Existing comment:
"Sealed With Their Lives"
Just before the Confederate line along Mountain Church Road gave way, Brigadier General Howell Cobb arrived in Crampton's Gap with his Georgia and North Carolina troops. After meeting with Colonel Thomas Munford, who had been directing the battle, Cobb allowed Munford to deploy Cobb's troops. Munford ordered the 15th North Carolina to the Arnoldstown Road. There they took a position behind a stone wall facing Whipp's Ravine. The 24th Georgia was ordered into the ravine while Cobb's Legion followed by the 16th Georgia, moved down Gapland Road. Near here Cobb's Legion formed line of battle on the mountain slope about halfway down between the two roads, the 16th Georgia to its left. As remnants of Munford's shattered line rushed through the Legion's ranks, Torbert's New Jersey Brigade surrounded it on three sides, the 3rd New Jersey wheeling down onto the Legion from behind after climbing to Gapland Road unopposed.
Twelve hundred New Jersey soldiers surrounded the 248 men of Cobb's Legion. If Lieutenant Colonel Jefferson Lamar, the Legion's commander, retreated, he might start a stampede of the entire Confederate line; but, if he stayed where he was, he might buy time for the rest of the Confederates to retreat. He chose to stay. Shortly after, a bullet smashed into his leg, toppling him to the ground. Eventually, Captain William Lowe of Company F, also wounded in the leg, called to Lamar that the Legion was being annihilated. Lowe helped Lamar to his feet so he could order the Legion out of the killing field. No sooner had Lamar done so than a bullet tore through his chest, mortally wounding him. In about twenty minutes, the Legion sustained 72% casualties -- killed, wounded, and missing. |