Confederate forces in Tennessee began September laying siege to Union General Morgan at Cumberland Gap. On the 16th, General Morgan evacuated the Gap and retreated to Cincinnati. The 36th and 42nd under Stevenson followed. At that time, the 12th and 55th GA were in the vicinity of Cincinnati as part of Heth's attempted raid on that city which resulted only in a series of small skirmishes.

   The army crossed the Cumberland Ford on September 19th and marched into Kentucky through Barbourville, London, and Laurell Bridge. With the rivers dry, the men were "marching in dust so thick that you can't see a man ten steps in front of you". On through Richmond, Lancaster, Danville, Harrodsburg, Martinsburg, Frankfort, Versailles, Lawrenceburg, and back to Harrodsburg. General Braxton Bragg fought the battle of Perryville on the 8th of October but the 36th and 42nd were 10 miles away at Harrodsburg and missed out on the fighting. Bragg won the battle but began a withdrawal on the 11th driving herds of cattle, sheep, hogs, and captured wagons before him. The 55th under brigade commander Archibald Gracie was part of Bragg's rear guard back to Tennessee.

   Back through Lancaster, Crab Orchard, Rockcastle, London, Barboursville, Flat Lick, and Cumberland Ford, the army arrived at Cumberland Gap on October 23rd where there was a sudden cold spell and three inches of snow covered everything. A portion of Heth's command including the 55th stopped here while Bragg continued with the rest of the army toward Knoxville. From there it was on to Jones' Station, Bean's Station, and Rutledge where they camped in four inches of snow. Brigadier General Seth Barton had the men prepare for winter by sending one man home from each company to procure winter clothing. The army was back in Knoxville on the 30th where General Heth's division remained keeping an eye on Union forces in that area. The rest of the army camped at Lenoir's Station from Oct 31st - Nov 16th. General Barton wrote home that the men have no blankets or tents and 1/3 of the men don't have shoes. They then moved to Chattanooga, Normandy (Nov 19-28), and Manchester, TN from the 29th onward. At this time, the 12th was ordered to Savannah to command the forts and coastline of Georgia and South Carolina. During all of this the 9th remained around Abingdon, VA with General Humphrey Marshall. The Army of Tennessee marched 1000 miles, fought a bloody battle and wound up back where they started two months before.

   In Virginia, General Lee decided to carry the War to the Union. He did so for two main reasons: first, to augment his army by enlistments from pro-Confederate men in the area and second, he could feed his troops using the Maryland harvest, taking some of the pressure off of his own overtaxed commissary.

   Lee divided his army into four parts and began moving into Maryland on 4 September. At first things went well. Lee's Army moved with speed and precision and McClellan, back in command of the Army of the Potomac, didn't even realize that Lee was in Maryland until 7 September and didn't reach Frederick, Md. until the 13th. McClellan, realizing that Lee's army was widely separated and ripe to be defeated in detail before it could consolidate, began moving to place his entire army directly between the two halves of Lee's Army allowing him to deal with the two small halves at his leisure. The key was to force the two passes over South Mountain, Turner's and Fox's Gaps in the North and Crampton's Gap in the South.

   After seeing action at the 2nd Battle of Manassas, men of the 16th and 24th GA with Cobb's Brigade of McLaws' Division under Longstreet and the 35th GA (Thomas' Brigade of AP Hill's "Light" Division) enjoyed a brief rest and re-fit before splashing across the Potomac River at Leesburg on 5 September. Men of the 35th GA, with A.P. Hill, participated in the investment and capture of Harper's Ferry on 13-15 September. Although they were in reserve status, they did suffer a few casualties to long range artillery fire. After the Union surrender, Thomas and his men were detailed to remain in Harper's Ferry to secure the 21,000 prisoners and mountains of weapons and supplies. While Jackson and Hill were taking Harper's Ferry, on 14 September, McClellan's men were pushing hard against South Mountain in a desperate effort to isolate the Confederates.

   The 7th GA, part of George T. (Tige) Anderson's Brigade of D.R. Jones' Division of Longstreet's Wing, was detailed as part of the force guarding Fox's Gap, The terrain around Fox's Gap was thickly forested and very rocky and steep causing tremendous command and control problems for both sides. All was confusion. Troops lost their way in the thick underbrush; formations lost touch with each other. When the Federal Assault on Drayton's Brigade, holding a key position astride the only road junction transiting the gap, began to make progress, "Tige's" troops were ordered to move to support Drayton. As they cautiously pushed forward, they began to encounter Drayton's survivors filtering to the rear after they had been routed out of their position by overwhelming Federal strength. Hood's Texans appeared on the left flank and Hood asked Anderson to take up new positions guarding his right flank while his division attempted to drive the Federals out of Dayton's old position. Anderson complied and Hood launched a counterattack that more or less restored Drayton's position and denied the Federal Army the use of Fox's Gap. Fighting gradually petered out around nightfall with the Confederates still holding the critical gap.

