Fighting Colonels: Colonel Carr B. White

Commanding the 12th Ohio during the hellish fighting at Fox's Gap on the morning of September 14, Colonel Carr B. White help break the back of the Confederate defense.

A Mexican War veteran and a pre-war physician, Carr Bailey White enlisted in the 12th Ohio with the rank of major in May 1861. A month later he was appointed lieutenant colonel of the regiment. Following the Battle of Carnifex Ferry, White was promoted to command of the regiment, with the rank of colonel, due to the death of Colonel John Lowe at Carnifex Ferry. He would lead the regiment in the campaigns in the western Virginia theatre of the war until the Kanawha Division was rushed east to augment the newly formed Army of Virginia under John Pope in preperation for the campaign that would culminate in the Union defeat at the Battle of 2nd Manassas/Bull Run. Carr would lead his regiment into Washington where a "new" Army of the Potomac was being formed to beat back the Confederate threat that was entering into Maryland. Leaving the defenses of Washington, the regiment was with the 9th Corps under Jesse Reno and was part of the vanguard of the army. Carr lead his regiment in Frederick on September 12th and by the 14th, the regiment was encamped near Middletown.

Colonel Eliakim Scammon deployed his brigade in a line that stretched about a mile south of the Old Sharpsburg Road and Colonel White's Ohioans were deployed in the center and when firing broke out to their left, White advanced his regiment until it was hotly engaged elements of the 12th, 20th, and 23rd North Carolina regiments. The regiments battle line was more of a heavy skirmish line than an actual battle line as noted in Colonel Scammon's report on his brigade, "The Twelfth regiment being in the center, was moved directly to the front, and briskly engaged the enemy. Its first advance, deployed as skirmishers, told upon the enemy with marked effect. It was more like a charge than an advance of skirmishers." 

Colonel White continued pushing his regiment until they had broken the Confederate line. White stopped his advance at about mid-morning to allow the 23rd Ohio to link up with his left and the 30th Ohio with reinforcement from the 11th Ohio of George Crook's Brigade, to link up on the right. During this lull, a section of McMullin's Battery under Lieutenant George Crome came up and deployed in the immediate front of the regiment and began raining shot and canister on the  Confederates still holding on. To the horror of the infantry, Crome's men were being systematically picked off until Crome himself was mortally wounded while loading one of his pieces. With Crome's guns silent, they were open for the taking. Confederates from Alfred Iverson's 20th North Carolina advanced to capture the guns but were turned back by the fire of White's men. Around 11 A.M., a general advance was ordered and White's regiment leapt up and charged forward sweeping the field, only the stand of the 13th North Carolina and the arrival of the 2nd and 4th North Carolina regiments under Colonel C.C. Tew stopped the Union wave from capturing the gap and advancing any farther.

White's men would rest for the for the better part of the afternoon before another general advance, this time by the whole 9th Corps, broke the back of the Confederate defense at Fox's Gap. For the day, Colonel White kept his men in the battle line for the better part of the day and these men experienced the heaviest fighting they had up to that point in the war. They would suffer 35 killed, 100 wounded, and 30 missing while capturing 200 Confederates and 3 battle battle flags. White would lead his regiment at Antietam and for the rest of the war, he would serve in the Department of West Virginia where he would be brevetted a brigadier general for his actions at the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain.

Fighting Colonels: Lt. Colonel John W. Hofmann

Commanding the 56th Pennsylvania Infantry in Abner Doubleday's brigade of John Hatch's, Lt. Colonel John W. Hofmann would take his regiment numbering nearly 250 men into action late in the day on September 14, 1862. Hofmann began his regiments march from their encampment along the Monocacy River at about 6 A.M. and he states in his official report that the regiment had present for duty, "One field officer, 1 captain, 6 lieutenants, 239 Enliste men." Arriving on the battlefield, the regiment was quickly thrown into line and ordered forward to the relief of Colonel Walter Phelps, commanding John Hatch's brigade. Hoffman's Pennsylvanian's slammed into the Virginian's of General Richard Garnett's brigade. For the next hour and a half, the battle raged across a cornfield with Hofmann's men slowly pushing the Confederates back and repulsing any efforts by the enemy to recapture lost ground. Hofmann reported that with darkness falling, that "position of the enemy could only be ascertained only from the flashes of his fire." When the regiments ammunition began to run out, Doubleday ordered the regiment to fall back to replenish their supply and General James Rickett's division came forward to relieve them. The regiment slept on its arms that night and the following morning, the destructive nature of their fire was witnessed. Confederate dead and wounded littered the cornfield that was in their front. During the course of the action, General Doubleday was placed in command of the division as a result of General Hatch's wounding. The brigade command fell to Colonel William Wainwright, but he would also be wounded and Hofmann would take command of the brigade. He would write two reports on the Battle of South Mountain, one as a regimental commander and one as the brigade commander. He would lead this brigade at Antietam but would be mainly charged with supporting the artillery of the 1st corps.


