Augustus Cicero (A.C.) Brown, Sr.

(12 May 1832 - 8 October 1862)

View from Open Knob Hill

A Narrative

By Col. Bruce Alan Brown, USAF Ret.

After the Confederate defeats at Forts Henry and Donelson in February of 1862, a call went out for additional volunteers. Governor Joseph Brown authorized the creation of a brigade-sized unit from thirty-four counties in northwest Georgia. According to my grandmother, Clara Belle Bennette Brown, Augustus Cicero Brown, Sr., decided he was going to join and "show them Yankees."

On March 4, 1862, my great, great grandfather was mustered into the 41st Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment at Camp McDonald in Big Shanty, Georgia. Company K (the "Campbell Salt Springs Guards as they called themselves) were 133 volunteers from Campbell County who were commanded by Captain Jonathan J. Bowen. A review of the company roster reveals twenty-six separate families, represented by at least two or more relatives were in the unit. While the practice of keeping family members together contributed to unit cohesiveness, it often decimated entire families and communities.

After training at Camp McDonald, the 41st was posted to guard a railroad bridge over the Tennessee river at Bridgeport, Alabama. Then the siege of Corinth compelled the movement of the 41st Georgia to Mississippi.  Outnumbered by Union forces, the Confederates abandoned Corinth, withdrawing 50 miles south to Tupelo, Mississippi in late May. While encamped there, illness was taking its toll. On July 17, 1862, Augustus's half brother, Hiram, passed away from illness.

On July 21st, 98 of the original 133 officers and enlisted men of Company K left Tupelo to defend Chattanooga from a potential attack . On August 29, the Army of Mississippi, commanded by General Braxton Bragg, invaded Tennessee. Moving on to Kentucky, the Confederate Army stopped in Perryville. There was a drought and as the Union and Confederate Armies confronted each other, the primary issue became water. On October 7th, fierce skirmishes broke out for control of the only water source, Doctor's Creek. At night fall, the fighting closed for the day. The next day, October 8th, a little after noon, Confederate artillery opened fire on the Union lines. The 41st Georgia was formed on the right side of the Rebel battle line that stretched over a mile in length. Company K was deployed near the center of the regiment. which formed under the cover of a grove of oak trees that lined Doctor's Creek and waited. Ordered to form up, they deployed shoulder to shoulder in a linear formation with intervals of only 21 to 24 inches between them. They were followed by a second identical line, only 32 inches behind the first. The 98 men of Company K covered a front of approximately 25 yards.

At 2:15 that afternoon, moving out from the woods, Company K came under fire from Union troops defending Open Knob Hill about two hundred yards away. Opposing Company K were elements of the 33rd Union Brigade, the 105th Ohio and 123rd Illinois, and an artillery battery under the command of Lt Charles Parsons. Soon the battery opened fire on the advancing lines. As the 41st Georgia emerged from the woods it came in view of the enemy's battery. The enemy opened upon them a most terrific and deadly fire. Ten minutes into the attack, Company K encountered a wooden fence. Confederate forces laid down on the ground firing volley after volley at the 770 men of the 123rd Illinois as they charged down the hill with bayonets fixed. After decimating the first and second lines of the 123rd Illinois, Company K rose from the ground, crossed the fences with a Rebel yell, and moved forward shoulder to shoulder as Union cannons fired round shot and shell into their ranks. Company K and the rest of the brigade continued to march up the hill repeatedly firing into the third line of the 123rd Illinois. The action was described by Private Sam Watkins, a member of the 1st Tennessee Regiment, which was to the immediate right of the 41st Georgia:

"Two [Union] lines of battle confronted us. We killed almost everyone in the first line, and were soon charging over the second, when right in our immediate front was their third and main line of battle. We were soon in a hand-to-hand fight, every man for himself, using the butts of our guns and bayonets. The guns were discharged so rapidly that it seemed the earth itself was a volcanic uproar. The iron storm passed through our ranks, mangling and tearing men to pieces. Our men were dead and dying right in the very midst of this grand havoc of battle. It was a life and death to death grapple."