   At Crampton's Gap, McLaws had only about 500 men of Mahone's Brigade deployed to stop about 12,000 Federals under General William Franklin. Franklin, in an excess of caution, spent three hours deploying his men for the attack, allowing time for Cobb's brigade, including the 16th and 24th GA to move up and reinforce Mahone's troops. Cobb's arrival bolstered the Confederate center but masses of Union troops were slowly infiltrating around both flanks of the Confederate position. There simply weren't enough Confederate bodies to extend the line. Because of the overwhelming Union strength, even Cobb and his Gwinnett boys weren't enough to stop the Union. They were, however, able to delay them until near sundown when the Confederate line disintegrated and collapsed, losing some 800 men killed, wounded and missing. Eli Landers described it:

"There was about 2 thirds of our Brigade killed, wounded, an taken prisoner. We went in the fight with 30 men in our Co an lost 18 of them though we cant tell who was killed for it was every man for himself. First they [12th and 16th VA] fell back on our right and let the enemy flank us. They come in near taking all of our regiment prisoners. There was one time I thought it impossible for me to escape for I was entirely exhausted with heat and the Yankeys right after us and bullets flying round me like hail stones" The next morning "When I found the regiment. There was only 75 men left in it, 7 in our Co." "then we marched all day and all night on Tuesday. We waded the Potomac about day on Wednesday morning and with our little squad went into another hard fight. We only had 5 men in our company. The fight lasted from daylight till dark and some of the hardest fighting that has bin…but nun of our Co was lost in that fight."

   This delay was enough to give A.P. Hill time to force the surrender of Harper's Ferry the next day. The remnants of Cobb's brigade retired to Brownsville, Md. that same day before moving to Sharpsburg during the night of the 16th.

   After holding off the Union attempts to split his army on the 14th and securing Harper's Ferry on the 15th, Lee immediately moved to consolidate his army at Sharpsburg, Maryland. Lee's units began arriving late on the 15th and other units came in throughout the day. The bulk of the Union army arrived in the late afternoon of the 15th and McClellan spent the 16th concentrating his army. "Tige" Anderson's brigade, with the 7th GA arrived at Sharpsburg the morning of the 16th and was deployed with the rest of D.R. Jones' Division on the far right of the Confederate line.

   McClellan struck hard on the morning of the 17th. and drove the Confederate defenders out of a cornfield on the Confederate left. Lee immediately counterattacked with Hood's Texans who had just arrived on the battlefield after marching all night and were cooking their breakfast. Lee also shifted "Tige" Andeson's Brigade from the Army's right flank over to bolster the heavily pressed Left. Hood's troops restored the Confederate position but left most of their number lying dead or wounded on the field.

West Woods(lower left) / Cornfield(center of map) / Sunken Road(lower right) Sharpsburg is just off the bottom edge

   The Union attacked again, this time with Mansfield's corps and once again cleared the cornfield of Confederates and captured a small wood, called the "West Wood". Once again, Lee counterattacked. This time with McLaws' freshly arrived troops and "Tige" Anderson's brigade. The Confederates were able to restore their position in the "West Wood". Fierce fighting continued back and forth for two hours when, eventually, they were compelled to fall back and form a new line behind a stone fence on the western boundary of the West Wood, about 10:30am. But it was enough. Mansfield's Yankee's were spent. His corps, was shattered.

   Cobb's brigade, (being commanded here by Lieutenant Colonel Sanders, CO of the 24th GA) including the 16th and 24th GA. arrived on the field at 8:00am and went into action with only 357 men: survivors of Crampton's Gap. They arrived on the field early on the 17th, after marching all night and were immediately deployed. The brigade should have participated in McLaws' counterattack on the West Wood, but through some miscommunication, Colonel Sanders led them "right" when they should have gone "left" and the brigade wound up holding the very left end of the "Sunken Road".

   In this position, they were targets of McClellan's next assault. Under fire for an hour or so from Federal artillery, Sanders led an abortive counterattack out of the position but was unsupported and forced back. Cobb's troops held their portion at the Sunken Road until about 11:00am when brigades of D.H. Hill's division, forming Cobb's right flank, were dislodged by attacks. When Hill's troops broke, Cobb's brigade changed facing 90 degrees, aligning themselves with the Hagerstown Pike, and began an enfilade fire that discouraged further Union advances. They were joined in this position by Tige Anderson's Brigade and by about 2:00pm the situation had stabilized and the battle moved on to other parts of the field. Cobb's troops stayed in the line until running out of ammunition whereupon the 50 survivors withdrew about 300 yards sheltering with the remnants of the 27th NC.