Sources:

The War of the Rebellion: a Compliation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies: Volume 19, Part 1. 234-239.

John M. Priestly. Before Antietam: The Battle of South Mountain. (White Mane Publishing Compan y, Inc. 1992). 253, 258

Fighting Colonels: Lt. Colonel J.M. Lamar

Lt.Colonel Lamar

Lt. Colonel Jefferson Mirabeau Lamar, commanding Cobb's (GA) Legion Infantry Battalion: Assigned to Brigadier General Howell Cobb's brigade, the Cobb's Legion Infantry came to the support of the beleaguered Confederate defenders at Crampton's Gap just as the main defensive line at the base of the mountain disintegrated under the heavy pressure of the Union 6th Corps. Brigadier General Howell Cobb was unaware that the Confederate line had broken. With the believe that the flanks were in danger of being turned, he ordered two of his regiments down the Arnoldstown Road to bolster the left flank and two regiments down the Burkittsville Road to strenghten the Confederate right. Lt. Colonel Lamar was ordered down the Burkittsville Road but upon hearing firing and shouts coming from the direction of the Confederate center, Lamar ordered his battalion to march off the road and into the woods. Running into fugitives scrambling up the mountainside away from devasted Confederate center, Lamar ordered his men to double-quick down the mountainside to stem the Union onslaught. It was during this movement that Lamar's horse stumbled to the ground, throwing the rider off. Lamar quickly sprung to his feet, drew his sword and continued on with this battalion. When the first shades of the blue tide were seen through the woods, Lamar ordered his battalion to fire, temporarily halting the Union advance. Lamar was buying time for those survivors from the center to rally. The 16th Georgia Infantry was supporting Lamar's men on the battalions left. Unfortunately for the Confederates the position was exposed to a flank attack up the Burkittsville Road.  This attack came in the form of Alfred Torbert's New Jersey Brigade who slammed into the flank of Lamar's position. Knowing that an order to retreat would cause the situation to deteriorate beyond repair, Lamar decided to remain and hold at all costs to allow General Cobb to rally a defensive position at the gap. Lamar refused, or bent back, his right flank to meet this new threat. It was during this time the Lamar would be wounded, hit by a minie ball in the leg. Remaining in command, Lamar refused to order the retreat, despite the pleas from his subordinates. Finally, seeing the his men were being slaughtered and his avenues of retreat slowly being choked off, Lamar said if someone would help him to his feet he would order the retreat. He was promptly help and just after giving the order to retreat, he was wounded a second time, this time mortally, with a minie ball slamming into his chest. The withdrawal was disorderly and chaotic. What remained of the legion scrambled up the mountainside leaving behind dead and wounded comrades, including their commander. Lamar would be captured by Union forces and carried down the mountain to Burkittsville where he would expire the following day. He was buried in  Burkittsville in the cemetery behind the Reformed Church until family members exhumed his body and took him home to be buried in Athens, Georgia.

Sources:

Timothy Reese, Sealed with the Lives: The Battle for Crampton's Gap. Butternut & Blue: Baltimore, Md. 1998

Brian Downey and Aotw members. Lt. Colonel Jefferson Mirabeau Lamar

Report of Brigadier General Howell Cobb. The War of the Rebellion: a compilation of the official records of the Union and Confederate armies. ; Series 1 - Volume 19 (Part I). US War Department: Washington, D.C. 1887. 870-871

Fighting Colonels: The Mountain Spur

Located between the Frostown Gap and Turner Gap is a very prominant mountain spur. It was along this northern face of this mountain spur that General John Hatch's Union division attacked practically unopposed, the only Confederate resistance coming from a determined artilleries battery under the command of Captains George Patterson and Hugh Ross. Only the timely arrival of Confederate brigades under the command of James Kemper and Richard Garnett kept Hatch's men from sweeping over the mountain.

