This is Chaplain George Gilman Smith's account of the Phillip's Legions's fight at Fox's Gap on South Mountain September 14th 1862.
From an 1886 Anthology of Civil War Reminisences titled "Camp Fire Scetches & Battlefield Echoes". This story is titled "A Fighting Chaplin-Experience at the Battle of South Mountain-Fierce Mortar Duels"
"If you will permit, I will tell you about the afternoon at South
Mountain in 1862, when I received a bullet through my neck, and when
night alone saved General Lee's army from capture. A year before I had
been the pastor of a charming little church in a beautiful valley in
upper Georgia. I was just married, and ought to have been content to
have staid (sic)at home, but in my veins was the blood of those who had
fought in the Revolution, and when I saw my parishioners going to the
front I went too, as the chaplain of the Phillips Legion. We had fifteen
companies - nine of infantry, five of cavalry and one of artillery -
commanded by Col William Phillips. We had had our share of hard work,
but until the summer of 1862, we had no serious fighting. On the Sunday
morning (September 14) on which the battle of South Mountain began, we
were in camp at Hagerstown. We were expecting quite a time of repose
when the order came to move towards Boonsboro. I had not the remotest
dream of any hot work, nor do I think any of us had, for we had no idea
that the army of the Potomac could be reorganized and mobilized so soon.
We thought the assault upon our lines was merely a feint of cavalry.
This was evidently General Lee's opinion, oe else he would not have
allowed Jackson to have crossed the Potomac; but it was soon evident
from the rapid motion of the artillery and infantry that hot work was
before us. My regiment had gone and I ambled off as rapidly as I could
toward the front.
Somehow I got the name of the "fighting chaplain", and candidly I did
not like it, for it was neither just nor complimentary. I did not go to
the army to fight; I did not fight after I got there. I had as little
stomach for fighting as Falstaff had. I went to the army as a chaplain,
and as a chaplain I did my work, and yet that day I got a bullet through
my neck. I ought not to have gone where the bullets were flying, but I
did go and I got hit, and this is how it came about. I found Generals
Lee, Longstreet and Jones, standing at the base of the pass, and with
them was one of the staff officers of our brigade, Captain Young.
Inquiring of him for my regiment, he told me that it was behind a stone
fence on the right of the Boonsboro and Frederick Pike, and I
immediately repaired to that place. A battery of light artillery
(Bondurant's) was firing overhead and we lay quietly looking toward the
south. (HIS DIRECTION IS WRONG. THEY WERE FACING EAST) Suddenly the
order came to change front. We were now to face towards the west.
(Again, HIS DIRECTION IS WRONG, THEY WERE NOW TO FACE TO THE SOUTH) The
turnpike (Old Sharpsburg Road at Fox's Gap) was narrow, and the enemy
were upon us. The change of position called for a change from line of
battle to column, and then from column into line. My own regiment did
beautifully and for a moment we looked to the woods expecting the
Federals to charge upon us, but instead we were ordered to leave the
protection of the stone wall and to charge into the woods. As we entered
the woods I saw a poor fellow fall and heard him say, "Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit." I went to him and said, "My friend, that's a good
prayer, I hope you feel it." He answered ,"Stranger, I am not afraid to
die; I made my peace with God over thirty years ago." Just at that
moment I heard Cook, our commander, say in a loud voice, "For God's sake
don't fire; we are friends!" I turned and saw a body of our troops about
ready to fire. I said, "I will go back, colonel, and stop them." As I
ran back to the fence, I looked down the very road we had just left, and
saw a body of Federals moving upon us. Something had to be done, and I
ran to General Drayton, our commander, and told him the position. A
feint certainly must be made; if the Federals should know that the stone
fence was abandoned, they would sweep upon the fence and capture the
last man. Major Gest (Major Wm M Gist 15th SC), when he saw how matters
were, placed the few man he had in position; and I started for my
regiment. As I came to the pike, I saw a soldier shooting towards the
east. It took but a moment for me to see that the Federals were east,
south and west of us.
The firing was now fierce, but I felt that my regiment must be brought
out of that pocket at all hazards, and I started to warn it, when I
found it retreating. Poor Ellis (Pvt Ellis Williams, Co D, KIA) a
Welchman, had run the gauntlet and given them warning, and the regiment
was now retreating in a broken and confused manner. One of the boys, Gus
Tomlinson, in tears said: "Parson, we've been whipped; the regiment is
retreating." "And none too soon either," said I , "for we are surrounded
on all sides but one." Just then I felt a strange dizziness and fell, my
arm dropping lifeless by my side. I knew that I was hit, and I thought
mortally wounded. But where was I hit? Was my arm torn off by a shell?
No, here that is. Was I shot through the breast? or-yes, here it was -
blood was gurgling from my throat. The dear boys rushed to me, laid me
on a blanket and bore me off the field. I thought I was mortally wounded
; so did they. "Yes, parson," said they, "It's all up with you." The
ball had entered my neck, and ranging downward, came out near my spine
paralyzing my arm. How does a man feel under such circumstances? Well
one thing I felt, and that was, that it's a good thing in such an hour
to have faith in Christ and love towards all men. I had been in battle
but there was not one of the soldiers in the Federal ranks for whom I
had any feeling other than love. As we came out Hood's divsion went in,
but it was the caution of the Federals and the cover of the night that
saved our army that day from a worse defeat and from capture."
Rev Smith survived his wounds and the war and became a noted leader of
the Methodist church in the southeast, despite partial paralysis caused
by hs wound. He was also a noted author writing biographies of numerous
men of the cloth and several novels. There is a wartime photo of him in
the Confederate Veteran. He was born 12/24/1836 in Newton (now Rockdale
County). Reverend Smith passed away in 1913.
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