4TH GEORGIA CAVALRY
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A Brief History of Clinch's Regiment,
4th Georgia Volunteer Cavalry,
Provisional Army of the Confederate States
The compiler must point out at the beginning of this work that, due to
some administrative meanderings by the state authorities, there were two
separate Confederate regiments named the 4th Georgia Volunteer Cavalry.
The command with which we are concerned was raised in South Georgia and commanded by
Colonel Duncan L. Clinch, Jr., of Camden County, hence its usual appellation - Clinch's
4th Georgia Cavalry. That name is used to differentiate it from the other
regiment of Georgia Cavalry with the same numerical designation, which was from northern
Georgia and was commanded by a Colonel Isaac W. Avery, Jr.
Clinch's 4th Georgia Cavalry grew out of a need for a military
force-in-being in the coastal region of Southeastern Georgia. This
sparsely-populated, far-flung region, which contributed several regiments of Infantry
to the Confederate Army, was virtually without defense in mid - 1862, when Confederate
Authorities had essentially abandoned the practically indefensible coastal area with its
numerous rivers, bays, creeks, tidal estuaries, and off-shore islands, and much
of its male Caucasian population had left to join either the Army of Northern
Virginia or the Army of Tennessee. In this same time-frame, Brunswick was
abandoned and the rails on the connection to the Savannah, Albany, and Gulf
Railroad in the vicinity of modern-day Waycross were removed from Brunswick to
Waynesville. Most coastal residents refugeed to safer climes inland, especially
Waynesville and Tebeauville (Waycross). The only formal military forces remaining in the
region were several independent companies of Partisan Rangers or Cavalry, organized in the
immediate aftermath of Secession in 1861 and mustered for state service, plus three excess mounted
companies which had been spun off from the 26th Georgia Volunteer Infantry in
early 1862 when that regiment was preparing to go north to join the Army of Northern Virginia.
In early 1862, Confederate Military Authorities organized these various
companies into the Cavalry Command South of the Altamaha River, and put them under the
command of Duncan L. Clinch, Jr., a local Planter and an Army veteran of the war
with Mexico, as well as the son and namesake of the late highly - regarded
veteran of the War of 1812, Indian fighter, Planter, and Public Servant -
Brigadier General Duncan L. Clinch, Sr., of Camden County.
The initial organization of the Cavalry Command South of the Altamaha River was:
Commanding Officer - Major Duncan L. Clinch, Jr.
Company Commanders -
Wayne Rangers - Captain Thomas S. Hopkins
Camden Chasseurs - Captain George Lang
Camden Mounted Rifles - Captain Alexander S. Atkinson
Glynn Guards - Captain George C. Dent
Atlantic and Gulf Guards - Captain Enoch D. Hendry
In the Spring of 1862, recognizing that the initial 12-month enlistments
of most existing commands was not going to suffice for the length of the
expanding conflict, Confederate Authorities reorganized their army for the war.
One result was the replacement of many officers at elections held attendant to
the reorganization, including all the above company commanders. The new company
commanders were:
Wayne Rangers - Captain Joseph S. Wiggins
Camden Chasseurs - Captain John Readdick
Camden Mounted Rifles - Captain Nathan A. Brown
Glynn Guards - Captain William M. Hazzard
Atlantic and Gulf Guards - Captain Allen C. Strickland
In mid - 1862, Clinch was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and he was
authorized an Executive/Operations Officer. Additional companies were added to
his command as the year progressed, and it was renamed the 3rd
Battalion, Georgia Volunteer Cavalry. By late 1862, the organization of this
command was:
Commanding Officer - Lieutenant Colonel Duncan L. Clinch, Jr.
Operations Officer - Major John L. Harris
Company Commanders:
A - Atlantic and Gulf Guards - Captain Allen C. Strickland
B - Shiloh Troops - Captain Jesse C. McDonald
C - Wayne Rangers - Captain Joseph S. Wiggins
D - Glynn Guards - Captain William M. Hazzard
E -Camden Mounted Rifles - Captain Nathan A. Brown
F -Camden Chasseurs - Captain John Readdick
G -No name - Captain Robert N. King
H - Georgia Dragoons - Captain James P. Turner
I - No name - Captain Thomas S. Wylly
K - No name - Captain John C. Nicholls
In December 1862, Captain Strickland of Company A died of disease, or an internal infection
or injury, and was replaced by Alexander McMillan.