Colonel Eppa Hunton, commanding 8th Virginia Infantry: As part of Brigadier General Richard Garnett's brigade, Eppa Hunton's 8th Virginia was encamped near Hagerstown on the morning of September 14. Enduring a forced 18 mile march from their encampment, Hunton's Virginians arrived at the mountain in the late afternoon, clearly hearing the rattle of musketry off to their left. For the next hour, the regiment was pointlessly marched around the mountainside obeying conflicting orders that marched them from one point to the other and back again. Once the regiment did get into position, it fell in behind a fenceline on the extreme right of Garnett's brigade. As it was going into line of battle, a Union battleline appeared and quickly unleashed a devastating volley on the Virginians. Hunton managed to get is regiment organized and in line of battle under this "galling fire of musketry" and his men eagerly began returning fire. Their initial volley's were so devastating the Union advance was first halted, then thrown back. Hunton kept his small regiment, he reported only 34 men in the ranks at the start of the fight, in position holding their hard fought ground until it was realized that the rest of the brigade had fallen back, leaving them exposed and unsupported. Hunton ordered the regiment to fall back to a new position where it was maintained until it was ordered to retreat off the mountain that night. Hunton reported a loss of 11 men killed and wounded, a 32% casualty rate.

Major William H. DeBevoise, commanding 84th New York Infantry/14th Brooklyn: Part of the First Brigade of John Hatch's division, Major DeBevoise lead his regiment in the attack on the mountain spur that could have cut off and surrounded the Confederates under Robert Rodes and flanked the position of Alfred Colquitt at Turner's Gap. The Brooklyn men attacked the Confederate skirmish line, located in a thick woodlot and cornfield and quickly drove it back. The main Confederate line held its fire, apparently out of fear of striking their own men. Unfortunately for the Confederates, Debevoise's men falled the enemy skirmishers so closely, they quickly punched a hole in the Confederate line and managed to gain a foothold on the crest of the mountain. They placed themselves within a hornet's nest, with the Confederates repeatedly and savagely attacking the New Yorkers in an attempt to drive them off. Each attack was beaten back and by nightfall, with their ammunition nearly exhausted, reinforcements arrived allowing the regiment to fall back for some rest. The next morning, the regiment was ordered to pursue the Confederates, crossing over the battlefield of the day before and seeing the carnage wrought. The regiment went into the fight without 130 men and suffered 9 killed and 22 wounded, a casualty rate of about 24%.

Sources:

1. Official Records of the War of the Rebellion: A compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies Series 1, Vol 19, Part 1 , Pages 898 - 899. (Hunton's official report)

2.Eppa Hunton. Officers page from Antietam on the Web by Brian Downey. (Hunton's photo)

3. William DeBevoise. Officers page from Antietam on the Web by Brian Downey (DeBevoise photo)

4. 14th Brooklyn. Living History website by Frank Ruiz and Co. E, 14th N.Y.S.M. living history association. (Adjutant General report from September 1862).

Fighting Colonels: Frostown Gap

The Frostown Gap, as I've discussed in recent weeks, was strategically and tactically important because any troops in control of that gap could advance on the flank and into the rear of any military organization posted at Turner's Gap along the National Pike. While the most notable fighting occurred below Turner's Gap and around Fox's Gap, the fighting around Frostown was just as important, and just as heavy. The regiments engaged here would rely heavily on the leadership of their commanding officers.