Private Augustus Cicero Brown, Sr. was in that firing line.

A "bombshell [exploded} knocking from his body his right arm and immediately afterwards he was pierced through his chest with a bayonet," according to Private James McClarty of K Company.

The 41st swept over Open Knob Hill and captured the guns and moved down the hill chasing the remnants of the Union 33rd Brigade until the Union line formed on a ridge commanded by Col John C. Starkweather.  They formed with twelve guns. The 41st continued to advance with the rest of the Rebel line and after an initial repulse, charged again. This time reaching the top of the ridge. After fierce hand-to-hand fighting they took the ridge and six of the Union guns. The Union line further retreated to another ridge 100 yards to the West. At this point the Union line stabilized and was able to repulse three southern frontal assaults.

While it was a tactical victory for the South, it was technically a defeat since General Bragg made the decision to withdraw the Army of Mississippi from the area.  Augustus Cicero Brown was survived by his wife, Rachael, and four children: Sarah C. Brown (b.July 1855), Mary Minerva Brown
(b. August 1857), Martha P. "Mattie" Brown (b. October 1859), and Augustus Cicero Brown Jr. (b. February 1862) my great grandfather.

On December 23, 1890 the State Assembly of Georgia passed a law giving widows up to February 15, 1893 to apply for a Confederate Veterans Pension. On January 31st 1893, Augustus Cicero Brown's wife, Rachel Ann Marena Fults Brown, applied for that pension. Quoted in the application is a description of my great, great grandfather's death by his friends Privates William A. Howell, James W. Mauldin, and William S. Tucker:

Augustus Cicero Brown was "killed by the explosion of a bomb shell at the battle of Perryville, Ky...his right arm was torn from his body as well as a part of his shoulder...deponents know absolutely that he died immediately afterwards...living only about one hour. Depondent Tucker says he knows that he was also pierced with a bayonet as he fell back after the explosion of the shell. This took place on the 8th day of October 1862."

Confederate dead laid on the battlefield for over three days, some accounts estimate a week, before they were buried in shallow graves. Later, Henry P. Bottoms, lead the excavation and re-interment in two pits on his land. Few were identified and it may be assumed that Augustus Cicero Brown, Sr. was put to rest in a mass grave.

Company K of the 41st Georgia Volunteer Infantry fought in twelve pitched battles from Perryville, Missionary Ridge, Kennesaw Mountain, Franklin and Bentonville; participated in two sieges, Vicksburg and Atlanta, and served in campaigns that spanned seven separate states of the Confederacy.

Company K stacked arms and surrendered to General Sherman, at Goldsboro, NC,  on April 26, 1865.  Of the 133 men who mustered into Company K on March 4,1862, only 25 were left.

References:

Foote, S. (1958). The Civil War: Fort Sumter to Perryville. New York: Random House Inc.

Georgia, Confederate Pension Applications 1879-1960. (1893, January 31). Retrieved May 23, 2012, from www.Ancestry.com: http:// search ancestry.com

Harmon, J. (1997, October 28). Brown-L Archives. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from Rootsweb:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BROWN/1997-10

Harmon, J. (2000, March 19). Brown-L Archives. Retrieved May 23, 2012, from Rootsweb:
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/BROWN/2000-03

Kelley, M. (n.d.). 41st Georgia Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Retrieved May 21, 2012, from Rootsweb.ancestry.com: http:www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gacampbe/Company_K-History.htm

Kennedy, F. H. (Ed.). (1990). The Civil War Battlefield Guide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Leonard, C. B. (2011, September 5). The Battle of Perryville. Retrieved June 11, 2012, from www.carolynbleonard.com:  http://www.carolynbleonard.com/CarolynBLeonard/DutchCousines/Entries/2011/9/5
Muster Roll of Company K, 41st Georgia Volunteer Regiment. (n.d.). Retrieved May 21, 2012, from
www.generalbartonandstovall: http:/www.generalbartonand stovall.com/html/company_k.html

