From the Battle of New Hope Church

As the battle of New Hope Church whirled around the men of Stovall’s Georgia Brigade, the men hunkered down among the tombstone of the New Hope Cemetery. A recent grave stood not far from where they now fought. It was the grave of a local miller turned cavalry officer, 1st Lt. Benjamin Pickett. Pickett fell mortally wounded in the early-morning action of September 19th, 1863 at Chickamauga, while leading his company of the 1st Georgia Cavalry into action near Jay’s Mill. He died later that evening in a Confederate field hospital and was taken back home for burial. Now the war was taking other lives not far from where he rested. Two days later, the mill he had once operated would become the scene of another brutal battle in the “Hell Hole.”