Thursday, May 24, 2012

Elijah Hunt, Private, Company B, 15th Georgia Infantry of Benning's Brigade

Found a website which may be of interest to those researching their ancestry - http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Hunt&GSfn=Elijah&GSbyrel=all&GSdy=1865&GSdyrel=before&GSob=n&GRid=67704632&df=all& On the left side of the webpage you can perform new searches.  The link here actually shows the information for Elijah Hunt who was one of my great great great grandfathers on my mother’s side.   I had not known where he was buried and winds up it is actually just up I-85 at a Confederate Veterans cemetery in Newnan GA. 

This same findagrave.com webpage for Elijah Hunt actually gives a reference and link to his wife’s grave, Mahala Neal Harris Hunt - http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=76471737 . This webpage provides ancestral information for Mahala to include daughter of Elizabeth Gober Neal, as in the Gober family which if traced back actually shows that Henry Gober of Millbrook, Real Son of Confederate Veteran Lisbon Failes Gober and I have a common great great (etc) grandfather back in the 1700s, name being William Gober I.

Elijah Hunt was a Private in Co. B of the 15th Georgia Infantry  – they fought under Benning’s Brigade and mentioned in some of these histories (another good website) - http://home.comcast.net/~benningsbrigade/History.htm .  My prior research had shown he enlisted early on, July 14th, 1861 and mustered out in November 1863 (when he died) and so he would have been a part of the campaigns at Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and Chickamauga.  Here’s an excerpt from this Benning's Brigade website regarding Gettysburg (some pretty interesting intense action):

The 15th and 20th approached a worm fence 100 yards southwest of the bottom of the triangular field, just as the Union defenders launched a counterattack on the Texans in the triangular field. The Texans were presently running pell mell towards the protection of the same fence, albeit from the opposite direction. On gaining the fence, the Texans quickly rallied along the same line the 15th was taking up, intermingling with the Georgians. The combined force of Georgians and Texans let rip a volley, described by one of its recipients in the triangular field, a member of the 124th NY Infantry, as “a terrible fire which seemed in an instant to bring down a quarter of our numbers.”

The Confederate advance was not to be stopped. As the 15th Ga./1st Tex. then crested  the slope, they engaged the enemy at a distance of only yards. The fighting nearly become hand-to-hand before the Yankee line – here, the remnants of the 124th NY - broke. The retreat of the 124th NY allowed the 15th Ga./1st Texas to flank the troops directly in front of the 20th, mostly the 4th Maine Infantry. Like a domino, the 4th Maine toppled in front of the 20th Georgia, and the 20th suddenly captured three of the four artillery pieces.  The enemy fell back into woods behind and to left of Devil’s Den.162 This attack did not last long – a member of the 15th wrote only that “We charged the enemy, driving them from their position.”

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