   For the rest of the day the McClelland launched a series of ferocious, but piecemeal, attacks giving Lee the opportunity to counter each of them, often with newly arrived troops. At the end of the day, both armies held the field, exhausted, and more than 22,000 men lay dead or wounded. On the 18th, both Armies stayed in their position, although neither launched any attacks. Lee began evacuating his wounded and crossed the Potomac back into Virginia at Shepherdstown on the night of 18th/19th.

   Cobb's Brigade, along with the 7th GA and others, retired to within two miles of Martinsburg, Va. and set up Camp Lizzie. On 27 September they moved to Camp Tom, seven miles west of Winchester, and stayed there until 31 October when they marched up the Shenandoah Valley to Front Royal and through the Chester Gap to Fredericksburg where they arrived 5 November and remained through the month. The 7th spent October in quarantine due to smallpox 14 miles southwest of Winchester on Cedar Creek.

   "Death is in the land in the form of an epidemic among the children who are dying of sore throat" [1] writes Thomas Maguire of "The Promised Land" in Rockbridge district. August 31st saw the death of Mr. Maguire's grandniece Maggie. Mr. and Mrs. Smith [2] lost their oldest daughter September 3rd. Mr. Jarrell [3] and his wife also lost children on September 5th, 6th, and 15th. David Anderson's son Chesley [Charles (3)] died at 4 o'clock in the afternoon of Oct 13th and their baby died the 31st. James M. Evans died Oct 19. Here at home the news in the papers is dark and mysterious and far from satisfactory as regard to battles in Maryland. Mr Maguire predicts hard times coming with the shortage of salt and leather and has found weevils in the corn harvest. He observes the news in the papers is not of much importance: the legislature and the governor are quarrelling over state's rights and the debate continues on the conscript question.

   After Crampton's Gap and the Maryland campaign, Eli Landers wrote home on September 25th from Camp Lizzie [4] two miles from Martinsburg, Va.
   "We are about 200 miles from Richmond an I think that we have marched 300 to get here. We marched 13 days in succession an have bin marching nearly everday senc we went over in Meriland to se how their puls beat. We stayed about 2 weeks with a heavy loss…I will now give the names of the missing. First Capt Reeder was wounded an left on the field. EM McDaniel, AW McDaniel, WP Mason, Ben Mathews, JR Scott, JR Davis, GW Flowers, Linsy Smith, Green Hamby, GW Jackson, John Long, Luit Martin, Samp Garner, TM Gazaway, John Peden." [5] "WP was wounded in the beginin of the fight. He was shot in the hip. Ther was no chanche to git off the field for we had to retreat in great hast. EM fell on the retreat. Some sais he was shot an some sais he was only overcome with heat. He is either shot or taken prisner. We have all reasons to believe that AW was killed. Ben Matthews was wounded an left on the field. George Jackson was shot in the leg. That is all that we can account for. We suppose the rest was taken." "I feel perfectly lost senc the fight for my mess was all killed an wounded that was along but me." "I stopt once to give up for I nearly give out. But the nearer the Yanks the wors I was scard. So I tride it again. It was about dark an what few of us got away got scattered very bad." "We lost all of our knapsacks an blankets. We have to lie round the fire of nights." "I think if this army dont get some rest that the men will all die. We have bin a marching all day over the mountains an stop at night… an set up an cook nearly all night an start by day."

The "mess" was a term in use with the Royal Navy by Napoleonic times and whose concept dates back to antiquity. From the moment units mustered, certain cliques formed resulting in groups of men (always from the same company) who ate and lived together as a team similar to the modern army "squad". In number, these messes usually ranged from 4 to 12 men and were essentially a self-sufficient unit. Duties would be divided up as to who pitched/struck tents, feched water or wood, and who cooked. Some messes would distinguish themselves by wearing red caps or, in one case, by cutting their hair as short as possible. Names were generally of one of three origins: informal fancy (e.g. "Shirkers"), places ("Pine Top Mess"), or prominant members (Tillery's Mess). Loyalties built up within messes created deep and lasting friendships and real esprit de corps.

