Category Archives: Gen. Richard Griffith

The McLaws Minstrels

The revivals continued to preoccupy the 13th regiment and the rest of the Mississippi Brigade in their winter encampment in Fredericksburg. But religion wasn’t the only distraction. Spartan Band quartermaster clerk William H. Hill, for instance, “went to see McLaws … Continue reading

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Battles: Savage Station

The Union army was withdrawing across the Chickahominy River south to the James River, when Griffith’s Mississippi Brigade (including the 13th), part of Magruder’s Division, was ordered to attack the Union rear guard. It was Sunday, June 29, 1862. A … Continue reading

Posted in Albert Wymer Henley Diary, Barksdale's Mississippi Brigade, Battles: Savage Station, Battles: The Seven Days, Gen. Richard Griffith, Gen. William Barksdale, Mike M. Hubbert Diary, The Minute Men of Attala, The Spartan Band | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Picket duty on the peninsula

It was a miserable few weeks the 13th spent on the Warwick, a tidal river. No tents, little food, intermittent rain and camp sites so low in the swampy ground they accumulated rain water everyone had to slosh through—and try … Continue reading

Posted in Albert Wymer Henley Diary, Battles: Peninsula Campaign, Gen. Richard Griffith, Jess N. McLean, The Spartan Band, The Winston Guards, Thomas David Wallace Diary | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Union siege on the Peninsula

These giant mortars, in these positions, were part of Union Gen. George McClellan’s siege of the Confederate defense line along the Warwick River. These 13-inch (bore diameter) guns lofted heavy explosive shells (balls at right) onto the vicinity of the … Continue reading

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The Journey: Steamboat down the James River

The 13th spent no time at all in the capital city they would be defending from the Union, but ate their arrival breakfast and then marched down to the landing on the James River. They boarded the steamboat Curtis Peck … Continue reading

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The Journey: On to Richmond

It was raining on Tuesday, April 9, 1862, when the 13th and the rest of Griffith’s Brigade broke camp, and packed up. By 10 a.m., reeking of the mud that spattered them, they began boarding the stock cars of an … Continue reading

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The Journey: Scorched earth

On March 6, 1862, a Thursday, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, commander of the Rebel armies in Virginia, ordered their withdrawal from Northern Virginia. Johnston, anticipating a Union move on Richmond, was indulging his preference for defensive operations by bringing his … Continue reading

Posted in Gen. Daniel H. Hill, Gen. Richard Griffith, Mike M. Hubbert Diary, The Journey, The Minute Men of Attala, William H. Hill Diary | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Brigadier Gen. Richard Griffith

Griffith was then-Colonel Jefferson Davis’s first lieutenant and adjutant in the Mexican War, where Davis mentioned him for gallantry in several reports. The 47-year-old Jackson banker was a Pennsylvania native, an honor graduate of Ohio University, and a teacher when … Continue reading

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