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09 September 2013

Revenge of the 29th....

At the Battle of Rockport on May 6th, the 29th South Carolina suffered 195 casualties and had the heaviest loss as a % of men engaged of all regiments on the field. Most of these losses were inflicted by canister fire from Captain John W. Hudson's 6th Iowa Battery.  All three field officers were lost, leaving the regiment in command of Captain Hugh Rodgers.

On the morning of May 10th, Matheny's Brigade (of which the 29th is a part) was held in reserve and only suffered a few losses to shelling. In the afternoon, the brigade went in on the left of the 1st Division. The brigade after crossing Tulip Creek slightly south of Willow Road, the brigade moved by the left oblique onto the road and then straight down the road towards the junction with the Princeton Road. This led it directly into Captain Hudson's 6th Iowa Battery.

Again, the 29th took heavy losses from the battery as the brigade advanced. The 29th stopped and fired with the rest of the brigade and then charged into the battery. There was heavy fighting around the guns. Covere by the rest of the brigade, the 29th managed to capture and wheel Captain Hudson's number four gun off the field as the rest of the battery retreated. The 29th captured the gun very gun which had inflicted 36 casualties on the regiment only 4 days before.

FACILITATOR'S NOTE: This was not a scripted scenario or plan as part of the sim. Matheny's Brigade was originally to guide left on the road. When Black's Brigade failed to move up sufficiently on its left during the attack, Matheny moved to the left. Once it was engaged, I put it onto AI. I saw a gun had been captured and gave the gun the order to retreat, while also giving the rest of Hudson's Battery the order to retreat. The South Carolinians managed to wheel the gun off the field. It is only after I made my first post on the battle that I realized that the regiment that captured the guns was the 29th South Carolina, which had taken the highest losses at Rockport and may be the only regiment on the field that was commanded by a captain! As far as I can tell so far, the 29th also has the honor of having penetrated the most deeply into the Federal lines. Is that cool or what?

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