Colonel John B. Gordon, commanding 6th Alabama Infantry: Probably the most well known regiment of Robert Rodes' brigade during the Maryland Campaign, Colonel Gordon and his men were the first to engage the Pennsylvania Reserves during the fight at Frostown Gap. Positioned on the left flank of the brigade. Prior to the fighting, a comical exchange to place between Gordon and the Widow Main, a "spartan" of a woman who lived on what would soon become a battleground. Gordon warned the Widow that fighting would commence soon and asked for her to take herself and her children to the safety. The woman refused saying the she would rather die than leave her home at the hands of the rebels. With concealed laughter from his men and staff, Gordon left the woman as an embarrassed man. Gordon would throw out a strong skirmish line that would slow the advance of two regiments of Pennsylvanians. His main line was positioned behind a stonewall and in a tree line bordering an open field to their front. When the reserves pushed back the skirmish line, Gordon's main line unleashed a devastating volley the stunned the Union men and caused the advance to halt for a brief time. Events elsewhere would force Gordon to withdraw from his strong position back a gorge where Rodes' was attempting to rally his brigade and make a final desperate stand. The rock on which this final stand would rest would be Gordon's regiment, having remained intact and in the words of General Rodes was an "excellent regiment" and one which Gordon had "kept constantly in hand and had handled in a manner that I have never heard or seen equaled during this war." Gordon's men would hold the line while others crumbled and as they lay exhausted and low on ammunition, the "fresh" (having just completed a forced march from Hagerstown) brigades of James Kemper, Nathan Evans, and Richard Garnett. Gordon's men would hold the extreme left of the new Confederate line and would blast away several Union advances as they attempted to capture Turner's Gap from the north. John Gordon and his Alabamians nearly held off the Pennsylvania Reserves by themselves as the approached and turned the Confederate flank and John Gordon proved to superiors how cool he was under fire. The regiment would be tested again three days later at Antietam, but the fight at Frostown earned them a reputation as hard fighters.

Colonel Hugh W. McNeil, commanding 13th Pennsylvania Reserves (1st Rifles): Commanding the "Bucktails", Colonel McNeil's regiment would make the first contact with Confederate forces at Frostown Gap. Taking into battle about 300 man, the majority of his regiment is deployed as skirmishers to feel out for the Confederate forces and the remainder are in a supporting role. When skirmishing breaks out, McNeil pushes his men against the the southern skirmishers routing them. Upon advancing on the Confederate mainline, the battle turns into a slugfest with the 13th Reserves duking it out with Colonel Gordon's 6th Alabama. For nearly an hour, the two sides hammered each other with musketry. When reinforcements arrived to support McNeil and his men, the colonel gave the order to charge breaking the Confederate line and sweeping up the mountainside capturing several Confederate wounded and stragglers. Only nightfall kept McNeil's regiment and the remainder of the division from advancing any further. Expecting a renewed fight in the morning, McNeil's men would sleep on their arms that night. The next morning, a reconnaissance found the Confederates had retreated. McNeil and his regiment then were ordered forward in pursuit of the retreating rebels. Colonel McNeil would be killed in a sharp skirmish on the 16th, just hours before the bloody Battle of Antietam.

Fighting Colonels: Fox's Gap afternoon phase

Following the horrific fighting on the morning of September 14 at Fox's Gap, the sounds of battle die away and a lull begins on the battlefield. The Confederate's managed to retain a foothold at the gap after Jacob Cox's Kanawha division managed to, for a brief time, capture the gap. Following a determined Confederate counter-attack, Cox pulled his men back to the stonewalls that are a dominant feature in Daniel Wise's South Field to await reinforcements from the Union 9th Corps that was rushing to the gap. On the Confederate side, the 2nd and 4th North Carolina, along with remnants of the 13th North Carolina await reinforcement coming in the form of 4 brigades under Roswell Ripley, Thomas Drayton, George T. Anderson, and the remainder of George B. Anderson's. Within the next several hours, both Union and Confederate, would experience some of the most intense fighting of the entire war. Two regiments, the 3rd South Carolina Infantry Battalion and the 17th Michigan would each stand out and suffer in the ensuing conflict as well as their commanding officers.


