Forsyth County - Diaries & Letters

Foreword
[Original Foreword by Carroll Ruffin Patterson]


Since my high school days many years ago, I have had an abiding interest in history, particularly in the periods of the American Revolution and the Civil War.

In 1949 1 learned that my paternal great-grandfather Josiah Blair Patterson (9 June 1815 - 12 May 1864) of Cumming, Forsyth County, Georgia (a native of Abbeville District, South Carolina ) had served with the l4th Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry from its organization in 1861 until his death at the Battle of Spotsylvania Virginia on 12 May 1864. His entire Confederate service was spent as a member of Company E of that Regiment in which he served as second and first lieutenant. As most Southerners who have Confederate ancestry, I was aware that my Great-Grandfather had been in and was killed in the War but knew none of the details.

On May 31 1949 1 received a letter from Confederate Pension and Record Department, State Capitol, Atlanta, Georgia setting forth Lieut. Patterson's service.

In January 1959, my cousin Mrs. Edith Harbin of Nelson, Georgia was gracious enough to place at my disposal all the Patterson family correspondence in her possession. Most of the correspondence consists of letters Lieut. Patterson wrote to his family between 5 August 1861 and 17 March 1864 from what is now West Virginia and Virginia. There are no letters in the collection from 12 July 1862 to 21 April 1863 and from 8 June 1863 to 18 August 1863 and 31 October 1863 to 17 March 1864. The last letter written by the Lieutenant is dated 17 March 1864, approximately two months before he was killed-in-action. From an examination of the dates of his letters contained herein it will be obvious, I think, that quite a few of the letters written by him have ended up in the hands of persons unknown or lost, perhaps both. He, obviously, was a prolific correspondent and, apparently tried to write home frequently.

To aid the readers of Lieut. Patterson's letters in following the career of the l4th Georgia Infantry I have prepared an outline of the Regiment's assignments and the campaigns and battles in which it is known to have participated.

As to the career of the Regiment., special thanks are due Col. Allen P. Julian of the Atlanta Historical Society, Atlanta, Georgia; Mrs. Mary Givens Bryan of the Georgia Department of Archives and History, Atlanta, Georgia and to the Library Colorado State College, Greeley for the loan of the Official Records. Without their help there would have been a large gap in the regimental history of the l4th Georgia Infantry.

The letters of Lieut. Patterson were copied verbatim from the originals owned by Mrs. Harbin with no attempts at modernizing punctuation, etc. As several of the letters are damaged missing words and/or sentences are indicated thus __________.

My thanks are due, also, to the Librarian and her staff, Public Library, Greeley, Colorado for keeping my interest in the Civil War active by notifying me of each new book. My sincere thanks and deep gratitude will ever be due Constance White Patterson, my wife. She worked long and hard in copying the letters from the originals and in typing the many stencils. Without her this small contribution to Civil War history would have never been prepared.

Carroll R. Patterson

20 May 1961
Greeley, Colorado

Title  Page     Foreword    Pages 1 thru 20     Pages 21 thru 55    Pages 56 thru 65     Page 66




    

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