Chickamauga 1

This is the first of two installments of an article by Private Koch that details the actions of N.C. troops at the Battle of Chickamauga. The second installment is scheduled for publication in the next issue of the newsletter — Editor

The North Carolina presence at Chickamauga was slight in numeric terms. Five regiments represented the state out of almost 190 regiments and battalions of Confederate infantry and cavalry in this confused and desperate battle. Each infantry regiment, the 29th, 39th, 58th and 60th, as well as the 6th NC Cavalry, was composed of men from most of the mountain counties from Ashe south to Cherokee. The 6th Cavalry participated as part of Davidson’s brigade joining in several fights on the first day and suffering a number of losses. The infantry regiments’ actions of the 19th and 20th are more fully documented. In fact, two of the four lay claim to the sobriquet “furthest at Chickamauga.” These claims are supported in part by commissioners appointed in 1893 by Governor Elias Carr. The commissioners consulted available records and visited the battlefield to locate the positions of each brigade. They even took along a Federal veteran who then wrote their report.

The 29th was recruited in September 1861, and by November its men found themselves embroiled in the suppression of Unionist activities in East Tennessee. During the spring of 1862, the 29th participated in actions around the Cumberland Gap and then in Kirby Smith’s fall invasion of Kentucky. Their first battle was Murfreesboro, Jan. 1, 1863, where the regiment lost roughly 60 men. Much of 1863 was quieter although the regiment did garrison various towns in conjunction with efforts to prevent the fall of Vicksburg. The 29th was assigned to Ector’s brigade in August, shortly before the brigade joined Bragg’s army as it withdrew from Tennessee. This brigade consisted of sharpshooter battalions from Alabama and Mississippi plus four Texas regiments, three of which were dismounted cavalry.

The 29th saw action on the first day of Chickamauga as General N.B. Forrest sought to feel out the Federal left near Jay’s Mill. After some thrusts and counter thrusts, some of which involved the 6th NC Cavalry, Ector’s brigade was brought to the front to help stabilize the Confederate position. Sent in by Forrest, not by his division commander, Ector decided to slug it out with the Federal line rather than sweep forward and overwhelm it. The opposing line consisted of two veteran regiments and a battery of regulars and the match proved unequal. After 30 minutes, Ector had to withdraw his men. One Federal company commander claimed only to have fired five volleys in the action. (Cozzens, 135) Ector’s brigade spent the rest of the day in reserve. On Sept. 20, the men supported various attacks by the Confederate right. As many of those attacks ended in failure, the brigade was forced to plug the line on a couple of occasions. For its efforts over the two days, the 29th received more than 100 casualties.

The 39th NCT entered service as a battalion and served as such for several months near Knoxville. More companies marched over the mountains and by May 1862, enough had been added to reorganize “Coleman’s Battalion” into the 39th NCT. This regiment joined Smith’s invasion north but remained at the Cumberland Gap to hold the Federal garrison in check. As in the case of the 29th, the first big fight for the 39th was Murfreesboro. The regiment acquitted itself well, aiding in the capture of Federal artillery for which an inverted cannon was imprinted on its battle flag. (Manarin: X, 105) Two men were killed and 36 wounded in the fighting. After a quiet spring, the men found themselves on the rails to Mississippi where they joined Evander McNair’s Arkansas brigade. During desultory action after Vicksburg’s surrender, the brigade was referred to as “a poorly disciplined mob of misfits who ought to be discharged.” (Cozzens, 402) Nevertheless, by September, this brigade was in northeast Georgia as a portion of Bragg’s growing army.

For the 39th, the Battle of Chickamauga began Sept. 19. By the middle of the afternoon, McNair’s brigade found itself as a supporting element in Bragg’s effort to turn the Federal right. Brought to the front as the Confederate assault wore down the Federals (who were similarly trying to turn Bragg’s southern flank), McNair sent the 39th and the 25th Arkansas into a gap left by various advancing units, including the Texas brigade. The men from Arkansas and North Carolina charged through the woods, flanking and scattering a regiment along their line of attack. They advanced across the La Fayette road, and several hundred yards into the Brock field. “For an instant, the way was clear to the Federal rear — only eight hundred yards of corn and the Eighth Wisconsin Artillery stood between them and the Widow Glenn house [Rosecrans’ headquarters]. Then the woods along the [far] edge of the field to their left erupted in a sheet of flame, and the left companies of the Twenty-Fifth Arkansas disintegrated. … As quickly as they had come, McNair’s men were gone.” (Cozzens, 214) Wilder’s brigade of Spencers ended the day’s efforts for these regiments.