The Armies at the Battle of Perryville. (n.d.). Retrieved May 24, 2012, from History of War:
http://historyofwar.org/articles/armies_perryville.html

The Battle of Perryville. (n.d.). Retrieved May 24, 2012, from Wikipedia: http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Perryvile

The Baxter Family from Georgia. (n.d.). Retrieved May 28, 2012, from Ancestry.com:
http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/24036662/family/familygroup?fpid=1462572717

The War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the official records. (n.d.). Retrieved May 25, 2012, from
Cornell.edu: http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/cgi/t/text/

Watkins, S. R. (1900). Co. Aytch (2nd ed. ed.).  Chattanooga: Times Printing Co.

Lieutenant James Willis Cantey, Jr.

Lieutenant James Willis Cantey, Jr. (1822 to 1847) monument is erected next to the memorial marker for his father, General James Willis Cantey Sr.   Neither of which are buried at these sites in Quaker Cemetery. 

Lieutenant Cantey was born on 21 November 1822, in his family home in Camden, he attended the University of Carolina and graduated in 1843.  In 1846, when President Polk called for volunteers against Mexico, the first South Carolina Company to volunteer was the DeKalb Guards of Camden.  Included in this group was Lieutenant James Willis Cantey Jr.  This Palmetto regiment engaged the enemy from Vera Cruz to Mexico city. 

On 12 September 1847, the main assault began on Mexico City.  The entry to the city was guarded by Chapultepec Castle.  The infantry assault was preceded by an all day artillery barrage.  The next day, 13 September,  the 4th Division, under the direction of General John A. Quitman, spearheaded the attack against the castle. 

General Quitman pointed at the stone fortification with 15-foot walls, lined with six cannons of the 12-pounder classification, supported by 2,000 Mexican soldiers, and stated that the fate of the day depended on taking that wall.  One hundred and fifty South Carolinians, what was left of the DeKalb Guards, some wounded and lame, heard his address.  With the battle cry of "come on boys" every man stepped forward with unflinching determination. 

Captain James  Cantey,  a cousin to Lieutenant Cantey and later a Confederate Brigadier General,  described the action:  "Our way lay over an open plain cut up by many deep ditches; through by fire from the fort in front crossed by another from the right.  The regiment moved forward and gained the wall without discharging a musket.  But, alas, many who started for that goal of distinction failed to reach it.  It was crossing the plain near the wall, that Lieutenant James Willis Cantey, poor fellow, received his wound while leading a detachment of two companies in advance of the Regiment.  He was a noble and generous a spirit as ever lived, and as brave and gallant a soldier as ever bore a sword; his conduct was the subject of remark by the whole Regiment."

As soon as Chapultepec Castle was taken and under heavy fire, the army moved on towards the gates of the city.  The Palmetto Regiment had started the campaign with 1100 men and at the end of the Battle for Mexico City they were left with 140 effectives. 

On Lieutenant Cantey's  monument is engraved:

 "When South Carolina summoned her sons to the field, he obeyed the call  by shouldering his musket.  Afterwards elected a Lieutenant in the company from his native district, he shared with honor in all the hazards and glories of his regiment in the Mexican campaign."

"In the battle of Churubusco where the regiment from South Carolina came near being annihilated on the field, from which they refused to retreat,  his chivalric daring was eminently conspicuous .  His superior officers being disabled by honorable wounds, he henceforth assumed command of the remnant from Kershaw who had escaped death without dishonor."

"On the 18th Sept. 1847, the castle of Chapultepec was carried by storm.  While leading his men up to a breach in the walls which he had discovered, this gallant soldier fell before it.  Shot in the front and died under the victorious flag of his country."

Lieutenant Cantey's actions led the way for the DeKalb Guards to be the first to storm the gates of Mexico's capital and their flag was the first that floated over the gates of the city.