Chaplain George G Smith

16 December 2019

Chaplain George Gilman Smith of the Phillips’ Legion was seriously wounded at Fox’s Gap on 14 September 1862. He later remembered

I knew that I was hit, and I thought mortally wounded. But where was I hit? Was my arm torn off by a shell? No, here that is. Was I shot through the breast? or – yes, here it was – blood was gurgling from my throat. The dear boys rushed to me, laid me on a blanket and bore me off the field. I thought I was mortally wounded; so did they. “Yes, parson,” said they, “It’s all up with you.”

The ball had entered my neck, and ranging downward, came out near my spine paralyzing my arm …

He survived his wounds, though his arm was partially paralyzed, went home to Georgia, and had a long career as pastor to churches in Maryland, West Virginia, and Georgia. His picture is from a photograph in Confederate Veteran magazine. In the background is an illustration by J.D. Woodward from Johnson & Buell’s Battles & Leaders Of The Civil War (Vol. 2, 1887).

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