During the night, General Longstreet arrived with the rest of his units from Virginia. Placed in command of the southern wing of Bragg’s army, Longstreet devised a formation to pierce the Federal line and to forcefully expand the break. McNair’s brigade was placed on the right side of what was roughly a two-brigade front. Around 11:15 a.m. on Sept. 20, this line surged forward with at least six brigades directly behind. The Federals, caught attempting to shift their units to the north, had only one small brigade hustling into line to slow the assault. The 39th and the men from Arkansas swept along the Dyer road to the north of this Federal unit, scattering several other regiments caught moving northward. Reaching the east edge of Dyer field, McNair’s brigade was halted and driven back slightly by both a regiment that had avoided the rout and by cannon fire from a ridge on the opposite side of the field. At this point, McNair’s brigade was replaced by Sugg’s, the next one in Longstreet’s formation.

Recovering themselves in the woods they had taken and then been driven back into, McNair’s men returned to the smoke-filled Dyer field, moving to the right of Sugg’s brigade. This line continued northwest towards the cannon, which now numbered 29. McNair’s men, with the 39th in the lead, found the advance across the field difficult. McNair and his senior colonel both went down with serious wounds thus putting Colonel Coleman of the 39th into command of the brigade. Realizing the exposed predicament of the brigade, and in particular the 39th, Coleman accelerated the advance from the front of his regiment. Trapped between three converging brigades, the few supporting infantrymen in front of the Federal batteries fled or were shot down and many of the limber horses were killed. The 39th charged up the ridge, drove off the remaining gunners and, according to Coleman, captured 10 pieces. (Manarin, 106) The General who had made disparaging comments regarding McNair’s brigade apologized to McNair himself because of this action, and after Chickamauga, the 39th was authorized to imprint another inverted cannon on its flag. (Cozzens, 402; Manarin: X, 106) Post-action reports by Sugg and his officers claimed the honor of capturing the cannon. Governor Carr’s commissioners, however, verified that the 39th and its fellow regiments deserved full credit for capturing the cannon. As the position was consolidated, Coleman’s brigade withdrew to gather ammunition but not before they mistakenly fired into the rear of the Texas Brigade. The Texans’ new Peter Tait jackets and light blue pants proved to be the wrong clothing on a field that Val Giles described thus: “The smoke from fifty cannon and ten thousand muskets so completely enveloped the Texas Brigade … that at times a man could not recognize his file leader. Of course our lines were broken and irregular … causing companies and even regiments to lap over each other.” (Cozzens, 409)

Coleman’s men had captured the cannon around noon. Now back in action after taking a couple of hours to consolidate and replenish, Coleman moved to support the assault on the left-hand end of Horseshoe ridge. After at least four more hours of fighting, the attenuated remains of the brigade and the rest of Johnson’s division drove the Federals from the wooded ridge. J.C. Moore of the 25th Arkansas wrote of one of the three distinct charges, “[W]e fought them nearly hand-to-hand using dead for breastworks and their cartridges and guns when ours would become heated.” Another soldier wrote “I could have walked two hundred yards and not stepped over eighteen inches without walking on dead Yankees.” (Cozzens, 461, 485) Over the course of the two days, almost half of the 39th had been killed or wounded.

Clark, Walter, ed. Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-65 Vol. V (Goldsboro, N.C.: Nash Brothers, Book and Job Printers, 1901).

Clark, Walter, ed. Histories of the Several Regiments and Battalions from North Carolina in the Great War 1861-’65 Vol. III (Goldsboro: Nash Brothers, Book and Job Printers, 1901).

Cozzens, Peter. This Terrible Sound (Urbana, Ill.: University of Chicago, 1992).

Jordan, Weymouth T. Jr. North Carolina Troops 1861-1865 A Roster Vol. XIV (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, 1998).

Manarin, Louis H. North Carolina Troops 1861-1865 A Roster Vol. VIII (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, 1981).

Manarin, Louis H. North Carolina Troops 1861-1865 A Roster Vol. X (Raleigh: Division of Archives and History, 1985).

Woodworth, Steven E. Chickamauga: A Battlefield Guide (Lincoln, Neb.: University of Nebraska Press, 1999).

Co. A	“Cherokee Guards”
B	Yancey Co.
C	“Bold Mountain Tigers” (Buncombe)
D	Madison Co.
E	Haywood Co.
F	Jackson Co.
G	Yancey Co.
H	Buncombe Co.
I	Mitchell Co.
K	Yancey Co.

Co. A	Cherokee Co.
B	Macon Co.
C	Cherokee Co.
D	“Highland Greys” (Buncombe)
E	Clay Co.
F	Cherokee Co.
G	Cherokee Co.
H	Cherokee Co.
I	Macon Co.
K	“Jackson Rangers” or “Jackson Volunteers”