Run for Safety

Run for Safety. May 24, 1864 6:45 pm - 7:30 pm. The melee resulting from the combination of a pouring thunderstorm, the boiling mix of five regiments of Union soldiers pursued by three regiments of Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia infantrymen - accented by the flashes and smoke of rifle and cannon fire – was truly memorable. Each man was unsure of who was running in the next clump of trees, friend or foe. The Yanks slid down the sleep ravines before you, discarding their equipment as they ran., Many were unable to reach the safety within the forest and were captured. Although fortunate to survive the battle unhurt, captivity in Confederate prison camps proved more deadly than the fight at Ox Ford. Over 80 men of Ledlie's Brigade were sent to the prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia. Antonio Phillips and Lyman Bryant were the first two of the captives from the 57th Massachusetts to die, both on the same day in July 1864. Ironically, Phillips was a resident of Oxford, Massachusetts, leaving behind six children., Edward A. Walton, a machinist from Worcester, was next to perish on August 10th, “of cruel neglect, exposure, and starvation… He has left behind a fond wife and child, who with his grief stricken parents and brothers, mourn his sad and painful death," recorded the Worcester Spy on January 31, 1865. Walton's family learned of his last moments from a friend who cared for him until he died from scurvy and diarrhea. His daughter, Alice, was only one year old., Egbert S. Jacquins died only five days later. John A. Paine was the last to fall, leaving behind a wife and five children. He died of starvation on September 10, 1864, only days before the seventh birthday of his daughter, Ida. Reported killed at Ox Ford, Paine’s family never knew until after the war he had survived the battle only to perish at Andersonville., (captions) , (upper right) The Confederate prison camp at Andersonville, Georgia: Near the main gate. , (lower right) Phillips, Walton, Jacquins, and Paine are buried in the National Cemetery at Andersonville, Presented to the people of the United States by Bryan Hagen of Virginia and Ben Hagen of Minnesota.