Round Oak in Jones County, Georgia — The American South (South Atlantic)

Sunshine Church

A Bitter Defeat

— March to the Sea Heritage Trail —

Sunshine Church Marker image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Mark Hilton, April 29, 2017

1. Sunshine Church Marker

Inscription. As part of a two-pronged Cavalry raid, on Wednesday, July 27 1864, Union Major General George Stoneman with over 2,100 troopers left the main Federal army then located near Atlanta. Stoneman's orders from Major General William T. Sherman, were to destroy the railroad leading north from Macon re-supplying Confederate-held Atlanta.. Stoneman also received Sherman's permission to attempt freeing the Federal prisoners held at Andersonville. Riding through Covington and Monticello while foraging and destroying Confederate facilities, Stoneman was unable to find a. bridge across the Ocmulgee River. So he abandoned his division's primary mission and rode further south through Hillsboro and Clinton. After skirmishing with Confederate militia near Macon on July 30th and destroying rail facilities eastward including the Oconee River bridge, Stoneman received rumors of a sizeable Confederate cavalry force in pursuit. Deciding to return north by his same route Stoneman's division, encountered about 1,300 Confederate cavalrymen near Sunshine Church the following day, Sunday, July 31st. Led by Clinton native Brigadier General Alfred

Paid Advertisement

Click or scan to see
this page online

Iverson, Jr., the Confederates had moved to block Stoneman's path.

Dismissing alternative routes, and believing his division to be the superior force, General Stoneman ordered his exhausted cavalrymen to dismount and attack. But the Federals were repulsed and General Iverson's Confederates counterattacked. The fighting raged back and-forth as one Federal trooper recalled, "the [road] was full of Yanks and rebs, everybody yelling 'Surrender!' shooting, cutting and slashing." After a brief pause a renewed Confederate attack struck Stoneman's weary command as the Federals ammunition began running low. Fearing encirclement, more than half of the surviving Federal cavalrymen made a harrowing cross-country escape. "We [rode] through woodlands... leaped fences and ditches, and performed many wonderful equestrian feats," wrote Private John C. Weddle of the (Federal) 1st Kentucky Regiment. Stoneman masked their departure by ordering the expenditure of the last of his artillery's ammunition before surrendering himself and over 400 of his men. Ultimately only 800 members of Stoneman's division made a safe return to General Sherman's army.

On

Sunshine Church image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Mark Hilton, April 29, 2017

2. Sunshine Church

Sunday, November 20, 1864, during the "March to the Sea," the Federal 15th Corps commanded by. Major General. Peter J. Osterhaus marched south from Hillsboro to Clinton. Osterhaus's corps was part of Major General Oliver O.Howard's "Right Wing" of General Shermans army. As they marched through the July 31st Sunshine Church battlefield, Captain Charles W. Wills of the 103rd Illinois Infantry Regiment observed men becoming angry at the discovery of "two of our dead soldiers unburied." This find increased the bitterness the Federals already felt toward Confederates.

The original Sunshine Church, which stood south of the present church building was subsequently burned. The original Sunshine Church also served as a country "field school" before the battle and as a temporary hospital during it. The current church was built in 1875 to replace the one burned in 1864. In 1890, Barzillah F. Morris, a former Federal sergeant from Ohio, wounded during the Battle of Sunshine Church and cared for by local families, returned to preach here at Sunshine Church II.

Photo captions
Map: Battle of Sunshine Church, Sunday, July 31, 1864
Top right: Joseph White house (no longer existent). General Iverson's HQ
(Wilbur G. Kurtz, Sr. visual arts collection, Kenan-Research Center at the Atlanta History Center)
Bottom right: "...shooting, cutting and slashing..."
(The Illustrated London News)
[Portraits]: Union Major General George Stoneman (Highest ranking Union prisoner during the Civil War)
Confederate Brigadier General Alfred Iverson, Jr. In 1858
Background watermark: "Sunshine Church II - Sunshine United Methodist Church

Erected by Georgia

Sunshine Church and cemetery. image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Mark Hilton, April 29, 2017

3. Sunshine Church and cemetery.

Civil War Heritage Trails, Inc. (Marker Number R8.)

Topics and series. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: Religion & Religious Structures • War, US Civil. In addition, it is included in the Georgia Civil War Trails, and the Sherman’s March to the Sea series lists. A significant historical date for this entry is July 27, 1864.

Location. 33° 6.543′ N, 83° 36.972′ W. Marker is in Round Oak, Georgia, in Jones County. It can be reached from Monticello Highway (Georgia Route 11) south of Jackson Road. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Hillsboro GA 31038, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker is in the Antebellum Trail

and in the Piedmont.

It is also in the American South

and specifically in the Deep South.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

one of the original Thirteen Colonies,

one of the Confederate States of America,

and the Antebellum South.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 8 miles

Paid Advertisement

of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Sunshine Church II (about 400 feet away, measured in a direct line); The Stoneman Raid (approx. 1.4 miles away); Planter’s Academy (approx. 3.3 miles away); Hillsboro (approx. 4.9 miles away); Across the Ocmulgee (approx. 4.9 miles away); Birthplace of Benjamin Harvey Hill (approx. 4.9 miles away); Benjamin Harvey Hill (approx. 5 miles away); Blountsville (approx. 7.8 miles away).

Also see . . .
1. Explore Southern History - The Battle of Sunshine Church - Round Oak, Georgia. (Submitted on May 4, 2017, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.)
2. Explore Southern History blog - Battle of Sunshine Church (149th Anniversary) (with photos.). (Submitted on May 4, 2017, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.)

Credits. This page was last revised on May 4, 2017. It was originally submitted on May 4, 2017, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama. This page has been viewed 2,929 times since then and 170 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3. submitted on May 4, 2017, by Mark Hilton of Montgomery, Alabama.