On the Road to Atlanta: the 63rd Georgia at Kennesaw

So far the 63rd Georgia had spent its war on the Georgia and Carolina coasts, defending Charleston and Savannah. While hardly green, the unit had little combat experience when sent with the rest of Brig. Gen. Hugh Mercer’s Brigade to Dalton in early May. Two months’ campaigning had worn the regiment down from a strength of 867 to about 400. Their combat losses (killed, wounded, and missing—including desertions) were about 130, with 94 of those coming between May 27 and June 22. Many more men had fallen ill. On the night of the 26th, 265 men in six companies were sent forward to picket Mercer’s front. It was a mission at which they did not excel: On May 9th, while pulling picket duty in Crow Valley around Dalton, they had been “caught by surprise” and “broke and ran under the first pressure.”[1]

One Georgian subsequently complained that “the Yankies charged us with three lines of battle & a heavy line of skirmishers they creaped up on us before we were aware I had just cum off of vidette post which was in front about thirty yards not more than five minuets when they came right to our ditches we shot & they shot.” This unfortunate private was a member of Company H, facing the 4th Iowa, where Mercer’s pickets were supposed to tie in with the 2nd/6th Missouri of Cockrell’s Brigade. It was here that disaster first took hold. The Iowans not only surprised the Georgians, but also drove back the left-most Missourians. “On our right wing the Mesourians gave way,” grumbled the anonymous Peach-stater, insisting that “we were the last that gave way we then had a hand to hand fight with Bayonet & clubed muskets. [W]e fought back through an old field about half mile when Gen Jacksons Brigade came to our relief.”[2]

According to General Johnston’s recollection, Lightburn’s men and the 4th Iowa now “dashed through the skirmishers of Walker’s right before they could be reinforced . . . and took in reverse those on the right and left, while they were attacked in front. In a few minutes about 80 of Walker’s men were captured or bayonetted in their rifle pits.” 63rd Pvt. William Norrell of B Company described how “we held our pitts until they got in some places and clubbed the men with their guns.” The brigade adjutant, Capt. George A. Mercer (son of the general) described “very desperate fighting with bayonets and butts of muskets.” One maddened Rebel lieutenant tossed aside his sword, “picked up a rock, threw it at a Yankee who was reloading, and smacked him in the face.” After a few minutes of struggle, the outnumbered and overpowered Georgians broke. “Someone yelled, ‘save yourselves, boys!’” and the Georgians cut and ran. At that, recounted Norrell, “our company it seemed to me went off like a flock of sheep though they had the company of other portions of the regiment.” Casualties were shockingly heavy. In one position, nine out of eleven defenders were bayonetted where they fought. The first reports, delivered that evening, reported 128 killed, wounded, and missing. That figure improved to 88 the next day, as stragglers found their way back to the ranks, but it was still a devastating loss.[3]

[1]Crute, Units of the Confederate States Army, 116; George A. Mercer, “List of Casualties in Mercer’s Brigade,” Memphis Daily Appeal, June 28, 1864; Powell, The Atlanta Campaign, Volume I, 203; “Dear Pa,” June 24, 1864,” Blanton B. Fortson Letter, GDAH; Note that Walter A. Clark, Under the Stars and Bars, or Memories of Four Years Service with the Oglethorpes of Augusta Georgia (Augusta, GA: 1900), 101, claims that seven companies were on the skirmish line.

[2]“My Affectionate Wife,” July 1, 1864, Anonymous Letter fragment, 63rd Georgia, AHC.

[3]Johnston, Narrative, 342; William O. Norrell, “Memo Book,” Journal of Confederate Military History, vol. 1, no. 1 (Summer, 1988), 74; Dennis Kelly, “The Atlanta Campaign, Mountains to Pass, A River to Cross,” Blue & Gray, vol. 6,  no. 5 (June 1989), 28; “Monday 27th,” Tuesday 28th” George Mercer Campaign Journal, UNC.