Review: The Damnedest Set of Fellows
Review
written by Robert A. Waters
The
Damnedest Set of Fellows: A History of Georgia’s Cherokee Infantry
Authors:
Garry D. Fisher and Zack C. Waters
Publisher:
Mercer University Press
ISBN:
978-0-88146-739-0
My
brother Zack has spent 70 years researching the so-called Civil War (Southerners
used to call it the War for Southern Independence). His award-winning book, A
Small but Spartan Band, described the history of the Florida Brigade during that
war. His latest, The Damnedest Set
of Fellows, co-written with Garry D. Fisher, “tells the story of one of the
finest artillery batteries in the Confederate Army of Tennessee.”
The
Army of Tennessee’s lack of success on the battlefield was directly attributed
to its incompetent generals, not the grunts who fought in the actual battles. For
example, the Cherokee Infantry, formed in the area around Rome, Georgia, fought
from beginning to end. They endured more
than four years of misery, loss, and heartache, yet continued the fight until
the army’s surrender. While under
command, they were independent thinkers who would disobey orders if it seemed
that would achieve the goal of victory.
After
months of tedious training and marching, or, as the authors write, “the daily
grind of soldiering,” the infantry faced its first test under fire on March 22, 1862, at Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. There the Cherokee Artillery faced off against the 16th Ohio. The Georgia boys acquitted themselves well,
and soon learned the intricacies of actual combat.
From
this point on throughout the war, the infantry seemed to march from battle to
battle, most of which ended disastrously for the Confederates. Still, like true soldiers, they plodded
on. Letters back home described their
hardships, including low rations, disease, and tortuous marches, with deadly combat in
between. Some of the major battles the Cherokee
Infantry fought in were the 1862 Invasion of Kentucky, the Battle at Champion
Hill, the Battle of Resaca, the 1864 Nashville Campaign, and the Atlanta Campaign.
For
Civil War historians and genealogists, one of the major contributions of The Damnedest Set of
Fellows is a complete roster listing the fate of each soldier in the Cherokee
Artillery, and, if they survived the war, what occurred afterwards. For example, consider the sad case of Solomon
J. Magnus, who “enlisted March 1, 1864 at Kingston, GA. KIA (Killed in Action) at Resaca. Jewish soldier. Had moved to U. S. from Germany in 1849 or
1850 and was described as a ‘brave soldier for the South.’”
If you wish to understand why we Southerners
still retain a reverence for our Confederate ancestors, read this book.
Robert
A. Waters is co-author of Guns and Self-Defense: 23 Inspirational True Crime Stories of Survival with Firearms.
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