of the rear guard in Lee's retreat.
The Brigade's next great exploit was at the Battle of the Wilderness. Arriving on the field as the Union 5th and 6th Corps bore down on the Ewell's 2nd Corps, Gordon's brigade launched into the middle of the Union line, penetrating deeply into a gap between the Federal brigades of Cutler and Stone. Apprehensive of being cut off, Gordon formed his regiments in two lines, facing back to back, and charged again, rolling up the flanks of the Federal brigades in both directions and causing a general panic that stalled the Union assault. In the confusion that followed, Major James Van Valkenburgh of the 61st Georgia and several aides single-handedly captured the entire 7th Pennsylvania Regiment by bluff. The rout of Cutler's Iron Brigade proved a measure of revenge for the losses suffered at the hands of the "Black Hats" at Groveton.
Following this successful attack, Gordon's Brigade was shifted to the far left of the Confederate line. Here, early the next day, Gordon determined that the Union right flank was susceptible to a flanking attack similar to Jackson's master stroke at Chancellorsville. His division commander Jubal Early refused to believe that the Union lines were unsupported and entreaties to Ewell were unavailing until late in the day when Ewell, under pressure from Lee to mount an attack, authorized Gordon's plan. Attacking as the sun set, Gordon's Georgians caught the Federals by surprise, rolling up their lines for nearly a mile, capturing over 600 prisoners and two Brigadier Generals, and apparently causing a near panic among the staff officers at Grant's headquarters. Unfortunately for the South, Grant remained unruffled. In his subsequent report and after the war, Gordon argued with much feeling that this attack, if made earlier in the day and with adequate support, would have produced a decisive Confederate victory.
After the Wilderness, the Brigade joined in the race to Spotsylvania Courthouse under the command of new Brigadier General Clement Anselm Evans in a patched-together division created for John Brown Gordon, who was promoted Major General. Held in reserve, they were thrown into the bloody fighting twice on May 10 and May 12, 1864 to plug holes caused by the sudden assaults of Wright's VI Corps and Hancock's II Corps against the so-called Mule Shoe salient, the apex of which was known later as "Bloody Angle." In the second charge, as the fate of the Confederate army stood in the balance, General Lee rode into the center of Gordon's forming line, apparently resolved to lead them in the advance, until the cries "General Lee to the rear" by the Georgians and Virginians of Gordon's command compelled him to retire to safer ground.
Evan's Georgia Brigade fought and marched with Lee's army as it was inexorably pushed back on it's defensive lines at Richmond and Petersburg. Then, the Georgians were dispatched with Early's small corps to drive Union forces under Gen. Hunter from the Shenandoah Valley, who were threatening Richmond from the rear and laying waste to the Valley's rich agriculture. After chasing Hunter into West Virginia, Early's forces raced up the Valley, into Maryland, and towards Washington, DC. Delayed by a day of hard fighting at Monocacy, Early's small command reached the suburbs of Washington, D.C. at Fort Stevens just in time to watch reenforcements sent by Grant from Virginia file into the city's strong fortifications.
Following their disappointment at Washington, Early's command retired back into the Shenandoah Valley. In August1864, Gordon's Division was the subject of an inspection report, which noted that "Evans' (Georgia) brigade has lost by casualty so many and such valuable officers as to interfere seriously with its good management." The inspection concluded, however, that "in spite of all defects, the division has fought with conspicuous gallantry and constant success."
Shortly thereafter Gen. Phil Sheridan's newly-created Union Army of the Shenandoah began active operations against Early and subjected the out-numbered confederate forces to embarrassing reverses at Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek.
At Winchester, the Georgia Brigade broke before a surprise Union attack on their line of march, but regrouped and returned to the front lines, fighting doggedly throughout the day. At Fisher's Hill, Union forces fell on Early's lightly guarded left flank, causing a panicked rout. The Georgia Brigade was posted at the center of Early's line in strong positions which they were forced to abandon when their line of retreat was threatened by the collapse. At Cedar Creek, the Georgians lead the surprise flank attack that nearly produced victory, but Early failed to press his advantage, allowing Sheridan to rally his men and bring up fresh forces that reversed the tide of battle. This defeat caused a falling out between Gordon and Early, who suppressed Gordon's report of the battle and whose own report blamed the failure to follow-up the successful attack to disorganization resulting from looting of the overrun Union encampments. The rank and file had lost confidence in Early and longed for Gordon to take command.
Leaving Early with a patchwork force in the Valley, the Georgia brigade returned with Gordon's Division to the Confederate lines at Petersburg. Gordon was given command of Lee's 3rd Corps and Clement Evans was made division commander. The Georgia Brigade fought on in the closing battles of that campaign, including the sharp fighting at Hatcher's Run and the forlorn hope attack at Hares Hill or Fort Steadman. They helped hold the trenches near Petersburg until the confederate defeat at Five Forks force Lee to abandon his works. They then served with Gordon's rear guard protecting Lee's army during their retreat toward Appomattox Court House.
Tradition holds that the Georgia Brigade also participated in the last attack made by the Army of Northern Virginia, when Gordon's Corps, now in the advance, charged a hastily constructed line of breastworks thrown across their line of march at Appomattox Court House by Sheridan's cavalry corps, carrying the works, capturing two guns and taking prisoners, before Union infantry reenforcements and a flag of truce halted the fighting.
At Appomattox, approximately 750 officers and men of the Georgia brigade were surrendered to Federal authorities, all that was left of a brigade that mustered nearly 7,000 men three years before, and that had been reenforced during the course of the war by another 800 men from the 9th, 12th, and 18th Georgia Battalions. Only the combined Louisiana Brigades of Hays and Taylor (12 regiments) lost more men than did Lawton-Gordon-Evan's Georgia Brigade during the war.
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Last Updated: Sept. 12, 1998
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