C. C. Tew

Confederate (CSA)

Colonel

Charles Courtenay Tew

(1827 - 1862)

Home State: North Carolina

Education: S Carolina Military Academy (later The Citadel)

Command Billet: Commanding Regiment

Branch of Service: Infantry

Unit: 2nd North Carolina Infantry

Before Sharpsburg

He graduated in 1846 and stayed as a professor until 1852, when he spent a year in Europe observing military matters. He founded his own successful military academy, at Hillsboro, NC in 1859. When North Carolina seceeded, he and DH Hill were appointed by the Governor to be the Colonels of the 1st and 2nd Regiments of State Troops, respectively.

On the Campaign

Col Tew briefly took command of General G. B. Anderson's brigade when that officer was wounded on September 17th. Gen (then Colonel) John B. Gordon later wrote -

The first volley from the Union lines in my front sent a ball through the brain of the chivalric Colonel Tew, of North Carolina, to whom I was talking, and another ball through the calf of my right leg. On the right and the left my men were falling under the death-dealing crossfire like trees in a hurricane...."
[more here]

Col Tew and Gordon were talking at the 6th Alabama position in the Sunken Road at the center of the Confederate line. When the Confederates had to retreat, Col Tew's body was not recovered, and was apparently never identified or returned.