24th Georgia Volunteer Infantry

24th Georgia Volunteer Infantry

Unofficial Georgia flag prior to 1879
Active 1861 – September 2, 1865[1]
Country  Confederate States of America
Allegiance Georgia
Branch  Confederate States Army
Type Infantry
Engagements

American Civil War

Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Colonel Robert McMillan

The 24th Georgia Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. The regiment was part of Thomas Cobb's brigade at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Organization

The 24th Infantry Regiment, organized during the summer of 1861, recruited its members in White, Banks, Towns, Rabun, Gwinnett, Elbert, Hall, Franklin, and Habersham counties. The field officers were Colonels Robert McMillan and C. C. Sanders, Lieutenant Colonels Joseph N. Chandler and Thomas E. Winn, and Majors Robert E. McMillan and Frederick C. Smith. After serving in the Department of North Carolina, the unit moved to Virginia where it was brigaded under Generals H. Cobb, T. R. R. Cobb, Wofford, and DuBose.

Service record

The 24th Infantry Regiment fought in the difficult campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia from the Seven Days Battles to Gettysburg, then moved to Georgia with Longstreet. The 24th was engaged at Chickamauga, and did see action in the Knoxville Campaign. The regiment returned to Virginia and participated in the conflicts at The Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, was active in the Shenandoah Valley, and ended the war at Appomattox.

Soon after being mustered into Confederate service the regiment was moved to Lynchburg, Virginia. Within a week of arriving there, however, it was ordered to Goldsborough, North Carolina. There it joined the Department of North Carolina. The unit remained there until early in 1862. Returning to Virginia, the unit was placed in the Army of Northern Virginia. It served in that army until the summer of 1863. At that time it was moved to Georgia where it served in the Army of Tennessee. It next saw service in the Department of East Tennessee. In the spring of 1864 the regiment returned to the Army of Northern Virginia, remaining in that army until mid-summer 1864. It then moved to the Shenandoah Valley where it served in the Army of the Valley District. Finally, in December 1864, the unit returned to the Army of Northern Virginia, serving in that army for the remainder of the war.

Listed below are the specific higher command assignments of the regiment.

Engagements

Casualties

In April 1862, this regiment totaled 660 effectives, lost 43 percent of the 292 engaged at Crampton's Gap, and had four killed, 39 wounded, and two missing at Sharpsburg. It sustained 36 casualties at Fredericksburg, reported 14 killed and 73 wounded at Chancellorsville, and of the 303 at Gettysburg, 17 percent were disabled. Many were captured at Sayler's Creek and only four officers and 56 men surrendered on April 9, 1865.

In popular culture

In the movie, Gods and Generals, it is identified as "Brigadier General Thomas R.R. Cobb's Irish Regiment, Georgia, C.S.A.".

References

  1. ↑ Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System. National Park Service. Retrieved on 2008-06-19.