This is the first in a planned series of articles looking back exactly 150 years ago to the men who fought during the War Between the States. Gwinnett County raised approximately 18 units during the war: Company H 16th Georgia Infantry, Co I 16th, Co F 24th, Co F 35th, Co H 35th, Co K 36th, Co I 55th, and Company/Battery D 9th Georgia Light Artillery. In addition to these were units such as Co C 12th Light artillery which was raised in Stone Mountain of men living along the Dekalb/Gwinnet line and is considered a "DeKalb" unit. The same was true for Company E of the 7th and for the 16th Cavalry Militia which was comprised of Gwinnett/Jackson men and is considered a "Jackson" unit. The militia units were generally of short (6 month) duration.

   As the summer of 1862 opened, Gwinnett troops were scattered around the Confederacy. Both the 36th and 42nd regiments were stationed around Knoxville under brigade commanders Reynolds and Stevenson respectively. The 35th under Pettigrew was camped near Culpepper, Va. as part of W.H.C. Whiting's Division. The 16th and 24th were part of Howell Cobb's brigade on the "Virginia Peninsula" garrisoning the Confederate battery at Mulberry Point, which prevented US Navy ships from moving up the James River to threaten Richmond. The 12th Georgia Light Artillery was completing training at Augusta and the 55th Georgia was doing the same at Camp Randolph in Calhoun, Georgia.

   The spring saw Gwinnett troops from both regiments in Cobb's Brigade heavily involved in the "Peninsular Campaign" when General McClellan moved virtually the entire Army of the Potomac from the Washington defenses to Ft Monroe at the tip of the "Virginia Peninsula" planning to attack Richmond through the "back door" and avoid Joe Johnston's Army of Northern Virginia which was camped around Culpepper VA between Richmond and Washington. Using a combination of skill, bluff, and good luck, Gen. Magruder was able to delay McClellan's progress up the Peninsula until Johnston could arrive with the bulk of the Confederate forces.

   When Johnston's consolidation was complete, and having learned that McClellan had split his army, with two of his five Corps on the South of the Chickahominy River and the other three on the North side of the river, he decided to attack.

   Johnston's plan was complex. He intended to attack the isolated Yankees simultaneously, at dawn on 31 May, with both G.W. Smith's (including the 35th GA) and Longstreet's wings, which would march to contact on parallel, but converging, roads, while Magruder's reserve wing (with the 16th and 24th GA) held the line of the river to keep an eye on the other three Federal Corps. Unfortunately, torrential rains the night before, inadequate maps, and inexperienced staff work among the Confederates resulted in serious timing and coordination problems with the attack. Instead of a simultaneous attack being delivered at dawn by two full Confederate wings, a series of piecemeal attacks were made by individual divisions starting at about 2:00 pm.

   It was during one of these attacks at about 5:00 in the afternoon that the 35th GA engaged in their first pitched battle. Although the battle continued into the next day, the 35th GA made no further attacks, and in fact, retreated slightly to a more defensible position.

   General Johnston was severely wounded during the battle and had to relinquish command. To replace him, President Jefferson Davis selected Robert E. Lee. Lee took command of the army on 1 June and immediately set about reorganizing it. Although the 16th and 24th GA continued in Cobb's brigade, the brigade was shifted from McLaw's division to Magruder's command. The 35th GA would get a whole new set of commanders, with the wounded and captured Pettigrew being replaced as brigade commander by Gen. Joseph Anderson, and their brigade was assigned to A.P. Hill's "light" division, which, with six brigades, was almost the size of a corps by itself.

   Finally, in the last week of June, having completed his reorganization and perfected his entrenchments, Lee struck back. Over the seven days between 25 June and 1 July, Lee made a series of attacks that drove McClellan and the Army of the Potomac away from the gates of Richmond, forcing it to abandon its line of communications back to Fort Monroe, and to establish a new supply base Harrison's Landing.

   26 June: Mechanicsville - The 35th crossed Beaver Dam Creek on the far left of the Confederate line. Assaulting up a steep, tree-covered slope it drove the enemy back and captured an excellent position from which to charge the enemy artillery. Unfortunately, the 14th GA lost its commander while moving to support and its advance stalled. The 35th held its position until the end of the battle when it rejoined its brigade.

   27 June: Gaines Mill - The 35th was among the first units engaged in this battle being part of the initial assault across Boatswain's Swamp against the Federal line which took place between 2:30 and 3:30pm, In his report Gen. A.P. Hill reports that "the Thirty-fifth Georgia, Colonel Thomas, also drove through the enemy's lines like a wedge". Due to lack of timely support and prompt counter attacks, the attack failed and the 35th returned to its initial position.

   29 June: Savage's Station -The 16th and 24 th GA were deployed to the left of the Richmond & York River RR. Although under sporadic fire they were not closely engaged as the main battle was fought to the right of the railroad.

   30 June: Frazier's Farm - The 35 th was part of Gen. A.P. Hill's last reserve for this battle taking no part until very late in the day, almost dark, when it was committed to support the center of the Confederate position, which was sagging a bit under intense Union assault. After the Confederate reserve was committed, the heavily reinforced Federals made one more assault all along the line. When the assault failed, all firing ceased and the enemy retired.

