'Johnny Rebs' came from Hall County

GAINESVILLE - The American Civil War did not touch Northeast Georgia like it did other parts of the state, at least not in terms of the armed struggle and destruction that followed a path through Northwest Georgia along the Western and Atlantic Railroad to Atlanta, and then through the heart of the state all the way to Savannah on Union General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea.

Men from this region, however, enlisted and were mustered in during the early part of the four year struggle to become hardened veterans who fought under Robert E. Lee in Virginia in the Army of Northern Virginia and with the Army of Tennessee, the Confederate force that opposed Sherman and defended Atlanta during the war's last full year, 1864.

"There were 11 companies that formed here in Hall County, primarily infantry, but there was some cavalry, at least two units of cavalry, the 7th and 11th Regiments," said Mike Couch of Gainesville, who has been a Civil War living historian for 30 years and a member of the Gainesville chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "On the infantry side there was the 27th Georgia, the 34th Georgia, the 43rd Georgia and the 65th Georgia."

Couch said the regiments were mostly made up of young men and boys, some as young as 12, but mostly in their late teens and early 20's who went off to war thinking it would be a grand adventure that would not last very long, a chance to see what was over the horizon away from home.

"They were farmers, just common folk, there were some politicians who went with them who became their commanding officers in the beginning," Couch said. "These were guys who belonged to a tight-knit community, once their relatives and their neighbors went off to war then they followed for the adventure as well. The average age was about 19 to 21, there were some as young as 12 or 13 and some as old as 50."

Couch said the 'grand adventure' for the Northeast Georgia Rebs turned out to be three to four years of grueling experience, hard marching, hard fighting along with deadly disease and deprivation, because the Confederacy was never able to supply its troops as well as the Union. According to Couch, many did not return.

"Probably half or less that went off to war came back to this area," according to Couch.

Couch, a member of the 43rd Georgia, Company 'F', a re-enactment living history outfit which recreates one of the companies from Hall County, said it's important to recall and remember the men who left their homes, towns and farms to fight 150 years ago. Couch also portrays a federal soldier as a member of the 125th Ohio Regiment, which fought in Georgia under Sherman.

"Whether we realize it or not, this era in our history has touched each of our lives at some point," he observed. "It's basically the foundation, the fabric of what our nation is today. It's still debated, still studied, it runs deep with passion with a lot of us so we want to understand about our history and our ancestors."

(EDITOR'S NOTE: This is another in an occasional series AccessNorthGa.com will publish this year marking the 150th anniversary of the start of the Civil War. Some, such as this piece, will be generated by AccessNorthGa.com staff members, with an emphasis on - but not limited to - northeast Georgia's role in the war and the impact it had on our region. Others will be the work of the Associated Press.)