John Clarke Mounger

In 1860 he was a prosperous 54 year old attorney with a practice in Quitman, living in Tallokas, Brooks County, GA. He enrolled on 6 June 1861 and was elected the original Major of the 9th Georgia Infantry on 11 June. He was elected Lieutenant Colonel at the reorganization of 15 April 1862.

He commanded the regiment in Maryland and may have been wounded at Sharpsburg on 17 September 1862.

He was killed at Gettysburg, PA on 2 July 1863. His son Thomas was with him at his death and another son, John, was nearby. The brothers afterward wrote their mother:

Camp near Martinsburg, Va.​
July 18th 1863​ ​

Dear Mother,​ ​
I wrote you a few days ago concerning the death of our dear Father, he was killed on the 2nd of July about an hour by the sun, he is buried in a family grave yard 1/2 miles below Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on the Chambers and Baltimore Turnpike. Captain Sutlive had a good coffin made for him and we put him away as well as could be expected. I have the dimensions of his coffin, so when we get a chance to move him, we can get a coffin box for him without any trouble. Pa died very easy, Tom says. I was not with him when he died. I was detailed and sent off after cattle some three or four days before the fight. Tom took good care of dear dear Pa until he died, but he lived only a few minutes after he was shot. He was shot with a minie ball through the right breast and a grape shot from cannon through the bowels. Dear Mother, we tried to carry him to Virginia before we buried him, but it was impossible, as the Yankees were all around us and we could not get across the river without being captured. Dear Mother, let us all try to meet him in Heaven. Tom and myself will try and be better boys. Tom kept the stars on his coat and a lock of his hair.​ ​

Dear Mother, in my next letter, I will send you Pa's resignation which he wrote out before he went into Pennsylvania. He intended handing it in as soon as he returned to Virginia and go home. Is nothing in the world relieve us more than to hear from home.​ ​

Your affectionate sons,​
John and Tom

He was reinterred from his original burial "in a family grave yard 1/2 miles below Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on the Chambers and Baltimore Turnpike" to Savannah, GA (1971?).

His service from Henderson1 and his Compiled Service Records,2 online from fold3, neither of which mention wounds or medical issues after Sharpsburg. He's seen in Carman's3 Order of Battle as John C.L. Mounger (his son's name). R.K. Krick's Lee's Colonels (1979) may be the source for any Sharpsburg wounds. Personal details from family genealogists and the US Census of 1860; the Slave Schedule of that year noted he owned 6 slaves, 4 of them children (12, 8, 4, 2 years). His gravesite is on Findagrave; it has his birth in 1809 and is also source of the letter quoted above, of unknown provenance.

He married Lucy Haney Gartrell (1811-1891) in April 1833 and they had 7 children: 3 boys, 4 girls.

Their eldest son Captain Terrell T Mounger (b. 1835), Company G, 14th Georgia Infantry was mortally wounded at Chancellorsville, VA on 3 May 1863 and died on the 12th. The other two were in Company H of the 9th Georgia: their youngest, Private Thomas J Mounger (b. 1844), and 22 year old 2nd Lieutenant John C.L. Mounger were both killed in battle in the Wilderness, VA on 6 May 1864.

c. 1806 in GA

07/02/1863; Gettysburg, PA; burial in Laurel Grove Cemetery North, Savannah, GA