For their entire existence, both the Cavalry Command South of the Altamaha River and
its successor, the 3rd Battalion, Georgia Volunteer Cavalry, operated solely
inside their nominal area of responsibility - the coastal region of Southeastern Georgia between the
Altamaha and Saint Mary's Rivers. Their mission was to perform scouting,
picketing, and courier service in the region and, most importantly, to offer
some credible resistance to Federal attempts to disrupt its contribution to the
Confederate war effort. This resulted in some skirmishing with blockading
Federals, as well as a few disaffected slaves and non-compliant conscripts and
Confederate Army deserters. Several men were killed or wounded in these frays.
In early 1863, the Battalion, having been enlarged to ten companies, and
numbering almost a thousand men, was re-designated the 4th Regiment, Georgia Volunteer
Cavalry. At that point, the companies were all re-lettered, Clinch was
promoted to full Colonel, Harris to Lieutenant Colonel, and J.C. McDonald,
commander of the Shiloh Troops, was elevated to Major and appointed Operations Officer.
David Crum was promoted to fill McDonalds vacancy as company commander of the
Shiloh Troops, and Clinchs younger brother, Nicholas B. Clinch, was brought
in as 1st Lieutenant and Regimental Adjutant.
The regimental organization at that time was:
Commanding Officer - Colonel Duncan L. Clinch, Jr.
Executive Officer - Lieutenant Colonel John L. Harris
Operations Officer - Major Jesse Campbell McDonald
Adjutant - 1st Lieutenant Nicholas Bayard Clinch
Company Commanders:
A- Wayne Rangers - Captain Joseph S. Wiggins
B - Glynn Guards - Captain William M. Hazzard
C - Camden Mounted Rifles - Captain Nathan A. Brown
D- Camden Chasseurs - Captain John Readdick
E- No name - Captain Robert N. King
F- Georgia Dragoons - Captain James P. Turner
G - Atlantic and Gulf Guards - Captain Alexander McMillan
H - No name - Captain Thomas S. Wylly
I - No name - Captain John C. Nicholls
K - Shiloh Troops - Captain David Crum
In late March, Clinch was ordered to take his small battery of artillery
and five companies to Northern Florida, where the Federals had made a
substantial appearance at Jacksonville. He took his third-in-command, Major J.
C. McDonald, the three-piece battery of artillery, and the five companies, all
told 277 men, to the vicinity of Jacksonville where they, plus other Confederate
units from Florida, sparred with the Federals probing the Confederate defenses
along the Saint Johns River. While the records are not definitive about it, the
companies involved probably were:
A - Captain J.S. Wiggins
C - Captain N. A. Brown
D - Captain John Readdick
E - Captain R.N. King
H - Captain T.S. Wylly
1st Lieutenant Charles F. Matthews of Company C and
2nd Lieutenant John L. Morgan of Company G probably led the
regiments small battery of artillery on the expedition. It appears that the
second-in-command, Lieutenant Colonel Harris, and the remainder of the regiment,
stayed in Georgia and continued their mission of protecting the southeastern
Georgia coast. This small deployment, in which Clinch served as the field
commander of all the Confederate forces, involved some skirmishing and probes,
but no serious fighting. It was concluded with both sides throwing a few
artillery rounds at each other, then retreating to their defenses to observe a
stalemate. With the arrival of other Florida forces, Clinch brought his men back
home, arriving in Georgia on about 25 March. The Federals soon abandoned the
effort after robbing a few plantations and generally destroying anything of
value they could find farther up the Saint Johns River.
For the remainder of 1863, Clinchs 4th Georgia Cavalry
continued to operate exclusively in the southeastern region of Georgia, as
previously described. Increased activity by the ever-aggressive Federals in the
region, operating primarily out of Saint Simons Island, Georgia, and Fernandina,
Florida, resulted in additional skirmishes, the most notable of which was an
altercation on 8 June 1863 between the Glynn Guards (Captain Hazzard) and
several boat-loads of Yankees attempting to destroy some salt-manufacturing apparatus
in the Turtle River above Brunswick. Throughout that year, the regiment suffered the
ravages of a severe Typhoid epidemic, having for several months as many as 110 men sick at a time
and ultimately suffering about two dozen deaths to the disease.
