Dan Masters' Civil War Chronicles

This remarkable personal memoir of the Battle of Chickamauga was penned by Benjamin Stuart Williams, the former adjutant of the 47th Georgia Infantry, for the Charleston Sunday News and was published in the October 29, 1911 issue of that newspaper.  The 47th Georgia was part of Brigadier General Marcus A. Stovall's Brigade of Major General John C. Breckinridge's Division of Lieutenant General Daniel Harvey Hill's Corps. Benjamin Williams moved to South Carolina after the war and lived to the ripe old age of 87, passing away May 13, 1931. He is buried at Beech Branch Baptist Cemetery in Allendale Co., South Carolina.            

"Turning to me with the revolver cocked, he demanded my firearms. We looked at each other. I told him that I had none, that I was a cannoneer.    He then said, “I’ll not take your young life, but take off your overcoat and hand it up here,” and with it went the mittens that warm and noble-hearted Charley Barnes had loaned me early in the morning..." A Wisconsin Cannoneer Remembers the Battle of Stones River The following account was written by Private Charles Cunningham of the 5th Wisconsin Battery and published in the September 27, 1888 issue of the National Tribune until the title of "A Cannoneer's Story: The Third Gun, 5th Wisconsin Battery." This is one of my favorite Stones River accounts as it emphasizes the personal nature of combat and the bonds formed by men under fire together. Private Cunningham writes of the men that operated gun No. 3- his job was to bring up ammunition from the caissons. The men of Pinney's battery risked being overr...