Talk:Heard County, Georgia

Heard County Rangers

One of or the Confederate soldier units from this area was called the Heard County Rangers, which saw service across a wide area from Mississippi to Virginia. It was esp composed of local farmers who supplemented farming with hunting in local woods of deer, turkey etc making them excellent sharpshooters.

It was part of 41st George Infantry. It had repeated heavy casualties of over 100 % (replenished) and surrendered with 70 men out of normal 300+. Original commander was Capt William B Thomason

Unrelated to this unit, was an excursion during the later days of the war of 2,000 union cavelry through this area. During their movements the locals kept well back in the woods, but fired on them often until they lost half of their strength of 2,000 from this sniping.... [Heard Co Rangers may have been involved as were at nearby battle of Atlanta.]

ref ab heard co rangers pages 19-21 (see at bottom) of CARROLL COUNTY GEORGIA’S CIVIL WAR UNITS 1861-1865 by HUGH W. (BILL) BARROW [covers neighboring Heard Co, Ga.] CARROLL COUNTY GEORGIA’S CIVIL WAR UNITS 1861-1865

HUGH W. (BILL) BARROW 124 MANOR WAY CARROLLTON, GEORGIA 30117 770-830-7763

page 19 COMPANY I “HEARD COUNTY RANGERS” Heard County

William B. Thomason was the first captain and the only one listed. Charles A McDaniel, the President of Bowdon Collegiate Institute and pastor of the Bowdon Methodist Protestant Church, was the organizer of the 41st Georgia Infantry Regiment. (See the section on Cobb’s Legion Infantry) He had previously served as captain of Co B of Cobb’s Legion, Infantry in Virginia. He was sent back to Georgia by Colonel Tom Cobb to recruit a regiment to hopefully expand Cobb’s Legion battalion to brigade size. He successfully recruited 10 companies, about 1,000 men, and formed the 41st Georgia Infantry Regiment. The 41st Georgia was mustered in on March 17, 1862 and McDaniel was of course elected its colonel and William Ezra Curtis its lt. colonel. Curtis, of Carrollton, resigned as a captain of Company F, 19 Georgia to join McDaniel.

Unfortunately for Colonel Cobb, the regiment was not sent back to him in Virginia but was assigned to The Army of Mississippi and sent to near Corinth, Mississippi on April 6, 1862.

page 20 The 41st saw some skirmish duty around Corinth. The regiment had an alarming large number of men to die of disease in April, May and June in Mississippi. Many of these, including Captain Hembree, died in hospitals especially in Columbus and West Point and also in other cities in Mississippi. The regiment in August was assigned to East Tennessee in The Army of Mississippi. The 41st was the first Georgia regiment to become a part of this army or what later became The Army of Tennessee. They were a part of Major General Kirby Smith’s right wing of Gen Braxton Bragg’s force that invaded Kentucky and were assigned to Major General Ben Cheathams’s Division, Brig. General. Ben Maney’s Brigade in Lt. General Leonidas Polk’s Corps. Maney’s Brigade was an all Tennessee brigade except for the 41st Georgia. They saw their first combat in a pretty good little battle at Richmond, Kentucky on August 20, 1862. On October 8, 1862, the 41st was heavily engaged, being the extreme right unit of the attack on Brig. Gen Phil Sheridan’s Federal Division of McCook’s Corps at Perryville, KY. Colonel McDaniel was mortally wounded while gallantly leading his men in the successful attack. Both Carroll County companies had severe losses, Company G had 5 men killed and Company H, “The Wool Hat Boys”, had 3 killed. The 41st regiment reported 35 men killed and there were many wounded, many of whom had to be left behind when Bragg decided to get back to Tennessee through Cumberland Gap ASAP. These losses came just a short time after McDaniel’s first command; Company B of Cobb’s Legion had 14 men killed in Maryland. The 32-year-old McDaniel lived another 10 days and died in the Presbyterian Church Hospital in Harrodsburg, Kentucky and was buried in the cemetery there. Harrodsburg was occupied by the Federal Army at the time of his death. In 1871, his body was moved to Bowdon and after a long funeral ceremony at his college, he was buried in the little Methodist Protestant Church cemetery where he had been the pastor. Lt. Colonel Curtis was promoted to colonel and served in this capacity until he was seriously wounded at Mill Creek Gap near Dalton on February 25, 1864. We believe that he was moved to the home of his in-laws near Newnan where he died on March 24, 1864. He is buried in the old Methodist Church Cemetery, the only grave there that does not face east. He is buried facing north, toward the enemy. We have no information on whether there was another colonel but we do not believe there would be one. We believe that Lt. Colonel John Knight, the original major, was still around and could have been promoted or maybe he served the now small regiment at his current rank. He was discharged in June, 1864 and enlisted in the Invalid Corps. After the Kentucky Campaign, the 41st was sent back to Mississippi as a part of the Army of Tennessee in Stevenson’s Division, Seth Barton’s Brigade to serve in Gen. Pemberton’s Vicksburg defensive force. Their brigade suffered great losses in the Battle of Champion Hill including 58 killed, 106 seriously wounded and 737 missing or captured on May 16, 1863. After that terrible day of so many killed, wounded and so many captured, they fought at Baker’s Creek and the Big Black River then retreated with Pemberton’s troops to the trenches and defensive lines around Vicksburg. General Stevenson was highly complimentary of the 41st for their capture of 107 of the enemy pickets while on patrol along the Warrenton Road during the siege. The 47-day siege lasted until July 4, 1863 when Pemberton surrendered the entire army to General Grant. Grant was lenient with the starving men and paroled most of them to return to their homes.

