Open main menu
Open main menu
Commanding Officer on the Sharpsburg Campaign:
Capt. Henry H. Carlton
Arms:
1 12-pdr. howitzer
2 10-pdr. Parrott
1 6-pdr. Gun
This Battery's Chain of Command:
Army - Army of Northern Virginia
Corps - Longstreet's Command
Division - McLaws' Division
Brigade - McLaws' Division Artillery
Unit history
Formed in Athens, GA in 1858 as the National Artillery, they changed their name in January 1861 to the Troup Artillery in honor of former Governor George Michael Troup. By then at least 35 of the members of the battery were graduates or students at the University of Georgia.
In Richmond, VA in July 1861 they named their guns ...
... in honor of the patriotic citizens and soldiers of Athens ... The first detachment of the first section, commanded by Lieutenant Carlton, had the rifled gun called the “Frank Hill,” their original Type 1 James Gun, named for their first captain, A.A. Franklin Hill. The name of the second six-pounder rifled gun held by the second detachment of the first section, commanded by 3rd Lieutenant Ed Lumpkin, is not known. In the second section, with the two bronze six-pounder smooth bore guns, the gun of the fourth detachment, commanded by 2nd Lieutenant Frank Pope, was the “Olivia,” one of the two six-pounder guns that came from Athens. The “Olivia” was named for Ann Olivia Newton, sister of Sergeant George Newton of the Troup Artillery ... The third detachment, commanded by 4th Lieutenant Pope Barrow, named their six-pounder gun the “Sallie Craig” in honor of 16-year-old Sarah “Sallie” Church Craig [Sallie married Pope Barrow in 1867].In the Fall of 1861 they were assigned to Cobb's Legion as the artillery arm, but generally operated as an independent battery after joining the Army of Northern Virginia in Spring 1862.
On the Sharpsburg Campaign
They were assigned to McLaws' Division Artillery in Maryland.
It is likely the battery left two guns at Leesburg, VA immediately prior to the campaign, and crossed into Maryland with 4. Carlton's gunners man-handled the two rifled Parrotts, under Lt. Columbus W. Motes, to Maryland Heights on 14 September and they bombarded Harpers Ferry from there.
On the same day, the 2 smoothbores of the battery were with Cobb at Crampton's Gap on South Mountain, where he noted in his Report:
For the most successful rally made on the retreat from the crest of the mountain I was indebted to a section of the Troup Artillery, under Lieutenant Jennings. They had been ordered forward, and had reached a point where, under the terrific fire of the enemy, their pieces were placed in position, and, by their prompt and rapid firing, checked for a time the advance of the enemy. One of the pieces was brought off safely; the other [the 12-pdr. howitzer] was lost by an accident to the axle.At Sharpsburg on 17 September the battery was very shorthanded and due to the loss at Crampton's Gap, the battery only had 3 guns in action near the Dunker Church that morning.
Statistics
Initial Strength: not known; Killed in Action (KIA): 1; Wounded (WIA): 8;
Map Showing this Unit
Detail Map #4: Greene's High-Water Mark in the West Woods (9am-noon)
Battlefield Tablet for this Unit
Tablet #357: McLaws' Division, Longstreet's Command - 16 Sep, 11 AM to 18 Sep, 9 PM
References & Notes
The quote about the naming of their guns from Bill Smedlund's The Troup Artillery’s “Sallie Craig” in Athens Historian (Vol. IV, 1999).
Captain Carlton brought 4 guns on the Maryland Campaign, according to a letter he wrote Ezra Carman on 2 December 1899.
Carman1 says the battery manpower was "1 officer and 30 men at Crampton's" where they had 4 casualties, leaving 1 officer and 26 men to fight at Sharpsburg. This ignores the men of the other gun section of the battery who were on Maryland Heights on the 14th, but were with the battery at Sharpsburg on the 17th.
Thanks to Jim Rosebrock2 for his help clarifying the number and type of guns in action with the battery in Maryland.
See the story of Charlie, the battery's dog, from G.B. Atkisson in the pages of the Athens Banner of 29 April 1911, thanks to Laura Elliott on the Civil War Talk forum.
We have 19 individuals in the AotW database who were on the Maryland Campaign with this unit:
| Co. | Rank | Name | Casualty? | Details* |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| -- | Pvt | Atkisson, George Baber | WIA/POW 09/17 |  |
| -- | Pvt | Carlton, Benjamin Richard | KIA 09/17 | |
| -- | Capt | Carlton, Henry Hull | | |
| -- | Sgt | Gerdine, Joseph Henry Lumpkin | WIA 09/17 |  |
| -- | Corp | Hemphill, William Arnold | | |
| -- | Lt | Jennings, Jr., Henry S. | | |
| -- | Pvt | Johnson, James M. A. | WIA 09/17 | |
| -- | Pvt | Jones, William Henry Paine | WIA 09/17 | |
| -- | Pvt | Kenney, John James Nathaniel | KIA 09/14 | |
| -- | Pvt | Kinnebrew, Eugenius Corydon | WIA 09/17 | |
| -- | Pvt | Lee, Absalom E. | WIA 09/14 | |
| -- | Pvt | Moon, Robert A. | WIA 09/17 | |
| -- | Lt | Motes, Columbus Washington | WIA 09/17 | |
| -- | Pvt | Murray, John F. | WIA 09/17 | |
| -- | Lt | Newton, George Jordan | | |
| -- | Pvt | Pittman, Robert Willis Taylor | WIA 09/17 | |
| -- | Pvt | Saye, Richard Wilson | WIA 09/17 | |
| -- | Pvt | Thomas, Robert Stevens | WIA 09/14 | |
| -- | Sgt | Waddell, John Oliver | WIA/POW 09/14 | |
* If there's a symbol in the Details column ... - We have a picture for this person - We have details beyond name and rank
Click on their last name to see more
1 Carman, Ezra Ayers, and Dr. Thomas G. Clemens, editor, The Maryland Campaign of September 1862, 3 volumes, El Dorado Hills (CA): Savas Beatie, 2010-17, Vol. 2, p. 586, note 112 [AotW citation 30428]
2 Rosebrock, James A., Artillery of Antietam: the Union and Confederate Batteries at the Battle of Antietam, Sharpburg: The Press of the Antietam Institute, 2023, pp. 240-246 [AotW citation 30429]