Up to that point, the regiment had based its headquarters at Waynesville,
while keeping the individual companies at various camps located closer to the
coast and maintaining many picket posts along the coast. In the Fall of 1863,
Clinch moved his headquarters to Camp Mercer, near Screven, probably due to the
removal of the rails from Waynesville to the SA&G Railroad near present-day
Waycross, but his regiments mission remained the same. The Summer and Fall of
1863 witnessed a considerable effort by the regiment to collect conscripts and
deserters around South Georgia, involving about a dozen separate patrols and at
least 85 men. This activity occasionally resulted in some skirmishes and a few
casualties. In the same time-frame, about 100 men of the regiment whose horses
had died, or become sick or lame, were transferred to a new command formed under
Colonel Clinch's younger brother and recent Adjutant, newly-elected Captain N.B.Clinch.
This unit, Clinchs Artillery Company, or Clinchs Light Battery, would move to the
vicinity of Savannah in June of 1864, from which time its mission and locations would be
separate from those of Clinchs 4th Georgia Cavalry. In December 1863, Captain J.S. Wiggins
of Company A was elected to the state House of Representatives and resigned. His place as
commander of the Wayne Rangers was filled by Alexander Lang.
The mission of Clinchs 4th Georgia Cavalry was enlarged again in early
1864 when Colonel Clinch was called upon to contribute again to the meager
Confederate forces in northern Florida opposing those of a sizable new group of
invading Federals, resulting in the battle of Olustee, some miles west of
Jacksonville. Clinch's command contributed 250 of its nominal strength of over
900 men, which included detachments from, or all of, the following companies:
B - Captain William M. Hazzard
C - Captain Nathan A. Brown
D - Captain John Readdick
F - Captain James P. Turner
G - Captain Alexander McMillan
I- Captain John C. Nicholls
K - Captain David Crum
Apparently, the remainder of the regiment again stayed in Georgia under the
command of Lieutenant Colonel Harris and Major McDonald to continue to perform
its mission there. Clinch, and the portion of the regiment going with him, left
on horse-back on 13 or 14 February from Screven, or the other coastal camps from
which some of the companies were operating, and sent their heavy equipage to Florida
via the rails to Valdosta, where it was shipped via wagon to the railroad at Madison,
Florida, and eventually met them somewhere to the west of Olustee. The regiment arrived in
Olustee on 17 February, and was involved in the initial fighting east of the
village early on the morning of the 20th.
Clinch and his senior, Colonel Carraway Smith of the 2nd
Florida Cavalry, were sent out with some of their cavalry by General Finegan to
locate the approaching enemy, then draw them back toward the Confederate
infantry. As the main battle developed in the early afternoon, the regiment was
moved to the left flank of the Confederate lines to prevent any attempt by the
Federals to outflank the Southern infantry on that side. In the process of
taking station, many of the regiments horses bogged down in a swampy area and
some were lost. This unfortunate event, plus a severe leg wound suffered early
in the action that caused Colonel Clinch to retire from the field, effectively
took the regiment out of the remaining days fight. Captain Brown of Company C
assumed command when Clinch was wounded, but the regiment was not involved in
any further substantive action on that day. Mrs. Clinch soon arrived on the
battlefield and took her husband back to their recently-purchased Brooks County
plantation to recover.
After the battle, the regiment stayed in Florida under the command of
Lieutenant Colonel Harris and Major McDonald, who came to Florida after Clinch's
wounding and brought reinforcements of about another 100 men from those who had
remained in Georgia. The command remained in the region until about 23 April,
operating around Waldo, Starke, and Palatka against the ever-aggressive Federals
committing depredations along the Saint Johns River and in the up-river lakes
while enjoying the protection of their armed Army transports and a few powerful
Navy gunboats. These operations were demanding and dangerous, and the regiment
lost a number of men wounded or captured during the time.
