Drayton's Brigade: Organization

Above: Excerpt from OR, 14:644 outlining the initial organization of the brigades of generals Nathan G. "Shanks" Evans and Thomas F. Drayton, when ordered north from the Confederate Department of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida by Gen. John C. Pemberton to reinforce the Army of Northern Virginia.

Of interest is the assignment of the 3d S.C. (Laurens or James) Bn. to Drayton's Brigade from its inception, although as we noted earlier, it disappears from the subsequent official record. At this time, the brigade's organization was as follows:

50th Ga. (Col. William R. Manning)

51st Ga. (Col. William Marion Slaughter)

15th S.C. (Col. William Davie DeSaussure)

3d S.C. (Laurens or James) Bn. (7 cos., A-G)(Lt. Col. George S. James)

Phillips’ (Ga.) Legion Inf. Bn. (9 cos.)(Lt. Col. Robert Thomas Cook)

The brigade numbered approximately 2,600 men at this time. Colonel Slaughter was MWIA at Chancellorsville, Colonel DeSaussure was KIA at Gettysburg, and Colonel James was MWIA at South Mountain. 

The 3d S.C. Inf. Bn. (2)

Table of Contents of Sam B. Davis’ history of the 3d S.C. Inf. Bn.

Thus far, I have read Sam B. Davis’ unit history of the 3d S.C. Inf. Bn. through the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam. To that point, the battalion had participated in three battles in the space of 21 days and had been reduced in strength from about 300 men to a remnant of perhaps 30 or so who retreated from Antietam. At South Mountain it had been practically annihilated in the fierce combat at Fox’s Gap – an epic fight that has been more or less obscure in the history books until revealed and explained by Mr. Davis and the small band of historians who together researched and analyzed the story of the Fox’s Gap fighting over many years and unselfishly shared their efforts and particular expertise among themselves.

The Table of Contents shown above will indicate the participation of the battalion in the Civil War and the scope of Mr. Davis’ work.

The 3d S.C. (Laurens or James) Battalion

Davis, Sam B. A History of the 3rd South Carolina Volunteer Infantry Battalion (James Battalion): 1861-1865. Wilmington, N.C.: Broadfoot Pub., 2009.

We have previously mentioned this infantry battalion as a unit belonging to Drayton’s Brigade during the Virginia and Maryland campaign of August-September 1862. And, we have mentioned that its presence with Drayton during that campaign is largely missing from the official record and subsequent histories. This inexplicable and mysterious lacuna has been filled most admirably by the unit history cited above.

The battalion was organized in the Laurens District of its home state beginning in late November 1862. Eventually, it consisted of seven companies (A-G), of which five were from the Laurens District and one each from Columbia and Fairfield. Originally assigned to defensive duty on the southeast South Carolina coast, it saw no real combat action until after it joined the Army of Northern Virginia for the Second Manassas campaign.

During the course of the war, 897 men served in the battalion, but it appears that it never numbered more than 400 men for duty in the field. It was also known as “the James Battalion” after Lt. Col. George Strother James, who was its commanding officer from Feb. 2, 1862, until his death at South Mountain on Sept. 14, 1862. A veteran of the Mexican War (Palmetto Rgt.) and pre-Civil War service as an officer in the U.S. Army, James was famous in his time as the man who had fired the signal gun for the bombardment of Fort Sumter.

Drayton's Brigade - Composition

Above: Statement of the composition of Drayton’s Brigade in the order of battle of the Army of Northern Virginia for the Second Manassas Campaign. Source: US War Department. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Ser. I, Vol. XII, Part 2, Ser. No. 16. Operations in Northern Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland, March 17-September 2, 1862.  Washington, DC: USGPO, 1885.

Drayton’s Brigade had an ephemeral existence. It participated in the bookend Second Manassas and Maryland campaigns before being broken-up in November 1862. Its brief existence as a formation attached to the Army of Northern Virginia and the extraordinary casualties it incurred at South Mountain (Fox’s Gap), including the loss of many officers, resulted in a relatively sparse documentary record. This is indicated by statements of the brigade’s composition in the official records and in many, if not most, secondary works until recently. As illustrated above, the brigade appears to have consisted of four units – two regiments and one infantry battalion from Georgia and one regiment from South Carolina. This is how it is represented in the most detailed histories of the 19th century (e.g., Ezra A. Carman’s ms. History of the Antietam campaign, recently published) and the best recent works on the Second Manassas campaign and the Maryland campaign (e.g., Hennessy’s and Sears’, inter alia). In fact, the brigade consisted of five units, as shown below.

50th Ga.

51st Ga.

15th S.C.

3d S.C. Bn.

Phillips (Ga.) Legion Inf. Bn.

The (usually) missing unit is the 3d S.C. Inf. Bn., aka the James or Laurens Battalion. The fact of this unit’s attachment to the brigade I believe was uncovered by the research of local, unheralded historians studying the South Mountain battle and indeed the story of the 3d S.C. Bn. itself.

Brig. Gen. Thomas Fenwick Drayton

Much of my time lately has been taken up with research and analysis for a series of scenarios. The focus has been on various units and formations involved in the Second Manassas-Antietam campaign of 1862. As usual, my concerns have been strengths, casualties, characterization of leaders, and indices of combat effectiveness. I've returned to these questions time and again over the years. One of the formations that has intrigued me over time has been the brigade General Drayton, which, under the apparently feckless leadership of its commander (depicted above, with his brother, whom he faced in battle at Port Royal) was virtually destroyed in its sojourn of less than a month with the Army of Northern Virginia.

Brig. Gen. Thomas Fenwick Drayton (1808-1891) was a classmate of Confederate Pres. Jefferson Davis at West Point, and the two were friends. A South Carolinian, he had led Confederate land forces in the unsuccessful defense of Port Royal Sound (Nov. 7, 1861). His brother, Capt. Percival Drayton, commanded a gunboat in the attacking Union squadron. At the end of July 1862, Drayton’s Brigade, together with that of “Shanks” Evans, moved north from the Department of South Carolina and Georgia to reinforce Lee’s army in Virginia. In the Army of Northern Virginia, Drayton led his brigade at Second Manassas, South Mountain, and Antietam. The brigade found little employment in the Second Manassas campaign but was nearly wrecked at South Mountain. How much of this was Drayton’s fault is debatable. At Antietam, the remnants of the brigade resisted Burnside’s advance briefly before breaking for the rear. Documentation of Drayton’s command performance is scarce. It seems he was considered “inefficient” by superiors. In addition, he was criticized in press reports that originated among stringers in his brigade. Following the Antietam campaign, he was relieved, his brigade was broken-up, and he was shunted off to administrative duties and minor commands in backwater districts. In truth, he was probably better suited to desk work than field command.