Remembering the 23rd Georgia Infantry, CSA

Most Civil War regiments have histories that go “forgotten.” Hundreds of such military organizations are chronicled in the encyclopedic works of Frederick H. Dyer, Stewart Sifakis, Joseph H. Crute, Jr., and others. Regardless of race—Black or White—an in-depth study of a regiment, battalion, or company reveals that each was as unique as the individuals who served, including, occasionally, women.

For example, Colquitt’s Brigade of the Army of Northern Virginia, Confederate States Army, is strikingly underrepresented in public history. Despite its heroic service, none of its six regiments has a comprehensive published history.

The 23rd Georgia Infantry, part of Colquitt’s Brigade, primarily drew its members from the Georgia mountains, a region known for its strong anti-war sentiments. Remarkably, this regiment had one of the lowest desertion rates in the Confederate Army.

Pickens County, Georgia, gave two companies to the 23rd Georgia Infantry, even though many of its residents there raised a United States flag in protest of Georgia’s Secession in 1860. One resident wrote disparagingly of any Confederate companies being raised there.

The Hammontree family exemplifies the region’s divided politics. Like most of their neighbors, they owned no enslaved people. Sam Hammontree, a farmer in Pickens County, raised seven children on his mountain homestead. Later, he became a Georgia celebrity as one of the last surviving Civil War veterans, passing away on March 26, 1934—his 94th birthday.

Sam and his brother Stephen enlisted in the 23rd Georgia Infantry, while another brother, Sylvester, escaped to the North to avoid the war. The youngest Hammontree brother, William Nelson, joined the United States Army but later deserted to protect their elderly parents from the local Confederate home guard.

The 23rd Georgia first saw action in Virginia, participating in the defense of Yorktown. At the Battle at Seven Pines, which took place between May 31 and June 30, 1862, the regiment lost 80 men killed or wounded out of its 400 soldiers. Later, at the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1, 1862, Sam Hammontree risked his life to retrieve Gen. Robert E. Lee’s telescope.

The regiment endured brutal fighting at the Battle of South Mountain and held the infamous Miller’s Cornfield at Antietam. Steve Hammontree, Sam’s brother, died in that fight, where almost half of the brigade was killed or wounded.

After the Battle of Chancellorsville on May 2, 1863, over 800 Confederates soldiers, including members of the 23rd Georgia, were captured and paraded down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, D.C.

Transferred south, the 23rd served on Sullivan’s Island in Charleston Harbor. These men played a crucial role in the Confederate victory at the Battle of Olustee, Florida, on February 24, 1864.

Portrait of Brig. Gen. Alfred Holt Colquitt, from a Richmond newspaper in 1863. He became commander of Colquitt's Brigade with the Army of Northern Virginia.

Public Domain