The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. V, 1905Various
History
The journal of the American-Irish Historical Society, Vol. V, 1905
Various
American-Irish Historical Society -- Periodicals; Ethnology -- United States -- Periodicals; Irish Americans -- Periodicals
=Sanders, Col. C. C.=, Gainesville, Ga.; president of the State
Banking Co. of Gainesville; alternate commissioner to World’s Fair,
Chicago, Ill., 1893; vice-president for Georgia, American Bankers’
Association. Colonel Sanders is of Irish and English ancestry. On
the maternal side he is descended from Thomas and Theodosia M.
Smyth, who emigrated from Ireland in 1793, landing in Charleston, S.
C. They settled in Jones County, Ga. Thomas died Nov. 28, 1799. On
the paternal side Colonel Sanders is a descendant of Rev. Moses
Sanders, who emigrated from England, with two brothers, John and
David, and arrived in Petersburg, Va., 1765. They embraced the
Patriotic cause in the Revolution and were active in operations
against the British. Colonel Sanders, the subject of this sketch,
graduated from the Georgia Military Institute, in June, 1861;
entered the Confederate service; was made lieutenant-colonel of the
Twenty-fourth Regiment of Infantry, Georgia Volunteers, August,
1861; served under General Lee in the Peninsular campaign, in the
seven days’ battles around Richmond, Va., and was among the bravest
of the brave; commanded his regiment at Malvern Hill and at Marye’s
Heights, Fredericksburg, where the Twenty-fourth was a part of the
Confederate forces that received the valorous charges of Meagher’s
Irish Brigade. He also commanded the regiment at the battles of
Chancellorsville and Antietam, at which latter conflict he was
placed in command of Wofford’s Brigade. While in this position he
met a bayonet charge from the Federals by a counter bayonet charge,
and in the desperate fighting that ensued, fifty-eight per cent. of
Sanders’ heroic force was swept away. Colonel Sanders also led the
Twenty-fourth at Cedar Creek, Chickamauga, Knoxville, the
Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, and Sailor’s Creek. On April
6, 1865, Ewell’s Corps, to which Colonel Sanders’ regiment was then
attached, was captured, and Colonel Sanders was sent as a prisoner
of war to Washington, D. C. Writing of Meagher’s Irish Brigade,
Colonel Sanders says: “I was in command of the Twenty-fourth Georgia
Regiment, with other troops, at the foot of Marye’s Heights,
receiving the five heroic and gallant charges of the Irish Brigade,
whose prodigies of valor have filled the country with admiration. I
saw the devoted Irish charge up to our breastworks, to be mowed down
by a line of Confederate fire that no soldiers could withstand. I
saw the Irish battalions cut down like grain before the reaper, yet
the survivors would magnificently close up their ranks only to have
huge gaps again cut through them. When forced back they rallied and
came bravely on again, only to be riddled with bullets and torn by
artillery. Their fifth charge was made with greatly decimated ranks
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