Only Thirty Men Left

Col Peter A S McGlashan

On July 31^st 1863 the 50^th Georgia Infantry changed Colonels from Confederate Colonel William R Manning to Colonel Peter Alexander Selkirk McGlashan.

The 50^th Georgia Infantry was organized at Savannah, Georgia March 4^th 1862.  It was made up mostly of men from the southern part of the state.  They began drill at Camp Davis near Guyton, Georgia under the command of Confederate Colonel William R Manning.  On July 17^th 1862 the 50^th was sent to Richmond, Virginia to become a part of the First Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E Lee.

The men of the 50^th saw action in over 45 engagements, including the Battles of South Mountain, Sharpsburg; where they were part of the brigade which held the bridge over Antietam Creek, Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.  After the Battle of Gettysburg their Colonel William R Manning resigned his command due to health issues and was replaced on July 31^st 1863 by Colonel Peter Alexander Selkirk McGlashan.  When Confederate General James Longstreet moved his Corps in the autumn of 1863 the 50^th became engaged in the Siege of Knoxville.  They would return to the Army of Northern Virginia and continue on through war with fighting at Petersburg and the Battles of Cedar Creek and Sayler’s Creek, where their commander Colonel McGlashan was captured.  The men of 50^th were still the Army of Northern Virginia when Robert E Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9^th 1865.  When the 50^th surrendered it counted only 30 men on the line.

If you’re interested in reading more about this regiment, check out 50th Georgia Volunteer Infantry Confederate States of America (CSA)

Always A Colonel

Confederate Colonel John Mercer Brockenbrough resigned his commission on January 21^st 1864.

John Mercer Brockenbrough was born August 1^st 1830 in Richmond County, Virginia, the son of Moore Fauntleroy and Sarah Waller (Smith) Brockenbrough.  He attended and graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1850.

Brockenbrough was appointed the Colonel of the 40^th Virginia at the start of the Civil War.  They were a part of Confederate Major General A P Hill’s Light Division.  Brockenbrough led his men during the Seven Days Battles seeing casualties of about 50%.  At the Battle of Chantilly he moved up to Brigade command, and continued there through the battles of Harpers Ferry, Sharpsburg, and Fredericksburg.  In the early part of the 1863 Confederate Brigadier General Henry Heth replaced Brockenbrough as the brigade commander.  But, when A P Hill was wounded at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Heth moved up and Brockenbrough got his brigade back.  His men saw action at Gettysburg on the afternoon of July 1^st 1863, fighting against Union Colonel Roy Stone’s Pennsylvania Buck Tails, and as part of Pickett’s Charge on the 3^rd.

Following a reckless charge on Union troops at the Battle of Falling Waters on July 14^th 1863; a part of the Confederate retreat from Gettysburg, Brockenbrough was removed from Brigade command and he resumed command of the 40^th Virginia.  He led the 40^th the Battles of Bristoe and Mine Run, before resigning his command January 21^st 1864 still as a Colonel.

Brockenbrough lived in Norfolk and Richmond, Virginia following the war.  He died August 25^th 1892 in Richmond, Virginia and is buried in the Hollywood Cemetery there.

The First From The Citadel

Confederate Colonel Charles Courtenay Tew was killed September 17^th 1862 while in action at the Battle of Sharpsburg.

Charles Courtenay Tew was born in Charleston, South Carolina October 17^th 1827, the son of Henry Shade and Caroline (Courtenay) Tew.  He was part of the first class of the South Carolina Military Academy which has become known at the Citadel.  Tew graduated in 1846 at the top of his class.  Following his graduation he taught at the school until 1852 when he spent a year in Europe studying military tactics.  Tew would return to the Citadel where he would be the Commandant of Cadets until 1857, when he became the superintendent of the Arsenal Academy in Columbia, South Carolina.

Tew was appointed June 20^th 1861, the Colonel of the 2^nd North Carolina Infantry by Confederate North Carolina Governor John Willis Ellis when that state seceded.  The 2^nd was attached to the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in Brigadier General George Burgwyn Anderson’s brigade.  When Anderson was killed at the Battle of Sharpsburg, Tew took over command of the brigade.  In the afternoon of September 17^th 1862, the brigade were located along the Sunken Road near the center of the Confederate line.  Tew and Colonel John Brown Gordon were placing men in line when both men were hit.  Gordon would say of this spot, "The first volley from the Union lines in my front sent a ball through the brain of the chivalric Colonel Tew, of North Carolina, to whom I was talking, and another ball through the calf of my right leg. On the right and the left my men were falling under the death-dealing crossfire."

When the Confederates left the area of the Sunken Road, Tew’s body was left behind.  He was never identified.  After war was over a former Union Captain, J W Bean sent a silver cup to Tew’s father in October 1874, claiming he had taken the cup off Tew’s body before his burial.