The campaign having finally wound down in late April, the regiment was
ordered back to Georgia and arrived in Screven, or at its respective other
company camps, on 28 and 29 April. Its time there was going to be brief, as
major operations loomed in the offing. At the end of June 1864, on the eve of
these most challenging and important operations, the organization of the
regiment was:
Command:
Commanding Officer - Colonel Duncan L. Clinch, Jr. (Wounded and on convalescent leave)
Executive Officer - Lieutenant Colonel John L.Harris (Acting Commanding Officer)
Operations Officer - Major Jesse Campbell McDonald
Staff:
Assistant Commissary of Subsistence,
Assistant Quartermaster & Paymaster - Captain Henry R. Fort
Surgeon - Major Richard Berrien Burroughs (at Camp Mercer)
Assistant Surgeons - Captain John W. Bowdoin (at Camp Mercer)
Captain W. T. Grant (at Waynesville)
Hospital Matron- Mrs. Mary L. Spears (at Waynesville)
Drillmaster - Vacant, but possibly 2ndWilson Campbell; nominal Drillmaster,
who for some time had been filling the role of acting Quartermaster.
Chaplain - Vacant
Adjutant - 1st Lieutenant John Screven Bryan
Sergeant-Major - Sergeant-Major S.W. Cary
Color Sergeant - 2ndSergeant Henry R. DuBignon
Ordnance Sergeants - Ordnance Sergeant Garie Lang
Ordnance Sergeant A. Atkinson
Quartermaster Sergeant - Quartermaster Sergeant Elias C. Fort
Assistant - Private Glover G. Foremen
Commissary Sergeants - Commissary Sergeant William Pendarvis
Acting Commissary Sergeant - Timmons Myers
Wagon-Master - 2nd Sergeant J. Downie
Chief Farrier - Private John F. Evans
Colonels Orderly - Private Elias Pitman, Co. G
Hospital Orderly - Private Horace Dart, Invalid Corps
(at Waynesville & Screven)
Hospital Steward - Private Alexander C. Scott, Medical Department
(at Waynesville)
Companies:
A - Wayne Rangers
Captain Alexander Lang
1st Lieutenant Wilson Sarvis
2nd Lieutenant R.B. Hopps
2nd Lieutenant W.T.E. Butler
B - Glynn Guards
Captain William Miles Hazzard
1st Lieutenant John P. Scarlett
2nd Lieutenant Robert S. Pyles
2nd Lieutenant Hugh Fraser Grant
C - Camden Mounted Rifles
Captain Nathan Atkinson Brown
1st Lieutenant Charles F. Matthews
2nd Lieutenant Henry J. Nicholes
2nd Lieutenant Barney James Gowen
D - Camden Chasseurs
Captain John Readdick
1st Lieutenant Andrew J. Dunham
2nd Lieutenant John J. Rudolph
2nd Lieutenant Felder Lang
E - No Nickname
Captain Robert Newton King
1st Lieutenant John S. Cavedo
2nd Lieutenant John S. Collier
2nd Lieutenant J.W. Herndon
F - Georgia Dragoons
Captain James Peyton Turner
1st Lieutenant Joshua N. Barrow
2nd Lieutenant W.J. Dopson
2nd Lieutenant Isaac Alderman
G - Atlantic and Gulf Guards
Captain Alexander McMillan
1st Lieutenant Henry Jordan
2nd Lieutenant John L. Morgan
2nd Lieutenant William H. McMillan
H - No Nickname
Captain Thomas Spalding Wylly
1st Lieutenant James H. Carroll
2nd Lieutenant James A. Dasher
2nd Lieutenant J.O.A. Howell
I - No Nickname
Captain John C. Nicholls
1st Lieutenant Albert S. Leighton
2nd Lieutenant George M.T. Ware
2nd Lieutenant (Vacant)
K - Shiloh Troops
Captain David Crum
1st Lieutenant Middleton Graham
2nd Lieutenant R.T. Williams
2nd Lieutenant John G. Ritch
Sometime shortly after this, Captain David Crum died in camp and was
replaced as commander of the Shiloh Troops by his brother, former
Company 1st Sergeant Pitchford Crum.