page 21

In October the paroled men of Vicksburg were officially exchanged and told to report back to their regiments at certain locations. Evidently many of the men of the 41st as well as Carroll County’s men from the 34th and 56th regiments refused to obey this order as they were not certain that they were indeed exchanged. They had been told by Gen. Grant when they were paroled at Vicksburg, to stay at their homes and not to take up arms again. Because such a large number resisted the call-back order, Maj. General Stevenson, their division commander, asked Governor Brown and the Confederate commander in the Atlanta area, to send a cavalry company to Carroll County to round up these men which they did. Evidently, most of all three regiments did eventually report back as all three were back in the ranks in time to take a part in Gen. Bragg’s unsuccessful defensive effort at Missionary Ridge later in November. The 41st became a part of Breckenridge’s Corps, A. P. Stewart’s Division, Stovall’s Brigade with Colonel Curtis still in command of the 41 st Regiment.

The 41st wintered in Dalton and was in several battles and skirmishes around there including the defense of Mill Creek Gap, Buzzard’s Roost and Rocky Face Ridge where Col. Curtis was severely wounded in February, 1864. They were now assigned to Gen. Hood’s Corps and played a very big part in the Battle of Resaca where Stewart’s Division was on the Rebel’s far right. They were involved in all the battles that followed in the Atlanta campaign of 1864. When General Hood replaced General Joe Johnston as head of the Army of Tennessee, the 41st served in Cheatham’s Corps, Stewart’s Division, Stovall’s Brigade. In Atlanta, Stephen D. Lee was promoted to lieutenant general and took command of Hood’s old corps with Cheatham returning to lead his old division. They fought at Ezra Church and Jonesboro under General Lee. The 41stwas commanded at Jonesboro by Major M. S. Nall.

In Hood’s Tennessee campaign of late 1864, the 41st served in Lee’s Corps, Clayton’s Division, Stovall’s Brigade with Captain J. E. Stallings commanding the brigade. They were part of the terrible battles at Franklin and Nashville in November and December and in the horrible retreat afterwards. The few that were left of the regiment eventually joined Gen. Johnston in North Carolina and took part in several battles including Bentonville. We know that the 41st was consolidated late in the war with the 40th and 43rd Georgia Infantry Regiments and called the 40th Georgia Battalion. There were not enough men of the three consolidated regiments to even make up a regulation size regiment. They surrendered with General Johnston’s Army in Greensboro on April 28, 1865.

One of these union soldiers, road up to a well at Glenn, Ga (Heard Co) to stop and get a drink and died apparently of exhaustion or a stroke and is buried at the cemetary there , and he no had papers giving his name and so no known name,etc

As the movie (Gangs of New York) showed, many union soldiers were conscripts and younger men with no stake or interest in the war but were signed up to get a small salary and three meals a day, being immigrants from e.g. Ireland. And sharpshooters soldiers, in the Conferate units esp grew tired of firing and killing so many of these "fine boys". —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.250.203.180 (talk) 23:53, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

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Citation needed for no railroads

I was reading about Heard County here on Wikipedia and found mention that a power plant in Heard County has coal delivered to it via Norfolk Southern Railway Company. See [[1]]. However, this article has the unsupported claim that there are no railroads in Heard County. --155.186.227.108 (talk) 20:41, 10 August 2019 (UTC)