Existing comment:
Cobb's Brigade
McLaw's Division C.S.A.
At 1 P.M. on September 14, 1862, Cobb's Brigade under Gen. Howell Cobb of Athens, GA. marched from Sandy Hook to Brownsville at the west foot of South Mountain. At 4 P.M., as Cobb's Brigade reached Brownsville, word came that the Union VI Corps, numbering 12,000 troops, was attacking Crampton's Gap. The sole Confederate troops stationed there were Col. William A. Parham's Brigade augmented by Col. Thomas Munford's cavalry and the 10th Georgia Regiment of Semmes' Brigade, roughly 800 muskets in all.
Cobb's regiments were hurried to Parham's aid: the 24th Georgia and 15th North Carolina ascending into the gap first, closely followed by the 16th Georgia and Col. T.R.R. Cobb's Legion accompanied by Gen. Howell Cobb. Two guns of the Troup Artillery were also commandeered. Outnumbered 6 to 1, Cobb's and Parham's troops were decimated and retreated. The next morning only 300 of the Brigade's 1300 men answered roll call.
Beaten and wounded soldiers straggled in over the next few days. Casualties for the Brigade probably exceeded 50%. The defense of Crampton's Gap, though costly in casualties, was instrumental in forestalling the compromise of Lee's Army due to the famous "Lost Order." Here it was that Gen. George B. McClellan had elected to cut Lee in two and "beat him in detail." |