Habersham County in theCivilWar

Habersham County in theCivilWar

Co. E, 16th Regiment - Cobb Infantry

             

16th Regiment, Georgia Infantry

The 16th Infantry Regiment [also called the Sallie Twiggs Regiment] was organized during the early summer of 1861.  Its companies were raised from the Georgia counties of Madison, Elbert, Gwinnett, Habersham, Jackson, and Hart.  Sent to Virginia, the regiment was assigned to General H. Cobb's, T. R. R. Cobb's, Wofford's, and DuBose's Brigade.

The 16th fought with the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days' Battles to Gettysburg, and then moved with Gen. Longstreet, but was not engaged in the fight at Chickamauga. After serving at Knoxville, the unit returned to Virginia, and participated in the conflicts at The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, & Cold Harbor. Later the Georgia 16th was a part of Early's operations in the Shenandoah Valley, and the Appomattox Campaign.

The regiment had a force of 488 effectives in April of 1862; lost 11 killed and 50 wounded at Malvern Hill; and of the 368 engaged at South Mountain, fifty-two percent were disabled.  It sustained 70 casualties at Fredericksburg, 133 at Chancellorsville, and twenty-six percent of the 303 at Gettysburg. The 16th lost many men at Sayler's Creek, and surrendered 2 officers and 51 men.

Its commanders were: Colonels Goode Bryan, Howell Cobb, James S. Gholston, and Henry P. Thomas; Lieutenant Colonel B. Edward Stiles; and Major John H. Skelton.
 

Source: National Park Service


ONCE MORE IN LINE - Soldiers of Cobb's and Phillips's Legions Have a Reunion
Partial excerpt from The Atlanta Constitution  August 24, 1894


General Phillips Speaks
 General Phillips who was on hand in the afternoon, was called upon to make a speach to the boys who used to follow him where the fury and storm of shot and shell came stifling over the field.
   He made a splendid speech and the vets cheered him rapturously. General Phillips is one of the most elequent orators in this whole section of the south, when it comes to talking about the war, and the boys always love to hear him. He told joke after joke on this man and that, which he recalled at the sight of their faces in the vast audience.
   He spoke with tender emotion of the memories of the days when he first came to his men there at the Big Shanty, how he had seen them come in company after company. He remembered that the story was told on the men from Habersham, who had come over across the mountains under the command of Captain Barclay, that there were but two of them who had ever seen a railroad. When they got near the place they were to go into camp, they knew they were nearly in sight of a railroad, and when somebody at a farm house told them the tracks of the Western and Atlantic were right over the hill in front, they all broke loose from ranks and had a race to see who would first lay eyes on the concern.
   General Phillips speech was well relished by the crowds.

Submitted by Samie Melton     [email protected]


Co. E, 16th Regiment - Cobb Infantry - Regimental Roster in Habersham County Georgia USGenWeb Archives


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