WAR RECORD OF GEORGE WASHINGTON SEWELL

Company D, 5th Kentucky Infantry, of Jackson, Kentucky, BREATHITT COUNTY

  I entered the Conferate Army under Captain A. C. Cope, the 19th day of September 1862, which was afterwards attached the Fifth Kentucky Regiment of Infantry, Company D, in which I remained until the close of the war.

  The first year of my service was in western Virginia. During the fall of 1863 we left Virginia and entered what was known as the Army of Tennessee and was under General Joe E. Johnson.

  My first battle was Chicamauga, in which I was wounded the 20th day of September 1863. The next battle I engaged in was Missionary Ridge. We spent the next winter at Dalton, Georgia.

  Leaving Dalton about the 6th of May, 1864, I was all the way along the line to Dallas, Georgia, and shared in all the battles. At Dallas I was severely wounded. Because of this wound I was off all summer and rejoined my command in October, near Atlanta, at a place called Stock Bridge. At this place our brigade (Lewis' Brigade) was mounted and after that we fought as mounted infantry. All the brigade acquired horses with exception of about eighty men. We were ordered to Stone mountain to cut off one of Sherman's wagon trains which went there daily to forage. We were under command of our Colonel Hiram Hawkins. I slept at the foot of Stone Mountain. The next day we learned that Sherman had made a general move and that we were cut off from our command. I was one of the fifteen mounted men sent out as scouts under the command of Hawkins with the same dismounted men as above mentioned. There was nothing left for us to do but to follow in Sherman's rear. We followed him to near Millegeville, Georgia. There we detoured and joined our command at a village called Doctor Town, near the Gulf. There we spent a part of the winter leaving there and again following Sherman to Colombia, S.C., which he had burned to the ground. We had some fighting at Camden, S.C., with some soldiers from the coast. At Mill Springs, I was slightly wounded. This was during April of that year. At that place we received news that General Lee had surrendered and that a cessation of hostilities of ten days was ordered. From there we were ordered to Washington, Georgia, where we surrendered the 6th day of May, 1865.

  I belong to what is called the Confederate Veterans Association, with headquarters at Lexington, Kentucky, Camp Breckenridge, where our insignia is the likeness of General Robert E. Lee, the button which I now wear. [see photo below]

  Our brigade was known as the Orphan Brigade. Out of five full regiments of men, we surrendered with six hundred guns, most of the men were left on the battlefields with the balance of the guns.

  My rank was Orderly Sergeant, First Sergeant.

(Signed) G. W. Sewell

  My official record may be found at Lexington, Kentucky.

G.W. Sewell: Recollections of hospital stay during Civil War
(Copied from family bible)

Was there 1st March to 1st June 1864. Was near death's door, so near that they made my coffin. Placed it near my bunk and after ten days on opening my eyes I asked the nurses what it meant. They told me it was for me. I told him to take it out as I did not need it. He then told me to wait a day or so and see. After that I used it for a table and also to get up by. Eat off of it (not many men ever eat off their own coffin). This coffin was afterward used for a young Alabama soldier who died of pneumonia, but was sent to the hospital for small pox.

It was made of poplar, neatly dressed. Looked alright, but needed it only for the purposes above mentioned. The coffin was a trifle too short for the Alabamian but they took out the foot which made it fit. I had not tried to see how it would do for myself, I only used it for a table. It was good and substantial; had no rickety legs to jostle and spill, was covered neatly with an oil table cloth. I was proud of its usefulness.

 

URL: http://www.rootsweb.com/~orphanhm/sewell.htm