“Tige” Anderson’s Brigade-which William attributed to the 1st’s officers’ bitterness over Toombs’ micromanagement-joining the 7th, 8th 9th, and 11th Georgia regiments. On 20 June 1862, the 1st Georgia Regulars were unexpectedly transferred to Brigadier General George T. Serving under Toombs during the Siege of Yorktown, the Regulars returned to Richmond to defend against McClellan’s advancing Union forces.

Andrews in the 1st Georgia’s Company M-departing on 1 March. Missing the First Battle of Manassas, fall and winter 1861 found the regiment in the Confederate fortifications in Centreville-William spent Christmas with his brothers, E. After training at Georgia’s Fort Pulaski and Tybee Island, in July the 367-man regiment traveled to the Richmond, Virginia area and was assigned General Toombs brigade. Although recruited chiefly from Atlanta, Brunswick, and the counties of Glynn and Montgomery, recruiters blanketed the state for volunteers – including near William’s home at Fort Gaines.

The 1st Georgia Regulars was one of two state infantry regiments authorized by Georgia’s secession convention and quickly transferred to Confederate national service. Anxious for the fight and judging the Guards unlikely to leave the state, by 26 February William transferred to serve as a corporal in the 1st Georgia Regulars.

“Being a firm believer in the doctrine of state’s rights and secession, I considered it my duty to shoulder a musket in defense of my home state, which I put into execution by joining the Fort Gaines Guards…,” William explained after the war. He apparently worked as an overseer before the war but when Georgia seceded from the Union in January 1861, William and his brothers quickly joined the army. Born on 15 April 1838 in Fort Gaines, Georgia, in the state’s southwest corner, little else is known of his childhood beyond that he was literate. This is that story…įirst Sergeant William Hill Andrews traveled a long way to reach Antietam’s Cornfield.

The 1st Georgia Regulars’ Sergeant William Andrews and the 1st Minnesota’s Sergeant Sam Bloomer traveled from very different worlds, and over many miles, to share a moment of grace and humanity amidst the terror of Antietam’s bloody Cornfield.

The Last Full Measure by Richard Moe