Richard Baxter Rollins

Known by Baxter, he enlisted at not quite 18 years old as a Private in the Pee Dee Light Artillery in Darlington, SC in August 1861.

He was guidon (flag bearer) of the battery on the Maryland Campaign of 1862.

It was during the battle of Sharpsburg [on 17 September 1862] that the heroic boy, Baxter Rollins, gave up his blameless young life for Southern independence. When the battery was being charged, seeing the scarcity of men, he planted his colors between the guns and lent a helping hand as ‘No. 4’ at a Napoleon. When in the act of pulling the lanyard, a large fragment of shell struck him in the side, wounding him mortally. In falling, his weight fired the piece, which, recoiling, the wheel passed over and crushed one of his feet. Even in this mangled condition, his spirit disdained to yield, and well must his comrades remember, as they tenderly bore him away, his tearful entreaty: "Don’t carry me to the rear, boys. I know I’ve got to die. Carry me to my flag; I must die by my flag."

Faithful hands and tender bore him on a litter made of two rails and a blanket to the field hospital. He subsequently fell into the hands of the enemy, was kindly cared for, but lived only a few days.

He was officially paroled on 27 September but had probably already died in a US Army field hospital on the David Smith Farm near Sharpsburg. He was originally buried on the field at Sharpsburg "in Capt. David Smith's Orchard."

His maternal uncle Evander Byrd filed for his final pay of $129.80 on behalf of his widowed mother and 3 younger brothers in October 1862. It was finally paid out in March 1864.

He may have been reinterred in the Washington Confederate Cemetery at Hagerstown in about 1874.

Burial information from Pruett1. His service from his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3, as R.B. Rollings; most Confederate records have him killed outright at Sharpsburg. The battle quote is from the Confederate Veteran.3 Personal details from family genealogists.

11/14/1843; Darlington, SC

09/20/1862; Sharpsburg, MD; burial in Washington Confederate Cemetery, Hagerstown, MD