Unit

Confederate Regiment

8th Florida Infantry

Disbanded/Mustered out: Appomattox Courthouse, VA 4/9/1865

Commanding Officers:
  LCol. George A. Coppens
  Capt. Richard A. Waller
  Capt. William Baya

Map Showing this Unit:
   Detail Map #7: Richardson's Division Attacks the Sunken Road

Battlefield Tablets for this Unit:
   Tablet #386: Anderson's Division, Longstreet's Command - 17 Sep, 5 AM to 17 Sep, 1 PM
   Tablet #344: Anderson's Division, Longstreet's Command - 17 Sep, 5 AM to 17 Sep, 5 PM

This Regiment's Chain of Command:
  Army - Army of Northern Virginia
  Corps - Longstreet's Command
  Division - Anderson's Division
  Brigade - Pryor's Brigade

In the Antietam Campaign:
"... the regiment went into the battle in command of Lt. Col. Coppen, formerly of the 1st Battalion Louisania Zouves, by assignment of Gen. Roger Pryor just preceding the battle, because of the absence and sickness of Col. Richard B. Floyd, Lt. Col. John M. Pons. Major W.I. Turner, having resigned ..."

"Col. Coppen was killed almost immediately after getting fire, in the cornfield below the stone barn near bloody lane! Capt. Richard A. Waller then assumed command as senior Capt. and was also killed with the colors of the regiment draped over his shoulders, almost immediately afterward, the flagstaff having been shot in two, & the color bearer and color guard beig [sic] all either killed or wounded".

The next (?) in (or) to (****rank?), the writer, had been previously wounded, between the times of the killings of Col. Coppen & Capt. Waller and Capt. Wm. Baya, next in rank, commanded the regiment until the (****) of the engagement, and until the return of Lt. Col. Pons. Col. Floyd having resigned because of extreme ill health."1

We have 9 individuals in the AotW database for this unit:

Co.	Rank	Name	Casualty?
B	Capt	Waller, Richard A	KIA 09/17
C	Pvt	McNeil, James	Died 11/13
D	Capt	Baya, William
G	Pvt	McNeal, J.	Died 00/00
H	Pvt	White, Stephen R.	Died 10/17
K	Pvt	Smith, Baxter	Died 09/28
F&S	LCol	Coppens, Georges Augustus Gaston De	KIA 09/17
F&S	Col	Floyd, Richard Ferdinand
Unk	Pvt	Lowell, Thomas	Died 00/00

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Notes

1 From letter, former Capt (later Colonel) David Lang, 8th Florida, to E. A. Carman, Antietam Battlefield Commission, probably c. 1896. Transcribed by Mr. Studnicki.
Studnicki, Jim, Civil War Florida, Published c. 2001, first accessed 15 June 2005, <http://www.civilwarflorida.com/>, Source page: /site/sources/letters/show_letter.php?letterREF=2 [AotW citation 161]

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