Daniel Killingsworth

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Daniel Clay Killingsworth, II (22 June 1835 - 15 September 1862) was a lawyer and Confederate officer.

Contents 1 Before the War 2 Private Life 3 War Service 4 Death

[edit] Before the War

Killingsworth was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1835. He was an early graduate of the University of Mississippi. When the American Civil War began he was practicing as a lawyer in Abbeville, Mississippi.

[edit] Private Life

He married Mary Ann Lamar in July of 1861.

[edit] War Service

Killingsworth was mustered into Company G, th Mississippi Volunteer Infantry Regiment, elected Captain on 3 August 1861. He was elected Major of the Regiment on 16 November, Lieutenant-Colonel 18 January 1862, and finally to Colonel, 10 May 1862.

He participated in nearly all of the major campaigns in the East, including First Manassas, Seven Pines, Gaines' Mill, Second Manassas, and Sharpsburg.

At Sharpsburg, Maryland:

"Holding the extreme right [at Crampton's Gap on 14 September], the Mississippians were quickly surrounded, and nearly annihilated by the New Jersey Brigade. Within twenty minutes the Regiment suffered 79 percent casualties, with many taken prisoner."

"In this horrible predicament the Regiment likely would have followed Munford's men in panicked retreat up the mountain. But its Colonel, D. Killingsworth, held them to their impossible work until he had been twice shot, once mortally. By holding on to the last possible moment Killingsworth bought time for Cobb to assemble a last-ditch stand in the gap, further stalling Union penetration into the Valley, where it would compromise Gen. Robert E. Lee's hold on South Mountain, and with it the Confederate probe into Maryland."

(from Teague)

[edit] Death

Killingsworth died the next day at Burkittsville, Maryland. He is interred at St. Peter's Cemetery, Oxford, Mississippi.

He was succeeded by LTC Buford in command of the Regiment.