As Confederate prospects around Atlanta and Charleston began to
deteriorate in mid-1864, the regiment was re-positioned to extend its support
for the first time to the area above the Altamaha River, which had been recently
vacated by the reassignment of the 5th Georgia Cavalry to duties near
Atlanta. So, it began to move some companies across the river. In May, Company E
went to Dorchester in Liberty County and Company H moved to South Newport in
McIntosh County. In June, Company F moved to "Camp Rogers" in Bryan County.
These relatively minor movements presaged significant changes, because
major movements were soon ordered. On 5 July, Clinch had returned to active
service, but with his Olustee wound still unhealed. Nonetheless, he was ordered
to take the regiment to Savannah, then split his command into two detachments.
Clinch was assigned to take one-third of his companies to Atlanta with all the
regiment's horses, and send the remainder to Charleston without horses. He
quickly gathered his far-flung command and sent it on the rails to Savannah,
where it would split up as ordered. There is some evidence that, of the nominal
thousand - man force, only some 500 or 600 ultimately went to Charleston and Atlanta.
Why the remainder did not go is a matter of considerable conjecture, but probably reflects
a poor state of health remaining in the many who had suffered from the previous years
Typhoid epidemic, plus other various causes of physical debilitation or assignment to vital and
continuing logistics support duties at Camp Mercer.
At any rate, those men going on to Atlanta went via the rails to Macon
and Columbus. From there, they rode their horses back to Fort Valley near Macon,
then on to Atlanta where they joined the Confederate Army of Tennessee and
prepared to participate in the desperate Confederate defensive effort there.
During this time, Clinch ordered substantial additional arms and equipment from
the Macon Arsenal to equip his men for their forthcoming campaign.
The remainder of the regiment, about 300 men without horses, who were
under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Harris, was ordered to the vicinity of
Charleston and, upon arrival there, participated as infantry in some of the
fighting on John's Island on 8 and 9 July, during yet another attempt by the
determined Federals to capture the city which, in their view, had fomented the
Rebellion and initiated hostilities.
With the successful defeat of that latest threat to the security of the
Cradle of Secession, on the 13th Harris and his detachment were
ordered to re-join the remainder of the regiment around Atlanta, probably
traveling by rail and arriving by the end of the month. There, the reunited
regiment reported to Major General Fighting Joe Wheelers Cavalry Corps in
the Army of Tennessee. For a period of time, they skirmished with Federal Cavalry around
the eastern side of Atlanta, then in August the regiment was assigned to act as Infantry (dismounted
Cavalry) and placed in the trenches on the southwestern side of Atlanta.
On 31 August, when Sherman sent his 100,000 man army swinging to the west
of the city to cut its remaining rail connections to the south and west, the
regiment was forced from its breastworks by superior forces at Mount Gilead
Church near East Point. Several of the men were reported to have been killed and
wounded in this fighting and the battle of Jonesborough the following day. Among
them was Captain T.S. Wylly, who was so badly wounded in the neck and shoulder
that he was left on the battlefield when the regiment retreated. Surgeon
Burroughs went back to the battlefield and rescued Wylly, hauling him to safety
on his own horse. As Atlanta was falling to the Federal forces shortly
thereafter, the regiment was remounted and assigned, along with other cavalry
units, to serve as the rear guard while Confederate forces evacuated the city.
Soon, they were involved in additional skirmishing with Federal Cavalry, as the
Confederate Army relocated south of Atlanta.
These had been difficult and demanding operations and, after three months
of arduous service, an exhausted Colonel Clinchs would relinquish command and
seek medical care for his unhealed Olustee wound. On 26 September in Macon, he was
reported to have been hospitalized with a broken leg and a "supporating (sic)wound".
He apparently was not the only exhausted member of this command because, in
October, during a brief respite in the campaign, about 100 men and some of the
regiment's horses were sent to Ladiga in eastern Alabama, where they had been
sent to rest and recuperate under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Harris after
the vigorous campaigning of the previous months. After some ten days, in early
November, they were ordered to join the remainder of the regiment, which was
presumably under the command of Major McDonald and was believed to be near
Columbus. That location turned out to be incorrect, and they operated near
Atlanta for the next two weeks, scouting and harassing Federal troops.
