U.S., Confederate Soldiers Compiled Service Records, 1861-1865
River Men Killed At Civil War's Cedar Mountain
This article is compiled by Julian Williams.
At the close of the battles of the Seven Days, the Union General George McClellan was really ahead but didn't realize it.
His generals tried to get him to go on the offensive; after all, General Lee had lost 20,000 men.
But "Little Mac" sought the safety of the Federal gunboats on the James River.
It seems that Abe Lincoln was right: McClellan's main and fastest gear was "Reverse" and he used it often.
One officer suggested privately that his commander was motivated by either "cowardice or treason."
To make matters worse, General Lee "unnerved" General McClellan - demonstrating uncanny attributes that made the blue-clad general very uneasy: surprise, audacity, and an eerie ability to read the mind of his enemy.
And yet another trick added to McClellan's fears - he thought General Lee had about three times the number of troops actually present.
General Lee accomplished this by instructing his generals to march the same men around in circles to give the illusion of thousands who were not actually present.
So in this vacuum, the soldiers in the field made a truce (as was often done):
There are blackberries in the fields so our boys and the Yanks made a bargain not to fire at each other, and went out in the field, leaving one man on post with the arms, and gathered berries together and talked over the fight, and traded tobacco and coffee and newspapers as peacefully and kindly as if they had not been engaged for --- seven days in butchering one another.
But the peace for the Telfair men of Company B would only be temporary. Cedar Run (or Cedar Mountain or Slaughter Mountain) was coming.
And the men from the South were short of everything - clothes, food, shoes, and weapons.
It was already a war-weary crowd in this latter part of 1862.
But the Rebels were ever alert to refurnish themselves with the spoils of the Yankees (Doodles).
This bit of verse was seen in the Macon Daily Telegraph after 100,000 Union rifles were harvested by the Confederates:
Want a weapon? Why capture one!
Every Doodle has got a gun,
Belt and bayonet, bright and new;
Kill a Doodle, and capture two!
Not exactly Pulitzer publishing but we must remember the emotions of the time were as intense as they could get.
Besides that, it was a matter of life or death.
And now we watch the action at Cedar Mountain - another terrible battle of the tragic war.
General Hill's Light Division opened ranks, allowing their whipped comrades to fall back, then attacked with a vigor that drove back the Union advance which had nearly overtaken Jackson's (Stonewall) left (flank).
The charge of the Telfair men in General A.P. Hill's unit can be found in the words of a soldier present on that day:
Peace and beauty all around us,
death and danger just ahead,
On our faces careless courage,
in our hearts a sombre dread.
Then a shell went screaming o'er us,
and the air at once was rife
With a million whispering hornets,
swiftly searching for a life.
And the birds and insect
fled away before the 'rebel yell,'
The thunder of the battle,
and the furious flames of hell."
The Telfairian casualties:
Robinson (or Roberson), Minor - Wounded, Cedar Run, Va, August 9, 1862.
Spires, Henry H. - Wounded, Cedar Run, August 9, 1862.
Studstill, Joseph - Wounded, Cedar Run, VA, August 9, 1862.
Willcox, Capt. James Young - Mortally wounded, Cedar Run, VA, August 10, 1862 - Died, Charlottesville, VA, August 22, 1862.
Lt. Colonel Seaborn M. Manning, Regimental Commander, was also mortally wounded at Cedar Run, VA, and died September 9, 1862. Note: It was the family steamboat, the General S.M. Manning, that blew up on the Ocmulgee River below Jacksonville, Georgia, in the Spring of 1860. Two persons from the plantation of Capt. James Young Willcox (casualty listed above) were on the boat and were killed by the explosion.
So with an equal splendor,
The morning sun-rays fall,
With a touch impartially tender,
On the blossoms blooming for all:
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the judgment-day;
Broidered with gold, the Blue,
Mellowed with gold, the Gray.
Our Company B "Roll Call" today is for those men whose last names begin with "D - G.":
Davis, George;
Davis William P.;
Dowdy, John Randolph;
Dowdy, Joseph S.;
Garrison, James;
Garrison, John L.;
Garrison, Levi;
Garrison, Thomas;
Grace, George W.;
Grace, Josiah A. (or Joseph A.);
Grace, William R.;
Graham, Duncan Campbell.
Note: It is said the total casualties for the Cedar Run Battle were 2,707 - Union 1,400 and the Confederacy 1,307.
One report listed the 49th Georgia as: 9 Killed and 41 Wounded.
