The "Wiregrass" Georgians

The "Wiregrass" Georgians. 50th Georgia Regiment, CSA. , A few hundred feet north of this site, the 50th Georgia Infantry Regiment, of Brig. Gen. Thomas F. Drayton's Brigade, was decimated by elements of Gen. Orlando B. Willcox's 3,600-man Federal division on the late afternoon of September 14, 1862., The Wiregrass Georgians were caught in an exposed position while deploying from behind the protection of a stone wall into the Old Sharpsburg Road and cut to pieces when Willcox's division launched a simultaneous assault against the Confederate lines., The dead and wounded piled up in the sunken road as volley after volley raked the huddled 50th Georgians. After about thirty minutes of horrific enemy fire, the Georgians' resistance broke and the survivors retreated out of the road to the west through the gauntlet of enemy rifles., Of the estimated 225 officers and enlisted men engaged, 47 were killed, and 112 wounded, 22 mortally. Many of the wounded had to be left on the field and were captured.,

"The enemy was posted behind a fence and trees, over sixty or seventy yards from us, pouring their deadly volleys into us in comparative security. Some of the bolder enemy would come out into the road and fire down it." , -Lt. William O. Heming, Co. F., "Out of 210 carried into the fight over 125 were kill and wounded in less than twenty minutes. The slaughter was horrible.", "When ordered to retreat I could scarce extricate myself from the dead and wounded around me. A man could have walked from the head of our line to the foot on their bodies." , -Lt. Peter A.S. McGlashan, Co. E.