Lt. Colonel George Strother James, commanding 3rd South Carolina Infantry Battalion: By firing one of the most important shots in American History, Lt. Colonel James cemented his place in history as the one who ordered the first shot fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861. Flash forward a year and a half later, he is now in command of the 3rd South Carolina Infantry Battalion on it's march North across the Potomac into Maryland. As part of Thomas Drayton's brigade, James found his South Carolinian's near Hagerstown on September 14, 1862. After General Longstreet recieved reports of heavy fighting at South Mountain, he issues orders for a forced march to assist those Confederates at the mountain passes. As Drayton's brigade reached the crest of the mountain on the National Road, it was ordered to Fox's Gap and would take part in a Confederate attack that would push Union forces off the mountain. Drayton's brigade would be the hinge on which this attack would swing. James went into battleline along the Old Sharpsburg Road in the gap itself with the 15th South Carolina Infantry to his right and the Phillips (GA) Legion to his left. Going into this fight he would take just over 150 men, many of them would not see the next morning.
Drayton deployed skirmishes as he deployed his brigade. Drayton also ordered James to send a company on a reconnaisance into Wise's South Field to get a better handle on the situation. James selected Company F, under Captain D.B. Miller, to conduct the scouting mission. Miller moved his men through the field and came upon a large body of Union troops in their immediate front. Miller rushed back to report to both James and Drayton. Seeing that the immediate threat was to his front, Drayton orders his three lead regiments to attack. The Phillip's Legion, 3rd S.C. Infantry Battalion, and 15th South Carolina advance into the south field. Just as the advance begins, James' South Carolinians come under fire from the Ohioan's of Cox's division. As this firefight builds, Union forces from Thomas Welsh's Brigade attack into the flank of the attacking column forcing the Phillip's Legion to turn and face this threat leaving the flank of James' Battalion exposed as James continue to advance towards the Ohioan's. Eventually, the fire from the front and left at to much for the battalion to bear and James pulls them back into the Ridge Road to cover the retreat of the Phillip's Legion.
In this new line, the 15th South Carolina and James' Battalion make an 'L' around the Daniel Wise cabin with the 15th facing South and the battalion facing East. This position proved to be untenable and the casualties began to pile up. James refused to retreat despite repeated pleas from his second in command, Major William Rice. James held this line until nightfall when darkness caused the fighting to die down. His battalion had been decimated in the fight to the point where it was no longer an effective fighting unit. In one of the last volley's of the battle, James was struck in the chest and mortally wounded. He remained in command until he could no longer do so and finally order the retreat, which was executed by Major Rice, who was also severely wounded. Of the 160 who went into the fight, less than 30 would escaped. Lt. Colonel James would be left behind by his men and he would die early on the morning of the 15th and buried alongside his men. In the 1870's, an effort to collect the Confederate dead from the Maryland Campaign began. Lt.Colonel James was one of the bodies recovered and he is buried with the thousands of unknowns in the Washington Confederate Cemetery in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Hagerstown.

Colonel William H. Withington, commanding 17th Michigan Infantry: One of the many Union soldiers captured following the debacle following the First Battle of Bull Run, William Withington, then a captain in the 1st Michigan, was held in a Rebel prison camp until January 1862 when he was finally exchanged. Withington was sent back to Michigan to recruit more men for the war and upon raising the 17th Michigan, he was appointed its Colonel. The 17th Michigan would train at Fort Wayne until late August 1862 when it was sent east to reinforce George B. McClellan's Army of the Potomac and assist in pushing the Confederate army out of Maryland. The regiment would be assigned to the brigade of Colonel Benjamin Christ in the 1st Division, 9th Army Corps. The first battle this regiment would participate in would be at South Mountain. In the afternoon of the 14th, the 17th was deployed on the right of the Old Sharpsburg Road facing west across Wise's North Field. In front of them were the men of 50th and 51st Georgia of Drayton's Brigade and the Jeff Davis Artillery of Captain James Bondurant. Just before the Union attack was to commence, the Confederates themselves attack. The Georgian's were pulled out of their position and moved into the road uncovering Bondurant's battery. With orders to advance, Withington pushed his men forward against Bondurant's battery and into the left flank of Drayton's Georgians in the Old Sharpsburg Road. The attack surprised Drayton's men and with the advance of Union units on their left, the 17th Michigan got behind the Georgians trapping them in a 3-sided kill zone. The Georgian's returned fire the best they could but it was suicide to attempt to stand. The Michigan men had precipitated a Confederate rout. The regiment killed and wounded dozens of Confederate troops while capturing many more. The loss for the regiment in this fight was 27 killed and 114 wounded out of 500 who were taken into the fight. The regiment earned the "Stonewall Regiment" nickname following its capture and rout of those Confederates behind the stonewall in Wise's North Field despite the regiment recieving less than a months worth of training. Colonel Withington was breveted a Brigadier General for his leadership at South Mountain. He would be either mustered out or he resigned in early 1863. Following the war, he would serve several terms in the Michigan Legislature as both a representative and senator. He would recieve the Medal of Honor in the 1890's for his actions in tending and remaining with his superior officer, Colonel Orlando Willcox, after Willcox was wounded and the two came under heavy fire at the Battle of First Bull Run. He would pass away in 1903 at the age of 68.