   Camp Tom, Winchester, Va. late September
   A few days later he writes "Mr GW Shamblee was hear yesterday. He is now at the 7th Ga Rgt. He will return to day an I will send this letter by him. I writ to you the 25th … We have fell back about 20 miles sensc then."
   "We have bin in regular camps for 2 weeks. Some thinks we are going to fix for winter an some thinks we will take another trip to Meriland. But as for my part, I have no ide what we will do an I expect I no as much as any of the privates. I have not herd from our wounded boys, only that all that was able was paroled an sent to Richmond. … The weather is geting cold hear for the last few days." "We had some buisket an water for dinner. I don't like to stay up hear. It is too far from the railroad. We don't [get] supplies enough." "It is no trouble to get clothing to Richmond but it is a bad chance to git them from ther for ther is no railroad in less than 90 miles of us. … if you get any good chance to send me anything, I will pay … But without a good oppertunity you had better not send any thing an I will try to make out without them though I am like a tarapan all I have got is on my back an that is as dirty as common but I am as well fixed as the most of the boys." "I bought me a blanket and a small tent which cost me 5 dollars an Thom Matthews one of mi mess come in from the hospital with a good blanket an we have dun well." "I would be glad if they could settle this affair without any more blood for ther undoubtedly has bin more blood shed in this war than has ever bin recorded before. But it is the opinion [of] the most of the men that ther will be hard fighting yet." "Tell old Uncle Eli that I read that letter he sent to AW. It makes me feel bad for letters to come in to the boys that is gone." "It is surpriseing how they will keep men in survice that is not able to wait on ther selves nor never will be." "This is a cold cold rainy evning and near all of the men will have to lie out an take it."

   Camp Tom near Winchester, Va. 17 October
   "…we are expecting another fight now very soon at Charlestown about 15 miles from hear … we had orders last night to cook up rations an be ready to leave at any minute" "Ther is some sickness in camps at this time. Ther is a good many cases of the smallpox with us but ther has not bin but 2 cases in our regiment yet though it was reported yesterday that nearly all of the 7th Ga Regt had them." "Tell Mr Miner that I have not herd from RN sence he went to the hospital."

   Camp near Fredericksburg, Va. 26 November
   "I am in tolerable health with the exception of a bad cold." "We have moved from Culpepper C.H. about 45 miles." "…the Rapihanoc River between us. The Yankey camps is on one hill an us on the other in plain vew. We have bin looking for them to bumb us ever day. They ordered the people to leave Fredericksburg the 21st by 9 oclock. … It a raining an very cold." "I would not be surprised if we did not spend the winter hear as the dog is dead about us going to Savannah." "…I want you to have good shoes for I feel the sting of doing without them. I have not got no shoes yet nor no prospect of giting any. The weather is giting very cold. I tell you we suffer for the want of blankets to sleep under. Some nights we dont sleep hardly a bit on account of being so cold. We just have one blanket to lie on an one to cover with."

   29 November
   "We staied on picket 48 hours down in Fredericksburg. I am not very well to day. My cold seems to git wors. I have got a very bad cawgh an I am so bad stoped up tell sumtimes I almost smuther. … We have a very fair prospect for a snow now soon. I dread it very bad without we was better prepared for it. I dont no what we all will do if we dont git shoes." "All the boys thinks very hard of Asa Wright for playing off from the Co so long." "Since I begun this letter RN Miner has come from the hospital. He is well an looks well."

30 November
"My cawgh troubles me so I can hardly write. I fear that it will seat itself in me … Tell EM to bring me a dram an some pretty girls respects when he comes. Bring the dram anyhow if he cant bring nothing els."

   Thomas W. Nash was finally able to write home on the 29th of September from camp at Winchester Virginia as "it has bin two months sens we hav had a reglar maile" and "This maile is By chance onley". He goes on to detail the fights that have delayed response: Raperhanic, Dowen Gape, two days at Manasses, the North Side of Sentervill, the move to Leeseburge, the march to Fredericke Sity then to Heggerstown and a fight at Boonsboro and finally Sharpe burge. He writes that he was not in the Great Fight as he was detailed to the officers' baggage train and "the nex move will be I don't now wher and I don't care wher. We are now her as Jackson Foote Cavalry".

   On receiving word from J.W. Shamblee [6] that he and T.W. Browne planned to raise a company (under the influence of corm syrup) he advised them to "git in some horse compney if you want to git out well in this ware and stay out of Vargininia ... Tandy the ware is a dam bad place to come to". On October 20th he writes that "it is sead that we have the Smaul pox in our regiment. Two have did with it. We are sent away from the army and no one is admited to come in our lines and we are not aloud to go oute onley when we slip out." which was done quite often at one o'clock in the night. "We are camp on Seder Creek. It bends round the mountain like that of Yallow River at the old horse shoo." "We have not heard from our wonded in som time. I Mills, S. D. Holems … are well. F. M. Nash is not bin herd of sens we lefte Richmon … As for the smaule pox I don't think it is here. I hav no sense of it." Blue Osborne lost his cousin in the Manassas fight and his first finger on his left hand is shot off and middle finger is stiff. He closes with a request for a pair of pants, two shirts, and a pair of drawers but don't send them - have somebody bring them.