From mid-November to the end of December, the regiment was involved in
opposing Sherman's army on its march to the sea, skirmishing almost constantly
for six weeks, and eventually losing their flag to the Yankees near Sandersville
in late November. Then, on 4 December in a hotly-contested battle with
Kilpatricks cavalry command at Waynesborough in Burke County, Major Jesse C.
McDonald was captured and several other men were captured or killed. Captain
Pitchford Crum was among the wounded. In mid-December, Sherman captured Fort
McAllister, which guarded the southern water-borne approaches to Savannah,
sealing the city's fate. Captain Clinch's Artillery Company, comprised primarily
of former 4th Georgia men, were all captured or killed there, and
Captain N.B. Clinch was severely wounded, along with a goodly portion of his
men. Savannah fell on 21 December when Lieutenant General Hardee, escaping
Shermans grasp in the still of the night, took his 10,000 man force across the
Savannah River into South Carolina. This effectively ended major military
operations in Georgia.
The whereabouts of Clinchs 4th Georgia Cavalry during the remainder of
the war is subject to some difference of opinion. Some references have them
accompanying Wheeler into the Carolinas, surrendering with Johnston's army in
North Carolina. Others have them remaining in Georgia, operating to the west and
south of Savannah where they resumed their previous mission of picketing and
courier service along the coast. The evidence overwhelmingly supports the latter
case and it is the compilers strong conclusion that the regiment remained in
Georgia.
It would appear that the Confederate forces operating in Georgia and
Florida came under the terms of the surrender negotiated by Johnston, hence the
possibility that some historians have concluded erroneously that the 4th Georgia
was actually in North Carolina with Johnstons army. Further, there is ample
evidence that Colonel Clinch returned from his hospitalization in March 1865 and
reassumed command of the regiment at Camp Mercer. He returned barely in time to
dissolve the regiment at Screven shortly after Johnstons surrender in April. On
that momentous occasion he made a brief speech, then admonished his men to
simply return home and go to work.
Lieutenant Colonel Harris, who apparently was not captured during the war, was
paroled at Augusta after the cessation of hostilities, and the majority of the
regiments members were paroled in Thomasville, Georgia. These facts reinforce
the view that Harris and the regiment, or what remained of it after the previous
year's hard service, stayed in Georgia throughout all of its service in 1865.
While the records of Clinchs 4th Georgia Cavalry for the time
after June 1864 are woefully sparse, and obviously do not fully reflect the
experiences of the regiments personnel during that dangerous and debilitating
time, those which have survived show that, of the somewhat over 2300 men who
served in the regiment at one time or another, at least 67 men died while
serving in the command, nine of them were killed in action or died of wounds
suffered in combat with the enemy, and 35 were captured. Six of the latter died
while being held in Northern prison camps and are included in the 67 dead.
As was the case in most other commands of the Confederate Army, by the
end of hostilities, the merciless and debilitating demands of war had ground
down the active personnel of the 4th Georgia Cavalry to a mere token
of their former numbers. One source estimated that Clinchs regiment comprised
only about 200 officers and men in May 1865 when it concluded operations. This
represents a 91 % depletion rate, and is only one of the many measures of the
awful cost of the tragic sectional war between Americans in the 1860s. In fact,
out of the much-depleted numbers that deployed to Atlanta in the Summer of 1864,
at least 78 had been hospitalized for various reasons during the Atlanta
campaign and the March to the Sea, which represents about 20 % of those that were
still active in the regiment at the time of their departure for that seat of
war. The estimated numbers of men remaining in active service at the conclusion
of hostilities would indicate that more than half of the approximately 425 men
of the regiment that were paroled at the end of the war were no longer actively
serving with the regiment.
While few of the losses were due to death, it is indicative of the degree
to which the cruel processes of war can gleefully consume the human resources of
any society. Further, while these figures do not replicate the degree of
decimation seen in the many Southern units which performed front-line duties far
longer than did Colonel Duncan L. Clinchs command, they still represent much
valiant service and personal sacrifice, as well as unfathomable tragedy on the
part of the families whose men lost their lives while serving their society.Yes,
War is Hell indeed.