Fighting Colonels of Fox's Gap- Morning Phase

In the chaotic and hellish conditions that the terrain of South Mountain created for the opposing armies who clashed here, it took the stellar leadership of regimental officers to keep their regiments together and take the fight to the enemy. Whether they were Confederate or Federal, they would go into battle living, fighting, and dying on the same ground that their men would fall on. Here are a couple of these men who held the lines together, Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes and Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Ruffin, Jr.

Lieutenant Colonel Rutherford B. Hayes, commanding 23rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry: On the morning of September 14th, Hayes orders his men onto the National Pike near Middletown, Maryland to support the Alfred Pleasonton's cavalry against the Confederate positions at Turner's Gap. Upon learning that a heavy force of Confederate infantry defending Turner's, Scammon's brigade was moved off the pike onto the Old Sharpsburg Road leading directly towards Fox's Gap and around the Confederate left flank. Hayes' 23rd Ohio was the lead regiment of the brigade and when it came under fire from Confederate artillery posted at Turner's Gap, Scammon ordered Hayes to move up an old farm lane called the Loop Road outflanking and Confederates posted at Fox's Gap. At 9 A.M., lead elements of the 23rd Ohio make contact with skirmishers from the 5th North Carolina. The growing firefight turns into an all-out brawl. Hayes orders his regiment to charge the North Carolinian, successfully pushing the Confederates back. With his men falling all around him, Hayes remains calm and collected keeping up pressure on the reeling Confederate troops. Hayes is wounded rather severely when a minie ball hits him in the left arm just as he prepares to order another charge. He remains in command and hears rumors of a confederate force attempting to flank him so he orders two companies from his left to pull back and turn to the left. Instead of two companies falling back, the entire regiment does so leaving the wounded Hayes between the opposing lines. Hayes calls out, "Hallo, Twenty-Third men, are you going to leave you colonel here for the enemy?!" Almost immediately, several men break ranks running to their wounded commander but Confederate fire forces Hayes to order them back to cover. Eventually, Lieutenant Jackson comes to Hayes and carries him back to friendly lines. Hayes has his wound tended to, but loss of blood causes Hayes to faint. Hayes is carried off the field and Major James Comly assumes command of the regiment. Hayes will spend most of the next two months recuperating and he will be promoted to full colonel in late October 1862. He would later command a brigade and end the war as a brevet Major General. He would become President of the United States following the election of 1876.



Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Ruffin, Jr. commanding 13th North Carolina Infantry: As part of Samuel Garland's brigade, the 13th North Carolina under Lt. Colonel Ruffin would be General Garland's left flank during the morning attacks on Fox's Gap. As the battle is raging all along the Confederate line, General Garland rides up behind the 13th North Carolina to help steady the men. Lt. Colonel Ruffin recalls:

"I said to him: 'General, why do you stay here ? you are in great danger. To which he replied: 'I may as well be here as yourself.' I said: 'No, it is my duty to be here with my regiment, but you could better superintend your brigade from a safer position.' Just then I was shot in the hip, and as there was no field-officer then with the regiment, other than myself, I told him of my wound, and that it might disable me, and in that case I wished a field-officer to take my place. He turned and gave some order, which I have forgotten. In a moment I heard a groan, and looked and found him mortally wounded and writhing in pain."

Ruffin, while suffering a rather severe wound to his hip, had just witnessed the death of General Garland. As the Confederate line began to collapse, Ruffin would keep the 13th in position and became hotly engaged with a Union regiment to there front. Suddenly, fire begins pouring down on them from their right, where Ruffin had believed the rest of the brigade was still in position. It was found that the brigade had been routed. To deal with the dual threat, Ruffin orders a charge to his front pushing back those Union troops. He then pulls his men back and faces to the right and orders a charge. This charge is also successful. As Ruffin begins pulling his men back following this second charge, they receive fire from where their left flank once rested Ruffin immediately about faced his regiment and charged in this direction. Finding a handful of Union skirmishers, they were easily dispatched. With these bold moves, Ruffin was able to connect with the 2nd and 4th North Carolina regiments under Colonel Charles C. Tew. Lt. Colonel Ruffin and the 13th would continue fighting as a part of General George B. Anderson's brigade on the 14th before being pulled off that mountain that night and reqrouping with the survivors of Garland's brigade. Lt. Colonel Ruffin would relinquish command of the regiment due to his wound and not take part in the fighting at Sharpsburg. He would survive the war and serve as a justice on the North Carolina Supreme Court.