   1 July: Malvern Hill - The 16th the spent the morning deployed along a ravine on the right acting as flank guard ensuring that no Federal forces advanced in that direction. The 24th was held in reserve until deployed in support of Armistead's brigade which was under attack. After helping Armistead's men repulse the Federals and being joined by the re-deployed 16th GA, Cobb's brigade made an unsuccessful assault on the Union line. In the words of Eli Landers "The first command given was to fix bayonets and charge the battery … but we had to charge through an open field for about a half mile under the open and well directed fire of a heavy battery well supported with infantry. The grapeshot and bums [sic] cut our lines down so rapidly our officers finding it could not be taken. We was ordered back for form and tried it again but did not succeed and retired the second time". Cobb's report of this battle states:

… for more than forty-eight hours previous to the battle they had had neither rest nor food; and though their ranks had been greatly reduced by exhaustion, there was no murmuring or spirit of complaint as long as there was an enemy in front.We commenced the march from the burnt chimney on the morning of June 29 with 2,700 men, but fatigue and exhaustion had so reduced our ranks that less than 1,500 were carried into the battle of the 1st instant, and of that number nearly 500 are in the list of killed and wounded.

   On 5 July the 12th GA Light Artillery ended training in Augusta and was ordered to Chattanooga. It was joined by the 55th Infantry in Calhoun, Georgia. Both regiments were delayed for two days near Ringold on 6 July when the train carrying the 12th was involved in a head on collision with an empty Southbound train killing ten or twelve men, and fifteen or twenty horses, with injuries more or less serious to a larger number. Upon arriving in Chattanooga the 12th was issued Enfield rifles and four of the companies were converted to infantry. One company, the "Newnan Artillery", was detached and sent into Kentucky as Artillery with Gen. Kirby Smith, while the remaining four companies were sent to Bridgeport to join Gen Heath and do picket duty in Northern Tennessee. On the morning of 13 August, Col. Archibald Gracie commanding these four companies along with the 43rd AL stormed and captured Fort Cliff near Huntsville, Tennessee, which was held by Tennessee Unionist "scattering the Unionist in every direction". Accounts of the assault on Ft. Cliff refer to the skirmish as almost bloodless with the only casualty (killed) was the "nice" horse of Col. Gracie. The Unionist troops, apparently surprised by the attack, left in such a hurry that breakfast was found in the camp cooking on the fire. The next day Gen. Smith continued into Kentucky with the 12th and 55th (Heath's Division) and the 36th and 42nd (part of Stevenson's Division) while the 9th Lt Artillery joined General Humphrey Marshall at Abingdon, Virginia.

   After McClellan retreated to a strongly fortified line around Harrison's Landing, Lincoln organized another Army under Gen. John Pope in Centerville VA. This 75,000-man army was intended to march southwards and trap Lee between it and McClellan. To counter this threat, Lee decided to attack Pope, before he could combine with McClellan. Detaching first Jackson's wing of the Army and following him with Longstreet's Wing when it became apparent that McClellan was moving his army back to Washington by sea, Lee left McLaws' Division (including Cobb's Brigade and the 16th and 24th) to watch the Union troops left at Harrison's Landing.

   Although missing the beginning of the battle when Jackson attacked Union troops at Brawner's Farm on 28 August, Gwinnett troops of the 35th were heavily engaged on both the 29th and 30th of August. On the 29th, deployed behind a small creek that fed Bull Run, they formed part of the far left flank of the Confederate line and defeated several Union assaults which were attempting to turn the Confederate left. On the 30th, they held the same line, until Longstreet's attack on the Confederate right broke through. After Longstreet's breakthrough, the 35th GA (and the rest of A.P. Hill's command) joined a general advance which "drove everything before them, capturing two batteries, many prisoners, and resting that night on Bull Run … sleeping among the dead and dying enemy".

   On 4 July, Thomas Maguire of "The Promised Land" in Rockbridge district received word that his son John E. was wounded and in the Christian & Lea hospital [General Hospital #13] so he went to Atlanta for a passport and then to Richmond with his brother-in-law David Anderson.to bring John E. home. Fortunately John E's wound was not considered dangerous and he was allowed to come home to recuperate. The journey home was by the most direct route: Lynchburg Va./Bristol Tn./Dalton Ga.

   Eli Landers writes home to Yellow River that "money is scarce as hen's teeth", prices are high, and pay is slow. "We haven't got no tents nor don't want none till winter time." On June 18: "small battle 4 miles away we lost 40". On June 20: "The Yankeys threw a bum [sic] in the camp of the 8th GA and killed 1-6 while wounding several others". From Camp Comfort on June 21: "We have not had but very little fighting here since the 31st but we had had some very heavy skirmishing." "We are camped 5 miles of Richmond." There are skirmishes every day and drill 3-4 hours a day. W. P. Mason got back from hospital 2 months less 5 days and reports "there is a rite smart of sickness here in camp now". On July 1 at Malvern Hill: "D. W. Haney wounded in the knee and will likely lose his leg. L. D. Medlock was shocked with the bursting of a bum in his face injuring his eyes but not hurt bad". On July 6 he fought at Crew's Farm.

   William Milton Nash of Yellow River was wounded at Garnett's Farm June 28 "a piece of shell struck me on the lower part of the shin bone shattering both bones all to pieces causing me to have to loose [sic] my foot and part of the leg. Left foot." and he too was sent to Christian & Lea hospital. Milton reports on July 10 that he "doesn't like the hospital - crowded, hot as a stove, no attendants nor no water fit for a horse to drink". Of the other Gwinnett boys he says "Nicholas Shamblee had his arm shot off and was also wounds in the side & head. William Carroll was shot through left side, wound considered mortal. Thos. Carroll wounded in the shoulder considered very dangerous. George Garner flesh wound in the arm, not dangerous. Wm. Dilda, S. D. Holmes, H. W. Mills … was slightly wounded" and John Ford has the dropsy. Milton's report ends here as he died of fever on July 17 at 7:00 in the evening with his father Robert by his side. His father reports that they found a "beautiful & pretty" spot in Hollywood cemetery.